Voting is a Right, Not a Privilege

OKLAHOMA CITY – The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Oklahoma, and Covington & Burling LLP announced a landmark agreement today with court leadership in Canadian County, Oklahoma that, if approved by the federal judge presiding over the case, would put an end to the unconstitutional practice of jailing people simply because they cannot afford bail. Under the agreement, judges in Canadian County must determine a person’s ability to pay before imposing cash bail. The agreement also prohibits conditioning release on paying cash bail unless the court finds that doing so is necessary because nonfinancial conditions will not adequately ensure future court appearance or protect the public. This marks a major step toward ending wealth-based detention in Oklahoma. “This agreement marks a major step toward ending a two-tiered justice system in Oklahoma where wealth determined who stayed in jail and who walked free,” said Brandon Buskey, director of the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project. “For far too long, people who are presumed innocent have been languishing in jail when they could have otherwise been safely in their communities. The procedures we have implemented are critical to building a more just and equitable pretrial system for all.” If approved, the settlement would resolve a federal class action lawsuit, White v. Hesse, brought in 2019 on behalf of people detained pretrial in Canadian County. Plaintiffs challenged the unconstitutional use of a preprinted bail schedule and the policy and practice of imposing cash bail without individualized hearings or ability to pay assessments. As a result, people were routinely held in jail for weeks without receiving a meaningful hearing. “Spending even a few days in jail can upend a person’s entire life,” said Megan Lambert, legal director at the ACLU of Oklahoma. “People risk losing their jobs, their housing, and even custody of their children, making it more difficult to rebuild their lives upon release. Cash bail traps people in a cycle of discrimination, poverty, and incarceration. Today’s agreement interrupts that cycle to better ensure that no one is locked up simply because they cannot afford to pay for their freedom.” The full agreement is here: https://www.aclu.org/cases/white-et-al-v-hesse-et-al?document=Consent-Decree

WASHINGTON – President Trump signed two executive orders today attempting to end Washington, D.C.’s cash bail reforms and threatening to withhold federal funds from cities with similar policies. Below is a statement from Cynthia Roseberry, director of policy and government affairs with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Justice Division, in response to the orders: “To further his dangerous, performative abuse of power in D.C., President Trump today took another step to make people in our nation’s capital less safe by targeting common sense bail reforms. These executive orders are another blatant power grab by the Trump administration that will only serve to benefit the predatory bail industry. But the people who will be most impacted are those with the fewest resources. Whether we can afford to pay should never determine our freedom.” “The President’s attempt to end cash bail risks increasing pretrial detention, which is not a real solution to preventing crime in D.C. It can actually have a negative effect on public safety, by separating people from their support networks, jobs, and housing,” said Alicia Yass, supervisory policy counsel at ACLU of the District of Columbia. “Even short periods of unnecessary detention increase a person's risk of re-arrest, and cash bail has been associated with a 6 to 9 percent increase in reoffending or committing another crime. Cash bail has long punished people living below the poverty line — especially Black and Brown communities. It is our constitutional right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Pretrial detention does just the opposite — it treats certain people as guilty until proven innocent.”

As a result of Georgia Senate Bill 63, thousands of people are being kept in jail pre-trial because they can’t afford to post bail, even when a judge believes the person should have been released until trial with no risk to the public. The ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project, along with ACLU-GA and the Southern Center for Human Rights, filed a class action lawsuit challenging SB63’s mandatory monetary bail provisions under the Georgia State Constitution.

ATLANTA, GA— Today, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, and the Southern Center for Human Rights filed Coronell, et al. v. Georgia, a class action lawsuit brought by people denied an individual determination of bail and Women on the Rise, a grassroots organization led by formerly incarcerated women that advocates for ending cash bail and pretrial incarceration. The lawsuit seeks to strike down Senate Bill 63, a Georgia law passed in 2024, that has led to thousands of people with low or no income being kept in jail before having a trial, even when a judge believes the person should have been released, with no risk to the public. The lawsuit challenges SB 63’s mandatory cash bond provisions under the due process clause of the Georgia state constitution.  The plaintiffs ask the court to declare SB 63 unconstitutional and enter a permanent injunction that prevents state actors from enforcing its mandatory cash bond provisions. “Women on the Rise’s involvement in this lawsuit is important to us because of the injustices we see that are happening to those the system says are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Denying bail can undermine this principle, as people may be held in custody despite not having been convicted of a crime,” said Robyn Hasan-Simpson, executive director of Women on the Rise. “Our hope is that this gives access to everyone to gain their freedom while addressing the charges that have been brought against them, for those to maintain employment, housing, and fulfilling the role they have as members in our community.”  SB 63 makes cash bond mandatory for dozens of charges, most of them misdemeanors. When a person is arrested and accused of such an offense, SB 63 forces a judge to set a cash bond that the person must pay to get bailed out of jail. When setting bail, judges are no longer allowed to take into account critical facts and circumstances — such as a person’s strong family connections, local community ties, and employment record; the absence of past criminal convictions; and a history of following court requirements —that show that a person can be safely released under less-restrictive conditions while still assuring they will return to court and not endanger the public. This inevitably leads to people being incarcerated, often in dangerous jails, simply because of poverty. “Under SB 63, people who cannot afford to pay a cash bond will be forced to languish in jail, often for weeks or months,” said Julian Clark, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project. “By punishing those unable to pay for their freedom with incarceration SB 63 imposes significant societal costs — ones that are disproportionately incurred by Black and brown communities. No one’s freedom should depend on how much money they have.” Plaintiff Sierrah Coronell has been incarcerated for 77 days because she cannot afford to pay her $600 cash bond. As directed by SB 63, the judge was not permitted to consider whether any release conditions other than cash bond would reasonably ensure her appearance in court and the safety of the public. Prior to her arrest, Ms. Coronell was the primary caregiver of her five children, ages 3, 5, 7, 10, and 15. As a result of her incarceration, Ms. Coronell is unable to care for her children, leaving her mother and her children’s father to be their sole caretakers in her absence. Ms. Coronell’s incarceration has also forced her to miss her oldest daughter's 15th birthday. “Georgia is a particularly cruel state that locks up a higher percentage of its population than any independent democratic country in the world. This lawsuit would bring an end to holding the most vulnerable people at Fulton County Jail and in all jails across the state simply because they can’t afford to pay bail. These practices are wasteful, costly, cause overcrowding, and do not improve public safety. We are committed to ending these cruel and unconstitutional policies in Georgia,” said Andrea Young, executive director, ACLU of Georgia. “I’ve met many people in Georgia jails who cannot get out because they cannot buy their way out. People who don’t have loved ones who can pay a couple hundred dollars, or in some cases as little as 10 dollars, to post their bail.  People who the courts have deemed ready for release but remain in jail for no other reason than their low income.  SB 63 isn’t making us safer.  It’s keeping our jails full, separating people from their jobs, families, and homes, and all but guaranteeing that people leave worse than when they came in.  It’s difficult to think of a more backwards policy,” said Lachlan Athanasiou, legal fellow in SCHR’s Impact Litigation Unit.