Northwest Community Bail Fund

Mission

The Northwest Community Bail Fund aims to end pretrial detention and abolish the cash bail system itself. We pay bail, no strings attached, for our community members who are held on inaccessible bail amounts, providing them the opportunity to defend themselves from a position of freedom. We prioritize bail assistance for the most historically marginalized populations in our community: those at greatest risk in our current criminal punishment system.

Description

The Northwest Community Bail Fund aims to end pretrial detention and abolish the cash bail system itself. We envision a community whole, and a community healed, in a world where every person’s dignity is confirmed and defended. Until that day comes, we aim to reduce the harm caused by these systems. We pay bail, no strings attached, for community members who cannot otherwise afford it providing them with the opportunity to defend themselves from a position of freedom. We prioritize bail assistance for our BIPOC and LGBTQIA+, particularly Transgender, community members: those at greatest risk in our current criminal punishment system. In addition, we believe people with lived experience in this system hold valuable insights into our work. Their creativity, empathy, and humanity are vital components of our collective liberation. We will not be free until all of us are free.

We work to ensure that people accused of crimes have an equal opportunity to defend themselves from a position of freedom. We know that those with means can, and will, pay bail or incur a fee to a bond agency in order to leave jail and continue to work, care for and interact with their family and community, and help their attorney's build a case for their defense. We provide cash bail for people who are unable to cover those costs and are therefore held in jail, without access to community or defense witnesses. Being free on bail reduces the pressure to plead guilty, which will create or add to a criminal history that has lasting consequences for the marginalized.