The Bronx Freedom Fund

Last updated
The Bronx Freedom Fund
EstablishedMarch 2009;15 years ago (2009-03)
Founders Robin Steinberg and David Feige
Typecharitable bail organization
Legal status 501(c)(3)
Purposehumanitarian
Headquarters360 East 161st Street, Bronx, NY 10451
Location
Services bail services
Key people
Jason Flom
Affiliations The Bronx Defenders
Website thebronxfreedomfund.org

The Bronx Freedom Fund is a nonprofit bail fund located in the South Bronx. [1] The first charitable bail organization in New York State, [2] it provides bail assistance to indigent defendants facing pretrial detention for low-level and misdemeanor charges. [3] It was founded by David Feige, a producer, writer, and law professor, and Robin Steinberg, the founder and chief executive of The Bronx Defenders. [2] Its first grant came from the CEO of Lava Records, Jason Flom, and the Flom Family Foundation. [4]

Contents

Details

The Bronx Freedom Fund bailed out nearly 200 people from 2007 to 2009. It closed in 2009 after Judge Ralph Fabrizio ruled that it was an uninsured bail-bond business. [5] Its co-founders, along with state senator Gustavo Rivera and then-assemblymen Phil Boyle, drafted a set of amendments allowing for a charitable exemption to the bail and insurance laws. [6] The bill, sponsored by Senator Rivera, passed unanimously through both chambers of the state legislature in 2011. It was vetoed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, and a revised bill passed in 2012. [7]

The Bronx Freedom Fund reopened its doors and began to post bail, freeing hundreds of people between 2013 and 2015. [8]

In 2015, The Bronx Freedom Fund began a substantial expansion, raising additional funds, hiring new bail associates and significantly increasing its capacity, including expanding operations into other boroughs. The Freedom Fund is on track to bail out over 1,000 people per year. Also in 2015, the organization was awarded the National Criminal Justice Association's Outstanding Criminal Justice Program Award for the Northeast Region. [9]

In October 2017, the Bronx Freedom Fund teamed up with The New Inquiry's project, Bail Bloc, which was a distributed cryptocurrency mining software that mined Monero and used the proceeds to bail people out of jail. [10]

In November 2017, the Bronx Freedom Fund expanded again, re-launching as The Bail Project with the aim of establishing 40 bail funds across the nation to free over 150,000 people. [11]

The Bronx Freedom Fund (and the Bail Project) have occasionally bailed out people who later went on to commit crimes. [12] [13] [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Koch family foundations are a group of charitable foundations in the United States associated with the family of Fred C. Koch. The most prominent of these are the Charles Koch Foundation and the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation, created by Charles Koch and David Koch, two sons of Fred C. Koch who own the majority of Koch Industries, an oil, gas, paper, and chemical conglomerate which is the US's second-largest privately held company. Charles' and David's foundations have provided millions of dollars to a variety of organizations, including libertarian and conservative think tanks. Areas of funding include think tanks, political advocacy, climate change denial, higher education scholarships, cancer research, arts, and science.

A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Belgium, Hungary and Singapore, and some states of Australia. Brazil is the only country in which an office of government-paid lawyers with the specific purpose of providing full legal assistance and representation to the needy free of charge is established in the constitution. The Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, requires the US government to provide legal counsel to indigent defendants in criminal cases. Public defenders in the United States are lawyers employed by or under contract with county, state or federal governments.

A "failure to appear" (FTA), also known as "bail jumping", occurs when a defendant or respondent does not come before a tribunal as directed in a summons. In the United States, FTAs are punishable by fines, incarceration, or both when committed by a criminal defendant. The severity of the punishment depends on the seriousness of the criminal charges that were the subject of the missed proceeding. An FTA may trigger a bench warrant for the defendant's arrest and impair their eligibility for bail and pretrial release in subsequent proceedings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bail bondsman</span> Agent that secures an individuals release in court

A bail bondsman, bail bond agent or bond dealer is any person, agency or corporation that will act as a surety and pledge money or property as bail for the appearance of a defendant in court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York City Criminal Court</span> Court in New York, United States

The Criminal Court of the City of New York is a court of the State Unified Court System in New York City that handles misdemeanors and lesser offenses, and also conducts arraignments and preliminary hearings in felony cases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Feige</span>

David Feige is an American lawyer, legal commentator, and author. He is the author of the memoir, Indefensible: One Lawyer's Journey into the Inferno of American Justice, and co-creator of the TNT legal drama Raising the Bar, both of which center on the life of the public defender. He is also the co-founder and board chair of The Bronx Freedom Fund, a charitable bail organization in New York State. In 2016 he won the Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award for "Untouchable" a documentary feature he wrote, produced and directed. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Flom</span> American music executive

Jason Flom is an American music industry executive, podcaster and philanthropist. He is the founder of Lava Records, and was previously the chairman of Atlantic Records and Virgin Records/Capitol Music Group. He is also an advocate for those who have allegedly been wrongfully convicted.

The Excessive Bail Clause of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits excessive bail set in pre-trial detention. If a judge posts excessive bail, the defendant's lawyer may make a motion in court to lower the bail or appeal directly to a higher court.

<i>The New Inquiry</i> Online magazine of cultural and literary criticism

The New Inquiry is an online magazine of cultural and literary criticism, established by Mary Borkowski, Jennifer Bernstein and Rachel Rosenfelt in 2009 and administered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organisation. The magazine's website updates daily, and every few weeks a new edition of the magazine is published as a PDF.

Bail in the United States refers to the practice of releasing suspects from custody before their hearing, on payment of bail, which is money or pledge of property to the court which may be refunded if suspects return to court for their trial. Bail practices in the United States vary from state to state.

The Bronx Defenders is a public defender office located in the South Bronx neighborhood of New York City. At the Bronx Defenders, criminal defense lawyers work together with civil lawyers, family defense lawyers, immigration lawyers, non-attorney advocates, social workers, and investigators to help their clients address the full range of legal and social issues that can result from criminal charges.

Arnold VenturesLLC is focused on evidence-based giving in a wide range of categories including: criminal justice, education, health care, and public finance. The organization was founded by billionaires John D. Arnold and Laura Arnold in 2010.

The Marshall Project is a nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about inequities within the U.S. criminal justice system. The Marshall Project has been described as an advocacy group by some, and works to impact the system through journalism.

Neil Barsky is an American journalist, former hedge fund manager, prison abolitionist, filmmaker, and philanthropist, most notable for making the 2012 film Koch and for founding The Marshall Project, a journalism nonprofit intended to shed light on the United States criminal justice system, as well as to promote prison abolition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equal Justice Under Law (civil rights organization)</span>

Equal Justice Under Law is an American civil rights impact litigation nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., which accepts cases on a national basis. The organization was founded in 2014 by Alec Karakatsanis and Phil Telfeyan, two 2008 Harvard Law School graduates. The mission of Equal Justice Under Law is to achieve equality in the criminal system and break cycles of poverty for those involved with the legal system. The organization works on a range of issues, including money bail, fees for expungement, and suspension of driver's licenses. Equal Justice Under Law and its small team of lawyers seek to drive change in the legal system through impact litigation and class action lawsuits. The firm's work has received national attention in news outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Public Radio, USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Detroit Free Press, in addition to strong local coverage of its lawsuits.

Madeline Singas is an American attorney and judge who serves as an associate judge of the New York Court of Appeals since 2021.

Robin Steinberg is an American lawyer and social justice advocate who is currently the chief executive officer of the Bail Project, an organization modeled after The Bronx Freedom Fund, which she founded with her husband David Feige in 2007. Steinberg is the founder and former executive director of The Bronx Defenders, a community-based public defense office serving low-income New Yorkers in the Bronx since 1997, and the director of Still She Rises, Tulsa, "the first public defender office in the nation dedicated exclusively to the representation of mothers in the criminal justice system". At The Bronx Defenders, Steinberg created The Center for Holistic Defense, a program that trains public defender offices across the country to replicate The Bronx Defenders’ model of holistic defense.

A bail fund is an organization, often charitable, community and volunteer-driven, or both, that collects money for the purpose of posting monetary bail for those in jail on pre-trial detention. Recipients may include those who cannot afford bail on their own or those who are in jail due to being arrested while protesting. Community bail funds determine their own criteria for eligibility and amount of bail that they will support. As of 2020, there are over 60 community bail funds around the United States represented in the National Bail Fund Network.

The Bail Project is a 501 (c)(3) non profit organization aiming to pay bail for people who are not financially capable of doing so themselves. The Bail Project also provides pretrial services. The Bail Project was founded in 2017 by Robin Steinberg. In January 2018, the organization launched its first site as a national operation. As of 2020, it has 22 locations across the United States and has helped pay bail for over 12,000 people.

The Chicago Community Bond Fund is a non-profit bail fund that through donations from the public posts bail bonds for people who could otherwise not afford it. Starting from an informal effort to bail out several people who were arrested at a vigil for a Black man who had been killed by the Chicago Police, the fund saw a considerable increase in donations following the murder of George Floyd and the protests and arrests in Chicago that followed. Taking a crime-agnostic view on providing bail, arguing that it is judges who determine if a person is a threat to the general public by offering cash bail and that the presumption of innocence applies to all, the fund has posted the bonds of hundreds of people accused of crimes, including a number charged with violent crimes.

References

  1. Williams, Jaime (28 February 2015). "Borough's charitable bail fund touts success". The Bronx Times. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  2. 1 2 Turkewitz, Julie (22 January 2014). "Helping Poor Defendants Post Bail in Backlogged Bronx". New York Times. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  3. Ewing, Maura (3 September 2015). "Punished for Being Poor" . Retrieved 19 February 2016 via The Pacific Standard.
  4. "An Interview with Lava Records CEO, Jason Flom". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  5. "People v Miranda". Justia Law. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  6. "Bills". assembly.state.ny.us. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  7. Pinto, Nick. "Making Bail Better". Village Voice. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  8. "2015 Annual Report" (PDF). The Bronx Freedom Fund. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  9. "Outstanding Criminal Justice Program Awards: Past Winners". National Criminal Justice Association. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  10. Dilawar, Arvind. "You can download an easy blockchain app to help poor people make bail". Quartz. Retrieved 2019-10-03.
  11. "Bail "disrupters" aim to free 160,000 people from U.S. jails". NBC News.
  12. Roberts, Georgett; Italiano, Laura (January 16, 2019). "Man who raped woman a week after nonprofit bailed him out gets 18 years".
  13. "Man accused of killing wife hours after being released on bail". Associated Press. April 17, 2019.
  14. Celona, Larry; Moore, Tina; Golding, Bruce (October 8, 2019). "The two big breaks that left Chinatown 'killer' Randy Santos free to roam the streets". Archived from the original on 2019-10-12. Retrieved 2020-05-14.