How a new bail fund in Orange County may keep low-level alleged offenders out of jail
Bail practices in North Carolina have kept people charged with minor crimes in jail for days and much longer because they could not afford to post bond.
People have been incarcerated before trial after being accused of littering, trespassing and stealing a a rotisserie chicken from a grocery store. Some have pleaded guilty without due process so they could go home and go about their lives, according to a new group Orange County Bail/Bond Justice.
The group is the latest organization in the Triangle area trying to change that by establishing a rotating $50,000 bail fund. Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church in Chapel Hill launched the project in January 2019.
The bail fund will post a maximum bail of $3,000 for those who cannot afford to pay it. When these people show up for their court dates, the money will be returned to the fund for other people to use.
The fund will only cover Orange County residents charged with crimes in Orange County, and the nonprofit will consider previous failures to appear in court when deciding whether or not to fund a person’s bail.
Orange County Bail/Bond Justice hopes to raise $25,000 by January 2020 through a GoFundMe campaign and to begin operation in January.
Pre-trial release
Orange County already has a pretrial release program that evaluates whether people who have been charged with crimes are likely to show up for court appearances.
“A number of the best practices are already in place in Orange County,” said James E. Williams Jr., Orange and Chatham Counties’ former chief public defender.
People working in the pretrial release program interview those charged with crimes and verify their information. The program also tries to ensure they have family members or people who can support them at their hearings, according to Ted Dorsi, Orange County pretrial release manager, and Caitlin Fenhagen, director of the Orange County Criminal Justice Resource Department.
“We also make sure judges are aware of mitigating factors,” Fenhagen said. “The majority are released.”
Pretrial release programs save taxpayers money,The News & Observer has reported. In Orange County, it costs $110 per day to jail one defendant before trial. Supervised release before trial can cost as little as $1.56 per day or $5.50 per day with GPS tracking, according to information from the N.C. Attorney General’s Office.
On Wednesday morning, Nov. 27, six people in the Orange County Detention Center had bail set at $3,000 or less. They included one person charged with contempt of court, another charged with carrying a concealed weapon. and three others charged with violent offenses.
The bail fund will kick in after people charged with crimes have had their first appearance before a judge and not when magistrates initially set bail, said Kimberly Brewer, chair of Orange County Bail/Bond Justice.
“We want to step in after we see the system is not working,” she said.
However, that means people arrested on a Friday or Saturday will have to wait in jail over the weekend for their first appearance the following Monday to use the bail fund.
Brewer said Orange Count Bail/Bond Justice also hopes to provide people with reminders of court dates and transportation to the courthouse.
Durham bail fund
Other groups are challenging bail practices in North Carolina too. In Durham, Andrea “Muffin” Hudson established the North Carolina Community Bail Fund earlier this year, which pays up to $2,000 bail, The News & Observer has reported.
Civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of North Carolina and Civil Rights Corps have sued Alamance County court officials and the sheriff on behalf of incarcerated people who could not leave jail because they could not pay bail.
“Any and all forms of privileged favoritism brings with it justice inequity, including issues of unequal treatment just because of access to bail money,” the Rev. Marcus McFaul of Binkley Church said about cash bail practices. “Some things are just wrong.”
This story was originally published December 2, 2019 at 5:58 AM.