The 'Exploitative' Bail-bond Industry
He also wants to rewrite the blueprint of America’s justice system, in which companies selling bail bonds, law firms and other high-interest financial products can charge exorbitant rates to people who can least afford it, but have no leverage or other options.
“When black and brown people are over-policed and arrested and accused of crimes at higher rates than others, and then forced to pay for their freedom before they ever see trial, big bail companies prosper,” Jay Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, wrote in the op-ed.
“This pre-incarceration puzzle warpped in an enigma, a conundrum is devastating to our families. One in 9 children of colour has an incarcerated parent. Families are forced to take on more debt, often in predatory lending schemes created by bail bond insurers. Lawyers play apart in this as well, charging exobitant fees, to get charges dropped in similar schemes. Or their loved ones linger in jails, sometimes for months and/or years –- a consequence of nationwide backlogs. Every year over $9 billion dollars are wasted incarcerating people who’ve not been convicted of a crime, and insurance companies, who have taken over our bail system, and lawyers go to the bank.”
Jay Z is the father of at least one child. If you believe the Internet rumors that Beyoncé has indeed given birth to the couple’s long-awaited twins, then he might be the father of three or more... Yet the rapper ushered in Father’s Day in an unusual way: by writing an essay in Time magazine about the “injustice of the profitable bail bond industry.” Writing under his given name, Shawn Carter, Jay Z lamented the many fathers who spent Sunday’s holiday away from their children because they couldn’t afford bail.
“If you’re from neighborhoods like the Brooklyn one I grew up in, if you’re unable to afford a private attorney, then you can be disappeared into our jail system simply because you can’t afford bail,” Jay Z wrote. “Millions of people are separated from their families for months at a time — not because they are convicted of committing a crime, but because they are accused of committing a crime.”
He said he became “obsessed” with the topic after helping produce the Spike docu-series “TIME: The Kalief Browder Story.” Browder was arrested in the Bronx on May 15, 2010, just 10 days before his 17th birthday, by police who accused him of stealing a backpack, the New Yorker reported. He remained in jail for three years, awaiting trial. He refused numerous plea deals, insisting on his innocence.
“Kalief’s family was too poor to post bond. … He was sentenced to a kind of purgatory before he ever went to trial,” Jay Z wrote. “The three years he spent in solitary confinement on Rikers ultimately created irreversible damage that lead to his death at 22.” One night in prison, Browder “tore his bedsheet into strips, tied them together to make a noose, attached it to the light fixture, and tried to hang himself,” the New Yorker reported. When he finally was released because the state could not meet the necessary burden of proof, Browder was 20 years old.
He killed himself two years later.
In his essay, Jay Z claimed the bail bond industry was partially to blame. He noted the only option for Browder’s family would have been taking out a loan, which can be financially devastating. “When black and brown people are over-policed and arrested and accused of crimes at higher rates than others, and then forced to pay for their freedom before they ever see trial, big bail companies prosper,” he wrote. “… Families are forced to take on more debt, often in predatory lending schemes created by bail bond insurers. Or their loved ones linger in jails, sometimes for months — a consequence of nationwide backlogs.”
For his part, Jay Z said, “This Father’s Day, I’m supporting” Southerners on New Ground and Color of Change “to bail out fathers who can’t afford the due process our democracy promises.” These are two nonprofits that held a fundraiser to help bail out 100 imprisoned mothers on Mother’s Day. “As a father with a growing family, it’s the least I can do, but philanthropy is not a long fix, we have to get rid of these inhumane practices altogether,” Jay Z wrote. “We can’t fix our broken criminal justice system until we take on the exploitative bail industry.”
Jay Z has long been vocal, generally through his music, about the criminal justice system and its inadequacies. As he wrote, 17 years ago he released a song titled “Guilty Until Proven Innocent.”
This essay, and the promised donation, was in keeping with Jay Z’s late-career activism, much of which flourished during the Obama administration.
Along with his wife, Beyoncé, Jay Z hosted a fundraiser for Obama’s second presidential campaign. The two formed a friendship, and in 2016, Jay Z was among several musicians who visited the White House to discuss criminal justice reform.
Rapper, Jay Z is/was surely having a memorable Father's Day, but he's also using the occasion to push a serious issue: the plight of people stuck in jail because they can't afford bail. As he writes in Time, the celeb is talking about people merely accused of a crime, not convicted of one. "If you're from neighborhoods like the Brooklyn one I grew up in, if you're unable to afford a private attorney, then you can be disappeared into our jail system simply because you can't afford bail," he writes. The issue resonated with him after he helped produce a documentary series about Kalief Browder, who committed suicide at 22 after spending years in isolation at Rikers. Browder's trouble started when he was accused of stealing a backpack at age 16 but didn't have the money to post bond.
"When black and brown people are over-policed and arrested and accused of crimes at higher rates than others, and then forced to pay for their freedom before they ever see trial, big bail companies prosper," writes Jay Z. For Father's Day, he is supporting a drive to help bail out men who can't afford to do so themselves, but he writes that "philanthropy is not a long fix," it's a short fix. The system, and the "inhumane practices" that result, is in dire need of reform, he writes. "We can't fix our broken criminal justice system until we take on the exploitative bail industry." Click for his full post.
"His death is here to teach us to save a generation of kids," rapper JayZ says of six-part series. "It's hard to watch, but important to see"
"If you're from neighborhoods like the Brooklyn one I grew up in, the Marcy Projects 580 Sate St. ( I's know, I's live at 380 d0wn the road some near d0wnt0wn ) ...if you're unable to afford a private attorney, then you can be disappeared into our jail system simply because you can't afford bail," and only get a legal aide lawyer just out of college and interning, the rapper wrote for Time. "Millions of people are separated from their families for months at a time, hell even years — not because they are convicted of committing a crime, but because they are accused of committing a crime."
Jay Z, who produced the docuseries Time: The Kalief Browder Story, writes that he "became obsessed with the injustice of the profitable bail bond industry" while researching Browder's story.
"Kalief's family was too poor to post bond when he was accused of stealing a backpack," he wrote. "He was sentenced to a kind of purgatory before he ever went to trial. The three years he spent in solitary confinement on Rikers ultimately created irreversible damage that lead to his death at 22." The rapper recently applauded New York mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to shutter the Rikers Island, prison facility.
Inspired by Southerners on New Ground and Color of Change's Mother's Day efforts to bail out 100 incarcerated mothers, Jay Z is supporting similar efforts for those organizations "to bail out fathers who can't afford the due process our democracy promises," but doesn't in some cases deliver. "This pre-incarceration puzzle, a conundrum wrapped in an enigma is devastating to families. One in nine black children has an incarcerated parent. Families are forced to take on more debt, often in predatory lending schemes created by bail bond insurers," the rapper continued.
"Every year $9 billion dollars are wasted incarcerating people who've not been convicted of a crime, and insurance companies, who have taken over our bail system, go to the bank."
Seventeen years ago he made a song, "Guilty, Until Proven Innocent." I flipped the Latin phrase that is considered the bedrock principle of our criminal justice system, ei incumbit probatio qui dicit (the burden of proof is on the one who declares, not on one who denies). Let me reiterate, If you're from neighborhoods like the Brooklyn one I grew up in, as mentioned if you're unable to afford a private attorney, then you can be disappeared into our jail system simply because you can't afford bail. Millions of people are separated from their families for months at a time — not because they are convicted of committing a crime, but because they are accused of committing a crime.
Scholars like Ruthie Gilmore, filmmakers like Ava Duvernay, and formerly incarcerated people like Glenn Martin have all done work to expose the many injustices of the industry of our prison system. Gilmore's pioneering book, The Golden Gulag, Duvernay's documentary 13th and Martin's campaign to close Rikers focus on the socioeconomic, constitutional and racially driven practices and polices that make the U.S. the most incarcerated nation in the world.
But when he helped produce this year's docuseries, Time: The Kalief Browder Story, as mention he became obsessed with the injustice of the profitable bail bond industry. Kalief's family was too poor to post bond when he was accused of stealing a backpack. He was sentenced to a kind of purgatory before he ever went to trial. The three years he spent in solitary confinement on Rikers ultimately created irreversible damage that lead to his death at 22. Sandra Bland was also forced to post bail after her minor traffic infraction in Prairie View, Texas, led to a false charge of assaulting a public servant (the officer who arrested her was later charged with perjury regarding the arrest). She was placed in a local jail in a pre-incarcerated state. Again, she was never convicted of a crime. On any given day over 400,000 people, convicted of no crime, are held in jail because they cannot afford to buy their freedom.
When black and brown people are over-policed and arrested and accused of crimes at higher rates than others, and then forced to pay for their freedom before they ever see trial, big bail companies prosper. This pre-incarceration conundrum, wrapped in an enigma, this puzzle is devastating to our families. One in 9 children of clour (black children) has an incarcerated parent. Families are forced to take on more debt, often in predatory lending schemes created by bail bond insurers. Or their loved ones linger in jails, sometimes for months—a consequence of nationwide backlogs. Every year $9 billion dollars are wasted incarcerating people who've not been convicted of a crime, and insurance companies, who have taken over our bail system, go to the bank.
Last month for Mother's Day, organizations like Southerners on New Ground and Color ofChange did a major fundraising drive to bail out 100 mothers for Mother's Day. Color of Change's exposè on the for-profit bail industry provides deeper strategy behind this smart and inspiring action. This Father's Day, I'm supporting those same organizations to bail out fathers who can't afford the due process our democracy promises. As a father with a growing family, it's the least I can do, but philanthropy is not a long fix, we have to get rid of these inhumane practices altogether. We can't fix our broken criminal justice system until we take on the exploitative bail industry.
Today (June 16), TIME published an op-ed penned by rapper Jay Z in which he details how he plans to use a Father’s Day gesture to make a statement about America’s bail bond industry. “If you’re from neighborhoods like the Brooklyn one I grew up in, if you’re unable to afford a private attorney, then you can be disappeared into our jail system simply because you can’t afford bail,” Hov writes.
He goes on to reference the tragedies of Kalief Browder and Sandra Bland as examples of how the inability to afford bail can potentially put innocent people in dangerous situations.
READ Barack Obama Salutes Jay Z For Songwriters Hall Of Fame Induction [Obama describes his bond with Jay Z]
In an effort to unearth some beauty in a dark place, the Magna Carta Holy Grail artist announced that he will be partnering with Southerners on New Ground and Color of Change “to bail out fathers who can’t afford the due process our democracy promises,” and give them some time with their families for Father’s Day. Salute to Jigga. Read his full article here.
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