Three years ago, Jessica was struggling with drug addiction and being homeless.

“I was stuck in Atlanta, and I got into trouble,” she says. NPR is not using its last name because he is concerned about the stigma of having a criminal record.

He was accused of marijuana, identity fraud and possession of forgery. Her bail was set to over $ 6,000, and she could not pay. She ended in jail for two months, away from her two young daughters.

She says, “I had no family to take me out. At that time in my life, I had already burnt a lot of bridges,” she says. “You feel that no one cares about you. This is something that I never want to experience again.”

At that time, Jessica had three routes ahead of. First: Stay in jail. This result is common: Most people Pre-trials in the US are in custody as they cannot bail.

Second: Use a commercial bail bond company that will pay bail in exchange for a non -profit fee, often 10 percent of the entire bail amount.

Third: Get help from a community bail fund. These groups use donations to pay bail, for free, for those who cannot.

This is the last Avenue of how Jessica came out, and began to change her life. She went to a calm living house and joined her daughters again. Now, she works in a mental health and drug use treatment program.

Bail improvement rollback

The Community Bail Fund is part of a major movement to improve cash bail practice across the country. according to a 2024 report By Nonpartison Brain Center for Justice, at least eight states have passed the law since 2020 for the purpose of improving bail-Nyas require at least implement restrictive conditions and abolish cash bail for either fully or low-level offenses.

But as efforts to improve bail increase, there is a backlash against them. For example, New York, Withdraw your bail improvement efforts He was passed a few years later. And on Monday, President Trump Weighed on social mediaImprovement of a “full disaster” and that crime crime in American cities “improved” when improvement has passed when the improvement has passed significantly “.

Violent crime increased in 2020 and 2021, but it is Fall in the last three yearsRegarding Trump’s claim, White House indicates NPR 2022 The analysis performed by the District Attorney Office at Yolo County, California, which found that most of the 595 people committed new crimes without bail during the study period. However, the study of one and 2024 by Brain Center for Justice saw 33 cities across the country, and found Bail reform did not increase crime rate,

Community bail funds have also faced criticism in recent years – because they are more common They used to be compared to.

“After 2020 protests, there was a lot of speed around the charitable bail payment to support those who were opposing the barbarity of the police,” says Erin George, saying Erin George, a non -profit body, who helped more than 30,000 people from nationwide jails, including Jessica, says Erin George.

According to the National Bail Fund Network, in 2015, the US had only a dozen community bail funds. After 2020, there were more than 100.

That bounce has made a backlash from MPs – almost all Republicans – seen more closely to demand those funds, Often citing public safety concerns,

But supporters of community funds say that the call for more regulation is a political attack on a lifeline, which can offer each other on each other’s members – and on the cash bail option, advocates say, there is no need to prove.

They say that funds help those who cannot tolerate it otherwise because their case plays in court without financial burden.

Community bail funding ban

Since 2020, more than a dozen state assemblies and Congress have introduced bills to ban or regulate Community Bail Fund.

At least four states – including Texas, Indiana, Georgia and Kentaki, have adopted laws that ban the use of bail funds, such as Add more Reporting requirementsIs saying Funds cannot be used For people accused with a violent crime, and Limit how many people A group can bail in a given year, although this is the law Being challenged In court.

Although many of these laws were passed during the Biden administration, Pillar Weis, which runs the National Bull Fund Network, says it is harassing that this backlash is in full swing when many people are opposing other Trump administration.

“Community bail funds serve as an expression of human solidarity to free people every day, as well as during a large -scale protest moments,” Weiss said that the laws presented in various states asked to ban community bail funds and feel the passed laws and feel like “very well -known attacks in communities”.

She says that the effect of community bail fund is small. They cannot come close to all people across the country who cannot pay for their release. Mike Dun of an Emergency release fund, a charitable bail organization in New York, says that many people are volunteer-managed, and mandatory regulation by states can make it difficult to do some tasks.

He says, “There are types of obstacles that you will now have to jump to be able to become a charitable bail organization. You know, they do not make it easy,” they say.

If low bail funds were present, Dun says, more people will remain in jail, often under poor conditions, away from work, school and family.

Jeff Klein, executive director of the US bail coalition, who represents commercial bail bond companies, says that most of the opposition is about security.

For example, during the 2024 presidential election, Conservaties criticized Kamala Harris To tweet for Minnesota Freedom Fund in 2020. Two people were granted bail to the fund, later convicted of murder. At the time, a spokesman of the fund, Noble Frank, said that non -profit had paid bail for around 3,000 people and some committed violent offenses.

Nevertheless, Clayton says, given the amount flowing through money, they believe that they should be more heavy regulated.

“You charm it, you do it for profit, you still need to get a bail license to do so, and regulator inspection where they can prevent you from acting as a bondsman if you are abuses or for some reason you are stealing money,” they say.

He pointed to a criminal case in New York, where the head of a mutual support group was inspired Alleged use of bail money For personal expenses.

“If you are going to work in the criminal justice system, I don’t really think it is very important,” says Clayton, more rules.

But Erin George of the bail project says that a significant impact bail funds have shown that it is safe and effective to release people from pre-testing detention: According to the organization, people who have helped to release them. More than 90 percent Of his court dates.

“It makes a data-manual, evidence-based case that we should actually look at our cash bail systems and laws,” called George. “And it cuts the financial lower line of commercial bail bond companies.”

Some bail funds are now Thinking more widely about the system as a whole.

For example, Minnesota Freedom Fund, which received a ten million dollars during the 2020 protest against police cruelty, Announced in May It is far from granting bail rather than advocating for the end of cash bail.