Too Poor to Make Bail? They’ll Cage You for That: Lawsuit Exposes Horrors of the U.S. Injustice System
LILY DANE
FreedomOutpost.com
MAY 26, 2016
A Texas jail has been caging people who are too poor to afford bail, according to a new lawsuit.
Harris County Jail – the largest in Texas and the third largest in the US – is accused of keeping most of its incarcerated population locked up for misdemeanors because they can’t afford bail or trial.
Now, Harris County, Sheriff Ron Hickman, and five bail-hearing magistrates are being sued by the human rights group Equal Justice Under Law for discriminating against poor prisoners.
From the Houston Press:
In Harris County, 77 percent of the jail population are people who have yet to be convicted of crimes, who are in jail because they cannot afford to get out. A recent study by Gerald Wheeler, retired director of Harris County Pretrial Services and a doctoral researcher, found that 81 percent of people charged with misdemeanors will spend time in jail, and of those, a quarter of them can’t afford bail costing $500 or less. Only 7 percent were released on a personal bond.
The Rest…HERE
