NEWS
Brooklyn Community Bail Fund Announce Name Change to Envision Freedom Fund
BCBF—a leading voice in the movement to end money bail and pretrial detention in New York, an influential advocate for an end to immigration detention, and home of the country’s largest immigration bond fund—changed its name to Envision Freedom Fund. The new name captures the full scope of the organization’s work and visionary mission: freedom for all people.
September 30, 2021 | Press Release
Jails have always been—and will continue to be—sites of violence, trauma, and death. Yet, the number of people jailed continues to skyrocket. Every 30 minutes in New York City, someone is jailed, often because they cannot afford their bail. The only way to end the abuse and violence of incarceration is to free people now.
September 23, 2021 | Press Release
BCBF Calls for Rapid Decarceration Amid Crisis in NYC Jails
Anything short of decarceration, especially during the current public health and humanitarian crisis behind bars, would demonstrate a lack of commitment to the freedom, safety, and dignity of New Yorkers. The New York City Council should be taking every step possible to reduce the number of people jailed immediately.
September 15, 2021
Brooklyn Community Bail Fund Announces New Executive Director
June 21, 2021
Manhattan DA’s Own Data Proves Racist Prosecution Fuels Mass Incarceration in New York
New York City invests millions of dollars into prosecution, yet district attorney offices are purposefully opaque about their decision-making and the scope of harm they inflict on communities of color.
May 4, 2021
Biden’s Neoliberalism: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?
As deportations under the Biden administration continue, is Biden unwilling or unable to control the Department of Homeland Security?
February 11, 2021
Brooklyn Bail Fund Spent Millions To Free Immigrants, Support BLM Demonstrators in 2020
When New Yorkers rose up in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, an influx of donations made it possible for BCBF to distribute $4.6 million to support bail for demonstrators and to support Black-led collectives, organizations, and organizers in New York State.
December 10, 2020
NY Gov. Cuomo Signs Away Bail Reforms Despite COVID-19 Decarceration Calls
On April 3, Governor Cuomo signed into law a state budget that reverses key recent reforms to the state’s cash bail system.
April 9, 2020
Criminal justice reformers are rethinking the crusade against cash bail.
April 6, 2020
Cuomo’s Backroom Bail Reform Budget Deal Subjects Thousands More to Death
We need further decarceration. Instead, Governor Cuomo and state lawmakers—in their zeal to lock human beings in cages— pushed through a backroom deal to expand pretrial jailing so thousands more New Yorkers will be subjected to imprisonment and unspeakable harm.
April 2, 2020 | Press Release
More
Bail Reform Advocates Urge Cuomo and Lawmakers NOT to Tweak New Laws
More than 100 pro-bail reform groups promised to stand in “opposition to any changes” to New York’s new bail laws, arguing in a letter sent Tuesday to Gov. Cuomo and state leaders that judges shouldn’t try to predict someone’s “dangerousness” as a rationale to detain them.
February 11, 2020 | Read the full letter here
How New York’s Bail Reforms Are Playing Out in a Queens Court
Despite headlines, the state’s cash bail reforms are having a positive impact on the people they are meant to help.
February 3, 2020
Eyes Wide Open: Bail Fight Shows Power of Court Watchers
Court Watch NYC announces “Eyes on 2020,” a new campaign to monitor the first 100 days of New York’s bail reform implementation
January 12, 2020
More New Yorkers Are Stepping Up To Bail Out Detained Immigrants
In the New York-New Jersey area there are thousands of immigrants sitting in detention and on any given day and only 12 percent of those individuals will actually get bond granted by an immigration judge. Often the bond amount is so high that it’s simply unaffordable for most immigrant families
October 15, 2019
Community Bail Funds & the Fight for Freedom
At the end of 2019, we ceased operating as a revolving bail fund. So what’s next for the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund? We see this year’s bail reform legislation as a beginning, not the end.
September 27, 2019 | Press Release
A broken fax machine could mean spending another night in jail, even after paying bail. In these cases, the fax shouldn’t die because it’s old-fashioned or retrograde, but because people’s safety and comfort, and even their lives, still rely on a sheet of paper inching out of a machine, awaiting notice.
November 18, 2020
Manhattan Pot Prosecutions Down 94%. DA Sees Success, Critics See Disparities
Court watchers rallied outside of Manhattan Criminal Court to call attention to their report arguing that despite new policies for marijuana prosecution in Manhattan and Brooklyn, the system is still racist.
November 2, 2018
Report: NYC’s Bail Bond Industry Is A $20 Million Predatory Mess
New York City’s bail bondsmen operate almost entirely without regulation, and often without licenses or scrutiny of their services, which are frequently punitively expensive
June 14, 2017
Every year, thousands of innocent people are sent to jail because they can’t afford to post bail, putting them at risk of losing their jobs, custody of their children — even their lives.
August 13, 2015
CRIMINAL LEGAL SYSTEM BAIL INFORMATION
In partnership with the Center for Urban Pedagogy, we created a “know-your-rights” booklet, available in English and Spanish, to help New Yorkers navigate the bail payment system in New York State to avoid further harm.
