Yes, everything! And you get to find out tonight!
The Public Protection and Judiciary Committee meetings tonight at 5:15 in Room 357 of the City-County Building (210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. also known as the old jail, not the post office building.) They only have 4 routine items before this comes up.
2015 PRES-123 – EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT BAIL WITH PRESIDING JUDGE JUAN COLAS AND COURT COMMISSIONER JASON HANSON.
The public is invited to attend. Following the presentation questions will be entertained. Any questions, please contact Supervisor Paul Rusk at rusk@countyofdane.com or 249-9667.
The link is a decoy.
I should note, this doesn’t help the folks who are in jail for warrants on municipal tickets they can’t afford to pay. That is a different process and they don’t get an opportunity to appear before a judge once they are in jail. They may be part of the 350, but are there through a different process through the City of Madison and perhaps other local municipalities.
From local activists.
On Tuesday is an opportunity to ask local court officials: ARE THE 350 FREE?
People sitting in jail due to unpaid cash bail is one of the major reasons that THE 350 are not yet FREE.
During Tuesday’s PP&J meeting at 5:15, there will be a special presentation about bail with Judge Colas and Commissioner Hanson fielding questions from the public.
This is a great opportunity for community members to ask questions about how bail works, and what can be done to overcome the barriers that prevent people from being released from jail after cash bail has been imposed. For example, state law requires police to arrest a person, rather than give a citation, if a person lacks a stable residence, employment, and/or valid ID — which can then lead to cash bail being imposed, and the person remaining in jail until their case is resolved.
On any given day, about 20% to 25% of all people in Dane County Jail are only being held because their cash bail has not been paid (according to analysis of jail data from a couple years ago).
The federal Department of Justice has recently made a strong statement to all local courts nationwide that bail practices which keep people locked up solely because they do not have the ability to pay are both unconstitutional as well as possibly violations of specific civil rights law:
“Courts must not employ bail or bond practices that cause indigent defendants to remain incarcerated solely because they cannot afford to pay for their release” — see section 6 here: https://www.justice.gov/crt/file/832461/download
Tuesday is an opportunity to ask the judicial officials responsible for Dane County bail practices what is being done to comply with the federal DOJ’s recommendations regarding bail.
Lastly, this is also a great opportunity to ask about the progress of the Mead and Hunt jail planning, when the next proposal is expected to be made public, and whether the proposal will take into account reductions in the number of people in jail based on reforms, for example of current bail practices.
