PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Many women across the region will celebrate Mother’ Day this weekend, and it will be especially meaningful for a group of mothers in Philadelphia jails.
The 5th annual Black Mama's Bail Out campaign, a collaboration of the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund and the People’s Paper Co-op, has raised $150,000 to post bail for as many jailed Black women and transgender and gender non-conforming people in time for Mother’s Day. The average 10% bail posted is $5,000.
Both the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund and the People’s Paper Co-op want an end to pre-trial detention and the cash bail system. Many Black women are in jail for long periods of time in Philadelphia because they are poor and don’t have resources to raise money for their release.
The program helped Kaylena Tabb, who works with People's Paper Co-op, two years ago. Tabb says she was arrested after an altercation stemming from a messy custody dispute.
“All charges were withdrawn, but in the meantime I sat [in jail] for several months, just because I couldn’t afford bail,” she said. “Because I received assistance from Community Bail Fund, I was also connected to Women in Transition, which offers peer empowerment and peer counseling as well.”
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Candace McKinley, lead organizer for the Bail Fund, says pre-trial detention is a huge problem for other reasons.
“People who are held pre-trial, even for three days, can lose their job, house or custody of their kids. It can have reverberations for their entire life,” she said.
“There’s been no finding of fact and no court date, so people are just sitting. About 80% of the people who are [in detention] up on State Road are there pre-trial. Few people are there actually serving a sentence.”
Courtney Bowles, co-director of People’s Paper Co-op, says women of color suffer the most.
“Black women are more impacted than other folks in the justice system. People are being held without going to court, without being found guilty, because they’re poor.”
The Black Mama's Bail Out campaign has freed 83 people since its inception in 2017. Bailouts this year will continue through the month of May.