City of Philadelphia

Council of the City of Philadelphia
Office of the Chief Clerk
Room 402, City Hall
Philadelphia
(Resolution No. 170838)
RESOLUTION
Authorizing the Special Committee on Criminal Justice Reform to hold hearings
regarding the role of a bail fund in Philadelphia.

WHEREAS, The system of cash bail is a problematic feature of our criminal justice
system, exacerbating racial and economic discrimination, contributing to overcrowding,
and conflicting with the presumption of innocence embedded in our constitutional order;
and
WHEREAS, Today, one in four of the people in the world who are incarcerated are
incarcerated in the U.S., despite our having only 5 percent of the population; and
WHEREAS, Nationally, an average of 700,000 people are held in jails each day because
they cannot afford to pay bail, with women representing the fastest-growing group of
incarcerated people in the United States, and black and trans women being especially
vulnerable – for example, black women are twice as likely to be incarcerated as white
women; and
WHEREAS, Eight out of ten women that are incarcerated are mothers, and half are
incarcerated in local jails, mainly because they cannot afford to pay bail, which
undermines a woman’s ability to take care of her children, hold a steady job, and
maintain stable housing; and
WHEREAS, Philadelphia has the fourth highest incarceration rate of the nation’s 50
largest cities, with nearly 6 of every 1,000 residents behind bars, and most of those in the
prison system population awaiting trial; and
WHEREAS, People of color are disproportionately arrested and incarcerated in the City
of Philadelphia, for example black people are five times as likely to be incarcerated,
twice as likely to be imprisoned once arrested, and thrice as likely to receive probation
compared to white people; and

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RESOLUTION NO. 170838 continued

WHEREAS, About a quarter of the roughly 6,700 inmates currently housed in
Philadelphia’s criminal justice system are still awaiting trial; and
WHEREAS, Since July 2015, the City of Philadelphia has slashed its daily inmate
population by nearly 20 percent as part of a multi-year, $3.5 million grant from the
national MacArthur Foundation, and much of that progress was made by reducing the
number of inmates sitting on State Road awaiting trial; and
WHEREAS, Washington, D.C. has demonstrated that cash bail is not the only model,
having eliminated that system in the 1990s in favor of one in which most arrested
individuals are released with check-in supervision alongside case management, job
training services, random alcohol and drug testing, and medication-assisted drug
treatment; and
WHEREAS, Locally, groups like the #No215JailCoalition have been working to end the
current bail system in cooperation with impacted communities and individuals, including
most recently the Mamas Bail Out Team in coordination with the national Movement for
Black Lives; and
WHEREAS, A bail fund is a pot of money, usually from charitable sources, used to
provide bail for defendants who are too poor to pay their way out of jail, which can only
function until the cash bail system is ended; and
WHEREAS, While the elimination of the bail system is a Commonwealth legislative
issue, it is incumbent upon the City to explore ways of bridging the gap between our
current, unacceptable system and a future without cash bail; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That Council
does hereby authorize the Special Committee on Criminal Justice Reform to hold
hearings regarding the role of a bail fund in Philadelphia.

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RESOLUTION NO. 170838 continued

 

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RESOLUTION NO. 170838 continued

CERTIFICATION: This is a true and correct copy of the original Resolution,
Adopted by the Council of the City of Philadelphia on the twenty-eigth of
September, 2017.

Darrell L. Clarke
PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL

Michael A. Decker
CHIEF CLERK OF THE COUNCIL

Introduced by:

Councilmembers Green, Gym and Parker

Sponsored by:

Councilmembers Green, Gym and Parker

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