The crisis documented in The Alabama Solution does not begin at sentencing — it begins at arrest. A significant portion of the people inside Alabama’s jails on any given day have not been convicted of anything; they are there because they cannot afford bail. They lose their jobs, their housing, and their families while waiting for a trial that may be months or years away, and then accept plea deals simply to get out — taking on a criminal record they never would have accepted had they been free during the process. A community defense fund that focuses only on post-conviction litigation while leaving people to rot in pretrial detention is fighting the fire from the wrong end. Bail funds are not charity. They are a structural intervention in a system that uses poverty as a substitute for guilt. Continue reading →