Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.

Video:

Video 1: What If We Ended the Injustice of Bail?
https://www.ted.com/talks/robin_steinberg_what_if_we_ended_the_injustice_of_bail
Description: On any given night, more than 450,000 people in the United States are locked up in jail simply because they don’t have enough money to pay bail. The sums in question are often around $500: easy for some to pay, impossible for others. This has real human consequences--people lose jobs, homes and lives, and it drives racial disparities in the legal system. Robin Steinberg has a bold idea to change this. In this powerful talk, she outlines the plan for The Bail Project--an unprecedented national revolving bail fund to fight mass incarceration. (This ambitious plan is one of the first ideas of The Audacious Project, TED’s new initiative to inspire global change.)

Video 2: How Jails Extort the Poor
https://www.ted.com/talks/salil_dudani_how_jails_extort_the_poor
Description: Why do we jail people for being poor? Today, half a million Americans are in jail only because they can’t afford to post bail, and still more are locked up because they can’t pay their debt to the court, sometimes for things as minor as unpaid parking tickets. Salil Dudani shares stories from individuals who have experienced debtors’ prison in Ferguson, MO, challenging us to think differently about how we punish the poor and marginalized.

Audio:

Audio 1: After 50 Years, a State of Crisis for the Right to Counsel
https://www.npr.org/2013/03/19/174753333/after-50-years-a-state-of-crisis-for-the-right-to-counsel
Description: On March 18, 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that state courts are required to provide counsel in criminal cases to those unable to afford it. Just before the 50th anniversary of the decision, Attorney General Eric Holder said that the nation’s public defense systems “exist in a state of crisis.”

Audio 2: Robin Steinberg: How Can We End the Injustice of Bail?
https://www.npr.org/2018/10/12/656580025/robin-steinberg-how-can-we-end-the-injustice-of-bail
Description: The bail system disproportionately impacts low-income people of color and pressures defendants into pleading guilty. But Robin Steinberg is implementing a plan to fix this--without waiting for reform.

Web:

Web 1: All Americans Should Have a Right to Counsel
https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/373422-all-americans-should-have-a-right-to-counsel
Description: Each day, thousands of people are incarcerated in states, counties and municipalities without ever speaking to an attorney and in flagrant violation of their constitutional right to counsel.

Web 2: National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel
http://civilrighttocounsel.org
Description: The NCCRC works to advance right to counsel for low-income people in civil cases involving basic human needs, such as housing, health, domestic violence, and child custody.