Why do people of faith care about cash bail and pretrial fairness?

Luke 4:18

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free. 

 As people of faith, compelled by the liberating message of the gospel, we feel called to respond to the breach in God’s community created by the cash bail system.  The goal of the Pre-trial Fairness Team is to further the justice work of ECLC by addressing the systemic inequities of pre-trial detention. We aim to educate ourselves, our congregation, and the community at large so we are equipped to assist those affected by the system and to advocate and support policy change to make the pretrial process fair and effective. 

Listen to this five-minute reflection from ECLC’s Lenten vesper service in March of 2022 (speaker is Rev. Catherine Malotky, an ECLC member).

 

Interested in learning more?

From this landing page you can access information on pre-trial fairness; learn more about the work of the Minnesota Freedom Fund, ECLC’s Mission Partner; and explore ways to advocate for change.

These questions are guiding our work:

  1. How does cash bail work and whom does it harm?
  2. What about public safety? 
  3. Who benefits from cash bail?
  4. What are alternatives to cash bail? What is happening in Minnesota and beyond to change the pretrial system?
  5. What can we do to help ensure pre-trial fairness?

Pages