TAPPED OUT AND TRAPPED

Not too long ago, I ran across a FB post where the writer was exhorting preachers, particularly White preachers, to take the time to read carefully and critically --or, perhaps, re-read--King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" in its entirety. If memory serves correctly, I think the original poster is a particularly good friend and someone with whom I've forged ties woven together in the on-going struggle for social, economic, and racial justice. This person is clergy and someone who I trust implicitly. Since I'm not 100 percent certain of my recall, though, I'm not going to mention any names. In any case, the issued exhortation is both wise and welcomed. There's something to be said about resisting the common place practice to simply quote King, while eschewing any concerted effort to read said quote or quotes within the broader context in which they're embedded.

But the point of this post is not to critically ponder the substance of King's letter. Important as that is, I think there is something else that tends to go missing. Something that's standing right before our very noses. Something so obvious that it escapes sustained attention: King is incarcerated. Imprisoned. Trapped.

King is in the joint.

He's jammed up and in the joint because he has defied a state court injunction against all demonstrations. By the time, he--along with Ralph Abernathy-- is arrested, the money raised to bail folk out of the pen is tapped out and he's trapped. While A.G. Gaston eventually bails King out, for the moment he's being held on a $5000 bond. Unless that scratch is scrounged up, he'll have to sit there for a minute.

What you're seeing, and what's too easily overlooked in our retelling of the Birmingham narrative, is just how the money bail system operates: Come up with the cash that ostensible guarantees that you'll appear for trial or remain in the joint for a while-- a "while" that can be quite some time.

By the way, just in case you're thinking that that $5000 is a mere pittance, let me disabuse you of that notion right quick. The year that King is arrested is 1963. Those five C-notes in 1963 is equivalent to about $43,000 in today's dollars. Now, I don't know the crowd you run with, but most people in my circle would have to pull a rabbit or two out the hat to come with that kind of cash. Most, no doubt, either must put their house up as collateral or locate a bail bondsman. Typically, that bail bondsman is going to want at least 10%--or $4,300-- to underwrite that bond. And just in case you're thinking that $4.300 ain't much, bear in mind that a recent Federal Reserve study indicates that 40% of Americans would find it difficult to cover a $400 emergency expense. If covering "4 with two zeros" is a thing, handling "4 with three zeros" is beyond the capacity of millions.

DISMANTLING THE CASH BAIL SYSTEM

Flash forward. We're no longer lodged in 1963 but planted in the second decade of the twentieth century. One of the things we'll see, if we look hard enough, is that the same money bail system that trapped King and others continues to hem up hundreds of thousands in the nation's 3,200 local and county jails. Over 550,000 people who have not been convicted or sentenced are locked up in our local jails because, like the depleted Birmingham bail fund, they're tapped out and therefore trapped. As one legal scholar observes:

"Even people accused of trivial offenses are often held pending trial unless they can post bail, which is usually not possible for those who are indigent....A few defendants will be able to pay cash, but most defendants must retain the services of a bail bondsman, who charges 10 percent or more of the total for a secured bond issued by an insurance company...Routinely, low-income defendants cannot afford to pay the bail bondsman and therefore plead guilty even though they are innocent, in order to get out of jail."

If you've got cash, then, you can plop it down, bounce, and get the money back when you show back up for your court appointment. If, on the other hand, you're busted your only hope of getting out is to hit up your loved ones to pay the 10% fee charged by the bail bondsman. A 10% fee, by the way, is gone once it’s handed over: You don't get that back when you make your court date--even if you're found innocent of the charge.

That same scholar also observes that "African-Americans are detained at rates nearly five times greater than whites and three times higher than Latinos."

Slice it anyway you want, the cash bail system criminalizes poverty and delivers a devastating gut punch that disproportionately lands in the solar plexus of African Americans.

It's beyond time to discuss and enact plots that dismantle the morally odious practices of the money bail system.

During our celebrations of King, we should seize the opportunity to link the Birmingham Campaign to the ongoing practices of a money bail system that criminalize poverty and cause people to be trapped because they're tapped out

Catch you on the flip side,

Doc Greene