Bail Made For Six Charlotte Mothers In Time For Mother’s Day

CHARLOTTE, NC -- Six women stuck behind bars because they didn’t have money to make bail have had it paid thanks to a national campaign bringing attention to the role poverty brings in keeping non-violent offenders behind bars.

The national campaign aims to “bail as many mothers as possible who otherwise would spend Mother’s Day in a cell simply because they cannot afford bail,” the Mamas Bail Out Day website says.

Local organizers of Mamas Bail Out Day say they provided bail money for five black women held in the Mecklenburg County jail on May 10, another on May 11 and have plans to bail another woman out of Friday, The Charlotte Observer reported. Local and national fundraising brought in about $21,000 for the Charlotte mothers, one local organizer told the newspaper, adding that most of the women had been held for one or two months for non-violent offenses such as probation violations, driving without a license or loitering.

“That’s part of the reason we decided to do this,” Alicia Bell of Free Press told the newspaper. “[T]here are so many people who would be able to post bail if they had the money; they just don’t have the money. It amounts to a sort of poor-peoples prison.”

Earlier this week, The Nation reported that about 62 percent of people in jail are there because they can't afford bail.

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