Veryl Pow

With the far right firmly in control of the federal government, the prospects for legal and policy reform at the national level will be severely constrained, if not entirely non-existent, in the years ahead. Confronted with this reality, some progressive lawyers have shifted their focus to state policy, while others have started planning for a post-Trump future.

By Myesha Braden and Veryl Pow, Special to the AFRO Each day, about 4,000 people are held in Baltimore City jails on pretrial detention, many because they cannot afford to make bail. In theory, judges set bail at an affordable amount sufficient to incentivize criminal defendants – whom the law presumes to be innocent – to return to court and appear at trial. In practice, however, bail is routinely set at amounts exceeding the means of most defendants.

By Myesha Braden and Veryl Pow, Special to the AFRO Each day, about 4,000 people are held in Baltimore City jails on pretrial detention, many because they cannot afford to make bail. In theory, judges set bail at an affordable amount sufficient to incentivize criminal defendants – whom the law presumes to be innocent – to return to court and appear at trial. In practice, however, bail is routinely set at amounts exceeding the means of most defendants.