ATLANTA– While behind bars in Georgia, Nia Thomas used toothpaste to tape handwritten flyers to the wall spreading the word about community bond funds that could pay for inmates’ bonds with no strings attached.
“I put the phone numbers up in everyone’s room, in everyone’s dorm room, in every prison I went to,” Thomas said.
But large-scale initiatives like the one that paid $50,000 for her pretrial release on drug trafficking charges in May 2022 could be significantly curtailed, if not criminalized, under a Georgia law awaiting Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature. Opponents call the measure an unprecedented attack on bail funds, churches and other community organizations that post bonds for inmates awaiting trial.
Thomas, a mother of four who is currently awaiting sentencing after reaching a plea agreement, said she regularly encountered fellow inmates who had been charged with felonies or traffic violations but languished in jail for months because they were unable to were to raise a few hundred dollars to secure their freedom.
Her own bond was much larger, but her application for relief was accepted by the Georgia nonprofit Barred Business, which paid for her release as part of the community bail funds’ annual “Mama’s Day Bail Out” initiative. Within days, Thomas, now 30, was reunited with her family in Atlanta as they held a celebratory crab boil.
Initiatives like “Mama’s Day Bail Out” and the “Freedom Day Project” – which take place in June, around Juneteenth and Father’s Day – are a hallmark for some black churches in Georgia, including the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached.
Senate Bill 63, which passed the Republican Party-dominated Legislature earlier this month, would expand the number of charges requiring cash bail while limiting who can pay that bail.
Specifically, no individual or organization could post more than three cash bonds per year. Groups such as churches or charities would be able to post unlimited surety bonds, but only if they meet the same requirements as bail bonds companies – a process that involves conducting background checks, paying fees, obtaining a business license and obtaining approval from the local sheriff . and setting up an escrow account with cash or some other form of collateral.
Advocates say well-intentioned organizations should have no problem following the same rules as bail bonds companies. Republican bill sponsor Sen. Randy Robertson insists he has not created a “red tape” by forcing bail bondsmen to meet these numerous requirements.
But the move comes as conservative lawmakers have tried to restrict community bail funds in recent years. Scores of protesters arrested in 2020 during protests against racial injustice have benefited from the money, and more recently they posted bail for activists arrested in connection with violent demonstrations against a planned police training center in the Atlanta area that critics’ Cop City’ was mentioned.
Prosecutors in Georgia have noted that some “Stop Cop City” protesters had the Atlanta Solidarity Fund phone number written on their bodies, which prosecutors say is evidence that the activists planned to do something that could get them arrested. Three of the bail fund’s leaders were charged with charity fraud last year and are among 61 charged with racketeering.
Rep. Houston Gaines said the Atlanta Solidarity Fund’s legal issues show the need for more oversight.
“Once they reach that threshold (three cash bonds per year), these groups must properly register as slaves. … They can save as many people as they want, but they must do so under the same rules and regulations as serfs,” he said.
Democrats, however, are baffled by the proposal, which they say would worsen prison overcrowding and disproportionately harm poor, minority defendants. They have urged Kemp to veto it and have portrayed the legislation as a gift to profiteering corporations and a betrayal of his predecessor, GOP Gov. Nathan Deal, who made criminal justice reform a hallmark of made his legacy.
“Why should a church become a guarantor to bind its constituents, its citizens and its parishioners?” said Democratic Rep. Tanya Miller. “Whatever happened to your First Amendment right to pool your money and engage people because you care about them as human beings or what they stand for in your community?”
Bridgette Simpson, the executive director of Barred Business, which provides not only bail but also long-term support such as mental health and housing assistance, said she struggles to think about what would happen to her nonprofit if the bill becomes law.
“I’m devastated,” Simpson said. “I have cried quite a few times because I am very close to the mothers we rescue. It’s heartbreaking because how else would Nia have gotten out? How else could she have spent time with her children?”
Robertson, a former sheriff’s deputy and former state president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said Simpson should have no problem continuing her organization’s work: “Maybe her model needs to be adjusted.” I promise, I’m not a bad person.”
The American Civil Liberties of Georgia has threatened to sue if Kemp signs the bill, saying it “unconstitutionally criminalizes poverty and restricts conduct protected by the First Amendment.” A spokesperson for Kemp said the legislation is undergoing a “thorough review process.”
And while the Georgia Association of Professional Bondsmen favors the overall bill, the group’s president, Charles Shaw, told the Associated Press that the GAPB is “neutral” on the specific section restricting bail.
“We believe that there has been an abuse of the process by certain bail funds across the country, by unknown entities who are financing the release of people without really any means to secure bail or get the people back, which defeats the whole purpose of is the guarantor. Shaw said. “But we certainly don’t want to oppress churches or a family member to leave their family.”
Community bail funds have existed for more than a century: During the period known as the “first Red Scare,” the ACLU created a bail fund in 1920 to help union organizers and other suspected communists facing sedition charges.
Bail funds went on to play a major role in the civil rights movement and gained renewed attention for helping rescue thousands of activists during the 2020 protests against racial injustice that roiled the country, with links to bail fund donations going viral on social media as celebrities and countless others poured in donations.
The funds were so effective that they increasingly drew the ire of politicians, who began introducing bills to limit public funds, said Pilar Weiss, who co-leads the National Bail Fund Network, which includes more than 90 nonprofits in includes the US. But no state has ever done that. has enacted anything close to what Georgia passed, she said.
Thomas has spent the past year and a half volunteering, going back to school and caring for her family by doing odd jobs, including babysitting, cleaning houses and delivering food – all while caring for her four-month-old daughter Nilah. Without Barred Business, Thomas believes she would still be behind bars and receive a harsher sentence.
“If I had never had a band, I would never have had the opportunity to show that I can change my life,” Thomas said.