Counterpoint: When justice became a price tag

By Justin Terrell, Anna Hall, and Jess Palyan

Recently the Star Tribune published a commentary by Brandi Bennett, a Minnesota victim services specialist, titled “When justice became a hashtag.”

The commentary is riddled with false statements about the cash bail system, and the important work of Minnesota Freedom Fund. It relies on convenient catchphrases, ignores decades of research, and leans on the same misguided assumptions that have twisted our criminal legal system into one that makes a person’s freedom dependent on their wealth.

In light of the comprehensive, data-backed report about Minnesota’s pretrial system recently published by the Minnesota Justice Research Center (MNJRC), we would like to correct the misconceptions advanced by Bennett’s piece and offer our vision for a fair pretrial system that promotes safety, liberty, and equity.

The commentary claims that people who post cash bail are more likely to show up for court and more likely to “behave,” because those people have “skin in the game.” But the data disagrees. 

There is no evidence that wealth-based pretrial detention deters people from future arrests. In fact, research shows that people who are detained pretrial, even for short periods of time, are more likely to be arrested later. Pretrial detention is immensely destabilizing, costing people jobs, housing, contact with children and support systems, and public benefits, all of which are proven to deter crime and support community safety. 

We also know that cash bail is not necessary to ensure people come back to court. For example, after New Jersey stopped using cash bail in 2017, court appearance rates in that state stayed the same or even increased. 

Bennett’s piece rightly invites readers to think about the victims impacted by the current detention practices in Minnesota. What she fails to mention is the harm that our state’s cash bail system causes to victims/survivors. In MNJRC’s report, victims/survivors and their advocates reported that they are an “afterthought” and don’t have a voice in the current pretrial process. Furthermore, under the status quo, it’s often victims/survivors themselves who are responsible for paying cash bail for the people who have harmed them. That’s why victims/survivors and advocates who spoke with MNJRC largely supported replacing cash bail with an alternative system that does not leave them to carry these burdens.

Our current pretrial system is not only failing victims/survivors. It’s failing all of us by disproportionately jailing rural, Black, and Indigenous Minnesotans. Everyone who participated in MNJRC’s research, from judges to prosecutors to community members, agreed that our state’s pretrial system is not working as it should. Fortunately, MNJRC’s report offers us a blueprint for a pretrial system that promotes safety, equity, and liberty for all Minnesotans by replacing our current money-based system with one that guarantees more due process, more pretrial supports, and ultimately less pretrial detention.

This blueprint not only supports the compatibility of pretrial justice with public safety and community well-being, it also offers recommendations directly related to domestic violence victims/survivors:

1. Domestic violence (DV)-specific risk assessments should be considered for use in pretrial release and detention decisions. Violence Free Minnesota recommends examining current bail assessments for their ability to identify risk to specific victims in instances where charges have a connection to domestic abuse. 

2. Pretrial system changes should bolster and provide substantial funding for wraparound services for victims/survivors.

3. Defendants charged with DV-related offenses should have access to high-quality domestic violence intervention programs.

4. Notification systems should provide victims/survivors with clear, consistent communication for the duration of a case. 

We recognize that victims/survivors’ interest in safety, autonomy, and justice is not at odds with a fair pretrial system that prioritizes safety, equity, and liberty. Victims/survivors, who are themselves often criminalized, are best served by a pretrial system that honors their safety and agency and that makes release decisions based on public safety and flight risk, not wealth.

There are solutions to the real problems with our cash bail system. Instead of focusing narrowly on the work of one organization, we are working to achieve true pretrial system transformation that supports the safety and well-being of all Minnesotans. We hope you’ll join us.

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The authors of this commentary are Justin Terrell (Executive Director, MNJRC), Anna Hall (Research Lead, MNJRC; Attorney, Legal Rights Center), and Jess Palyan (Policy Program Manager, Violence Free Minnesota) who have been working together at the Capitol to push for bills to increase funding for victims’ services and improve pretrial data transparency.