U.S : District Attorney Faith JOHNSON Must Support Bail Reform

Tyler Turner just started a petition to demand Dallas County  DA Faith Johnson to support bail reform now ! Sign now

Tell DA Faith Johnson: Support Bail Reform! Dear friend, It was just revealed that our local prosecutor for Dallas County, District Attorney Faith Johnson, is getting paid off by the bail industry to funnel Black people into cages. I'm a graduate student at Southern Methodist University and have had loved ones unjustly locked away in jail. Once I heard about this level of corruption I had to take action immediately. District Attorneys have the power to reject harmful bail practices and recommend fair pretrial alternatives for all defendants. It's time for DA Johnson to put her money where her mouth is and resist bail profiteers feeding her financial donations off the backs of Black and poor families. Tell DA Faith Johnson: Renounce the bail industry and return all political contributions. District Attorney Faith Johnson denies any responsibility in the money bail system’s disastrous effect on Black people in Dallas County. In an unbelievable statement released last week, Johnson claims her office does not support any policy that keeps Black people in jails solely because they do not have the money to post bail. But her actions show otherwise. For years, Johnson has received several thousands of dollars from the bail industry’s top leaders including the Texas Bail PAC --a political action group that actively lobbies elected officials to protect the money bail system. Johnson also sits on the Dallas County Bail Bond board --an agency charged with monitoring the local bail bond business. The board is led by the Vice Chair of the Texas Bail PAC, which is a direct conflict of interest.This same group has called pretrial services, which are alternatives to bail and designed to help poorer defendants, “welfare for criminals.” It is no wonder the board has failed to rein in this crooked industry. As a resident of Dallas County, I have been drastically affected by county officials using bail as a modern-day slave tactic to break up families and to force Black people to pay for their freedom. Many of my loved ones have served time because they did not have the money to make bail and refused to get swept up in the dragnet of predatory bail bond programs and its exploitative loan fees. And like many others jailed in Dallas, my family's bail amounts did not fit the crime. I am tired of losing my loved ones to the criminal “injustice” system, and many other Black people share my frustration as well. In a civil rights lawsuit filed against Dallas County officials, Black residents report being locked up for ridiculous amounts of money. Over seventy percent of people languish in Dallas County jail for days, weeks, months and sometimes years at a time all at taxpayer expense simply because they cannot afford bail. In many cases, Black people are jailed without any evidence of having committed a crime.   Demand DA Faith Johnson to support REAL bail reform NOW! Prison profiteers cannot hold themselves accountable, and it is Johnson's obligation to enforce justice in the pretrial system.Johnson’s relationship and silence on the bail industry must end NOW ! Let’s be clear. The cash bail system in Dallas County discriminates against poor Black people in the most insidious ways. Black families, like mine, continue to be stripped of their community, financial resources, and sense of basic human dignity under the current bail system.District Attorney Faith Johnson has the power and the obligation to do better. The financial costs of money bail on Black families can no longer continue. Sign the petition and make your voice heard!  In solidarity,  Tyler Turner

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