AUSTIN, Texas – People who have been negatively impacted by the state’s cash bail system spoke at a press conference Tuesday in front of the north steps of the State Capitol.
DOWNLOAD VIDEOS OF SPEAKERS HERE
The speakers included:
- RoShawn Evans, who was assigned a $5,000 money bond and had to pay to return to his family and work. He is currently co-founder and organizing director, Pure Justice, which organizes and assists justice-involved people and their families as they navigate the criminal legal system.
- Laquita Garcia, who spent a year in jail because she could not afford a $30,000 bond after being arrested on enhanced misdemeanor charges — leaving her three children to fend for themselves. After going before a judge, she was found not guilty. She currently is the Statewide Policy Coordinator with Texas Organizing Project.
- Krish Gundu, who is the co-founder and executive director of Texas Jail Project where she leads an advocacy group that organizes with and for people held in pretrial detention in county jails to highlight conditions of confinement and shrink mass incarceration.
- Marie Naranjo, who currently has a family member trapped in a Texas jail on a $26,000 bond
- Edric Wilson, who spent 18-years in a Harris County jail without a trial before being freed earlier this year.
- Darren Yancy Sr., whose brother died in Tarrant County Jail after suffering a medical issue
"I was held without bond for a charge that would later be thrown out,” said Edric Wilson, 47. “For 12 years there was no option for me to gain or experience freedom as I waited for trial for a murder I knew I didn’t commit... I lived not as innocent until proven guilty — but as guilty until proven innocent."
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, Texas Organizing Project, Pure Justice, and the Texas Jail Project organized the press conference ahead of the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee hearings that took place Tuesday afternoon.
Victims of the state's current bail system shared personal experiences and discussed the unconstitutionality of Senate Joint Resolution 1/ House Joint Resolution 16, and their continued opposition to S.J.R. 5/ H.J.R. 15 and Senate Bill 9/ House Bill 75 as they are currently written. The group is calling on state lawmakers to block or amend these bills and pass meaningful bail reform.
“At any moment, 53,000 people are locked up in Texas jails before they’ve had their day in court, including innocent people who spend years behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit,” said Nick Hudson, lead policy and advocacy strategist at the ACLU of Texas. “The stories we heard today are the everyday stories of people across our state who have been harmed by the type of bad bail policies currently being debated at the State Capitol. Lawmakers need to reform the cash bail system to minimize unnecessary pretrial detention. Locking up more people will not make our communities any safer.”
Download videos from each speaker at the press conference here: https://aclutx.dash.app/sharing/type/collection/qn89y-bail-press-conference-3-18-25
