The City of Atlanta is conducting its six-month review of Ordinance 18-0-1045, the Bail Reform ordinance. We urge the Atlanta City Council and Mayor Bottoms to extend this ordinance. This ordinance is one step towards an end to wealth-based discrimination in our criminal justice system.
Our city's jails are filled with too many people charged with minor offenses who remain imprisoned simply because the city's former policy required money that these individuals did not have. Cash bail puts an undue burden on the poor and causes too many people to lose their jobs and separates people from their families. It is not a surprise that the vast majority of countries in the world have abandoned the practice of cash bail.
Furthermore, the implementation of this ordinance deserves more time to collect the appropriate data to determine its effectiveness. Let's give this ordinance the time it needs so we can measure its impact on our citizens. It has tremendous promise and will bring our city closer to a place that treats all of its citizens fairly.
Sign on to this petition to urge the Public Safety Commission to recommend extending Ordinance 18-0-1045 to the full city council.
