On any given night, Virginia jails hold more than 28,000 people – 46 percent of whom have not been convicted of a crime but are nonetheless held in detention simply because of their inability to pay cash bail. While in detention, people lose their jobs, their homes, and custody of their children, thus putting them in a desperate situation where they are more likely, regardless of guilt or innocence, to take a plea deal in exchange for release. This unjust pretrial system disproportionately affects people of color and people of limited means, feeding into the cyclical problem of mass incarceration in America.
Please join the ACLU of Northern Virginia for a free outdoor screening of two documentaries from Brave New Films – The Bail Trap: American Ransom and OverCriminalized. These films illustrate the unjust mechanisms of the cash bail system and the overcriminalization of homelessness.
The evening will open with a brief introduction by Vishal Agraharkar, Senior Staff Attorney of the ACLU of Virginia, followed by the movie at 8:45 p.m. Please bring your own chairs or blankets.
