Robin Steinberg: What if we ended the injustice of bail?
روبن ستينبرغ: ماذا لو أنهينا ظلم نظام الكفالة؟
Robin Steinberg is the CEO of The Bail Project, a new organization designed to combat mass incarceration in the United States by disrupting the money bail system -- one person at a time. As she says: "I hate injustice and simply can't sit still when I see it." Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
I visited a client in jail.
زرت موكلًا في السجن.
had a sticky film on it
طبقة لزجة،
was a small window placed too high to see.
هي شباك صغير في مكان أعلى من أن يُرى.
bolted to the floor
مثبتة في الأرض،
I understood viscerally --
التي فهمت فيها بعمق...
as a young, public defender
كمحامية عامة شابة.
ever forget that feeling.
and every one of my clients' freedom
حرية كل موّكل لي
to the American psyche
to imprisonment.
more people per capita
معدل أفراد يفوق
is that on any given night in America,
هو أنه وفي أي ليلة في أمريكا،
in those concrete jail cells
في زنزانات السجون الخرسانية تلك،
and sons and daughters
and one reason only:
سبب واحد فقط:
the price of their freedom.
as a form of conditional release.
من أشكال إطلاق السراح المشروط.
that somebody could afford to pay --
يمكن لشخص تحمل تكلفته...
to come back to court;
to be used as punishment.
to hold people in jail cells.
حبس الناس في زنزانات السجون.
to create a two-tier system of justice:
خلق نظام عدالة ذي طبقتين.
and one for everybody else.
وواحدة لكل شخص آخر.
in American local jails
في السجون المحلية الأمريكية
in his South Bronx neighborhood
في حي جنوب برونكس الذي يقطنه،
to pick up a quart of milk.
ليشتري ربع جالون من الحليب.
why he was being stopped,
and the next thing he knew,
وكان الشيء التالي الذي عرفه،
your bicycle on the sidewalk
was sent to "The Boat" --
تم إرساله إلى "القارب"
that sits on the East River
في النهر الشرقي،
that sits out there
موجود هناك،
even for a few days.
ولو لبضعة أيام.
losing custody of your children.
victimization by jail staff
من قبل موظفي السجن،
including suicides,
بما فيها حالات الانتحار،
if you're held in jail on bail,
إن تم احتجازك في السجن بسبب الكفالة،
to get a jail sentence
للحصول على حكم بالسجن،
will be three times longer.
سيكون أطول بثلاث مرات.
and cash bail has been set,
وقد تم تحديد الكفالة النقدية،
to remain stuck in that jail cell
لأن تظل عالقًا في تلك الزنزانة،
ومجردة من الإنسانية وعنيفة.
dehumanizing and violent experience.
that it's you stuck in that jail cell,
أنكم عالقون في تلك الزنزانة،
the 500 dollars to get out.
لتنالوا حريتكم.
and offers you a way out.
ويعرض عليكم طريقة للخروج.
would do in that situation.
أي شخص آخر ليفعله في هذا الموقف.
whether you did it or not.
for the rest of your life.
enough money to pay bail
المال الكافي لدفع الكفالة،
immoral things we do as a society.
وغير الأخلاقية التي نفعلها كمجتمع.
and counterproductive.
holding people in jail cells
لاحتجاز أشخاص في زنزانات السجن،
is it doesn't make us any safer.
أن هذا لا يجعلنا أكثر أمانًا.
that holding somebody in jail
أن احتجاز شخص ما في السجن.
to commit a crime when you get out
لارتكاب جريمة بعد خروجك،
have known that for generations.
قد عرفت ذلك لأجيال.
to buy their loved ones freedom
لشراء حرية أحبائهم.
and jail cells existed.
has grown too enormous,
قد نما بشكل هائل جدًا،
has been the result --
بنسبة 99%
for over half my life,
thousands of clients
enough money to pay bail.
المال الكافي لدفع الكفالة.
were subsumed by questions of money,
يتم إدراجها تحت القضايا المالية،
of the entire American legal system.
نظام القضاء الأمريكي بأكمله.
I was wrestling with over a decade ago
كنت أواجهه منذ أكثر من عقد مضى،
with my husband, David,
مع زوجي، دايفيد،
ونعبر عن ظُلم كل هذا،
and venting about the injustice of it all
وإخراجهم من السجن؟"
our clients out of jail?"
Freedom Fund was born.
that told us we were crazy
الذين أخبرونا أننا مجانين،
to lose all of the money.
because they didn't have any stake in it.
لأنه ليست لديهم أي مصلحة من ذلك.
at the end of a criminal case,
في نهاية القضية الجنائية،
for more and more bail.
للمزيد من الكفالات.
residents of New York City,
من قاطني مدينة نيويورك،
has exploded our ideas
legal system itself is operated.
people come back to court.
يعودون إلى المحكمة.
the Bronx Freedom Fund pays bail,
"صندوق برونكس للحرية" الكفالات،
return for every court appearance,
للمثول أمام المحكمة كل مرة،
that it's money that mattered.
أن المال هو ما يهم.
that we don't need cash
على أننا لسنا بحاجة إلى المال
of surveillance and supervision.
about when to come back to court.
عن وقت الرجوع إلى المحكمة.
in jail on a misdemeanor,
في السجن بسبب جنحة،
سيقرّون بالجرم.
of the Bronx Freedom Fund,
have ever received a jail sentence
قد تلقّوا عقوبة بالسجن
locked in that jail cell.
محتجزًا في زنزانة السجن.
intervened and paid his bail.
ودفع كفالته.
his case from outside.
لأجل قضيته من الخارج.
Freedom Fund was a lifeline,
حبل نجاة،
locked in jail cells,
في السجون،
maybe, audacious?
revolving bail-fund model
الكفالة الدوّار والمُجرّب
of the legal system
as many people as we can
and local community organizations,
ومنظمات المجتمع المحلي،
in high-need jurisdictions.
القضائية ذات الحاجة الملحة.
at the end of a case.
two or three times a year,
مرتين أو ثلاث مرات في السنة،
to pay bail for up to 15 people
استخدامه لدفع كفالة ما يصل إلى 15 شخص،
and the wisdom and the leadership
وحكمة وقيادة
this injustice firsthand.
by a team of bail disrupters.
advocates from local communities,
من المجتمعات المحلية،
incarcerated themselves,
through the legal system,
resources and support they may need.
أو دعم قد يحتاجونه.
disrupter in Queens County, New York.
في مقاطعة كوينز بمدينة نيويورك.
and Louisville, Kentucky.
ولويفيل في كنتاكي.
the money bail system
نظام الكفالة المالي
critical, national data
a better path forward
نحو المستقبل،
of oppression in just another form.
ولكن في شكل آخر.
over the next five years,
خلال الخمس سنوات القادمة،
non-governmental decarcerations
المعنية بإطلاق سراح السجناء
from decades in the system:
من عقود في هذا النظام:
the civil rights litigators,
the media, the philanthropists,
ووسائل الإعلام والمتبرعين،
of those who are impacted by this system.
من هذا النظام.
mass incarceration.
in those jail cells,
في تلك الزنزانات في أمريكا،
on bail bondage, right now --
بسبب استعباد الكفالة، الآن...
to dream big and fight hard,
ليحلموا أحلامًا كبيرة ويقاتلوا بقوة،
are a reality in America.
المتساوية في أمريكا.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Robin Steinberg - Public defender, activistRobin Steinberg is the CEO of The Bail Project, a new organization designed to combat mass incarceration in the United States by disrupting the money bail system -- one person at a time. As she says: "I hate injustice and simply can't sit still when I see it."
Why you should listen
Robin Steinberg is the CEO of The Bail Project and a senior fellow at the UCLA Law Criminal Justice Program. As she writes: "When I started my career, all I wanted was to be a great public defender for my clients. I vowed to fight for their rights, dignity and humanity in a system that seemed intent on crushing them, their families and their communities. It was hard work, but I woke up everyday inspired and with a sense of purpose -- even when the unfairness of the system made me cry. I was doing my part in the larger struggle for social justice -- one client at a time. But the need to do more, to rethink the very nature of public defense and challenge the larger systemic issues that fueled the cycle of criminalization and poverty led me to start The Bronx Defenders in 1997. For 20 years, I worked to create a new vision of public defense, extending legal representation and advocacy beyond criminal court with the goal of breaking that cycle. That process led to the founding of several new initiatives, including Still She Rises, a public defender office dedicated exclusively to the representation of women in the criminal justice system, and The Bronx Freedom Fund, a revolving bail fund that used philanthropic dollars to pay bail for clients who couldn’t buy their freedom.
"As it turns out, what I love most is getting people out of jail so they can be home with their families and have a fighting chance in court. My new organization, The Bail Project, will take the lessons we learned in the Bronx and go to dozens of high-need jurisdictions with the goal of paying bail for 160,000 people over the next five years, disrupting the bail system, reducing the human suffering it causes and continuing the fight to decarcerate America."
Robin Steinberg | Speaker | TED.com