Robin Steinberg: What if we ended the injustice of bail?
Robin Steinberg: Szüntessük meg az óvadék körüli igazságtalanságot!
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.
első látogatásomat a börtönben.
I visited a client in jail.
fordul a zárban.
had a sticky film on it
ragacsos réteg borította,
tépnénk le kartonról –
was a small window placed too high to see.
volt, az is túl magasan, hogy kilássunk.
bolted to the floor
lecsavarozva a padlóhoz,
I understood viscerally --
zsigerileg először –
as a young, public defender
fiatal kirendelt védőként elhatároztam,
ever forget that feeling.
and every one of my clients' freedom
minden ügyfelem szabadságáért,
to the American psyche
to imprisonment.
more people per capita
bebörtönzöttek száma magasabb,
is that on any given night in America,
hogy Amerikában minden éjjel
in those concrete jail cells
börtöncellában álomra a fejét,
and sons and daughters
and one reason only:
the price of their freedom.
hogy kifizessék a szabadságuk árát.
as a form of conditional release.
kiváltó jogintézmény.
that somebody could afford to pay --
hogy kifizethető legyen,
hogy megjelenjenek a bíróságon.
to come back to court;
to be used as punishment.
to hold people in jail cells.
senkit börtönben tartani.
to create a two-tier system of justice:
kétszintű intézményt kialakítani:
and one for everybody else.
és egyet mindenki másnak.
in American local jails
75%-ban olyanok vannak,
in his South Bronx neighborhood
a szomszédos dél-bronxi boltba
to pick up a quart of milk.
why he was being stopped,
miért állították meg,
and the next thing he knew,
találta magát a földön.
your bicycle on the sidewalk
óvadékot határozott meg.
was sent to "The Boat" --
that sits on the East River
that sits out there
és sötét bőrűek szállása,
even for a few days.
ha csak pár napra is.
losing custody of your children.
jogát is elveszíthetjük.
szexuális zaklatások egyharmada
victimization by jail staff
including suicides,
ideértve az öngyilkosságot is –,
if you're held in jail on bail,
börtönben tartózkodunk,
to get a jail sentence
hogy elítéljenek,
will be three times longer.
háromszor hosszabb lesz.
and cash bail has been set,
és óvadékot állapítottak meg,
to remain stuck in that jail cell
hogy benn ragadunk a cellában,
dehumanizing and violent experience.
embertelen és erőszakos hatású.
that it's you stuck in that jail cell,
hogy börtöncellába zárnak,
the 500 dollars to get out.
hogy kiszabaduljunk onnan.
and offers you a way out.
a szabadulás lehetőségét.
would do in that situation.
ebben a helyzetben.
whether you did it or not.
ha elkövettük, ha nem.
for the rest of your life.
enough money to pay bail
mert nincs pénze óvadékra,
immoral things we do as a society.
legerkölcstelenebb társadalmi lépés.
and counterproductive.
holding people in jail cells
olyanok fogva tartására,
is it doesn't make us any safer.
nem vagyunk nagyobb biztonságban.
hogy akit fogva tartottak,
that holding somebody in jail
to commit a crime when you get out
követ el szabadulása után,
és színes bőrű társadalom
have known that for generations.
to buy their loved ones freedom
hogy szabadságot vegyenek szeretteiknek,
and jail cells existed.
has grown too enormous,
hatalmas arányokat öltött,
has been the result --
kerülők miatt nőtt.
for over half my life,
kirendelt védőként töltöttem,
thousands of clients
enough money to pay bail.
were subsumed by questions of money,
of the entire American legal system.
jogrendszerünk törvényességét.
I was wrestling with over a decade ago
több mint tíz éven át,
with my husband, David,
férjemmel, Daviddel együtt
and venting about the injustice of it all
és kibeszéltük az igazságtalanságokat,
our clients out of jail?"
Freedom Fund was born.
that told us we were crazy
to lose all of the money.
mert semmi érdekük nem fűződik hozzá.
because they didn't have any stake in it.
at the end of a criminal case,
visszaadják a per végén,
for more and more bail.
folyamatosan, óvadékokra.
residents of New York City,
New York-i alacsony jövedelműnek,
has exploded our ideas
megváltoztatta elveinket
legal system itself is operated.
people come back to court.
nem a pénz miatt jönnek vissza.
a Bronxi Szabadságalap fizeti az óvadékot
the Bronx Freedom Fund pays bail,
return for every court appearance,
minden tárgyaláson,
that it's money that mattered.
hogy csak a pénz számít.
that we don't need cash
hogy nincs szükség pénzre
of surveillance and supervision.
és felügyeleti rendszerre.
about when to come back to court.
in jail on a misdemeanor,
felmentik őket.
of the Bronx Freedom Fund,
have ever received a jail sentence
locked in that jail cell.
börtöncellájába volt bezárva.
intervened and paid his bail.
és letette az óvadékot.
his case from outside.
Freedom Fund was a lifeline,
mentőkötél volt,
locked in jail cells,
maybe, audacious?
revolving bail-fund model
of the legal system
a legtöbb embert
as many people as we can
közösségek szervezőivel összefogva
and local community organizations,
in high-need jurisdictions.
állítunk fel ilyen intézményt.
at the end of a case.
two or three times a year,
forgathatunk vissza évente
to pay bail for up to 15 people
and the wisdom and the leadership
bölcsessége és útmutatása is,
az igazságtalanságot.
this injustice firsthand.
by a team of bail disrupters.
csapatot állítunk fel
advocates from local communities,
helyi ügyvédekből,
incarcerated themselves,
le voltak csukva;
és védik ügyfeleiket,
through the legal system,
resources and support they may need.
forrást és támogatást.
St. Louisban.
disrupter in Queens County, New York.
a New York állambeli Queensben.
nyitásra készen áll:
and Louisville, Kentucky.
és a Kentucky állambeli Louisville-ben.
the money bail system
critical, national data
a better path forward
kirajzolásához szükségesek,
of oppression in just another form.
az elnyomó rendszert.
over the next five years,
non-governmental decarcerations
kiszabadító program lesz
from decades in the system:
foglalkozó, tudom,
the civil rights litigators,
közösségi szervezőkre,
the media, the philanthropists,
emberbarátokra,
of those who are impacted by this system.
érintettek hangjára s törekvésére.
mass incarceration.
véget vethetünk a tömeges bebörtönzésnek.
in those jail cells,
on bail bondage, right now --
tartanak fogva,
növekvő hálózata létezik,
to dream big and fight hard,
és bátrak harcolni,
are a reality in America.
nem válik Amerikában valósággá.
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