Robin Steinberg: What if we ended the injustice of bail?
Robin Steinberg: Kefalet adaletsizliğini sona erdirebilsek ne olur?
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.
ilk günü hiç unutmam.
had a sticky film on it
yapışkan bir film vardı,
was a small window placed too high to see.
çok yüksekte olan küçük bir pencere.
bolted to the floor
küçük, kare bir masa,
I understood viscerally --
nasıl bir his olduğunu
as a young, public defender
hiç unutmayacağıma dair
ever forget that feeling.
kendime söz verdim.
and every one of my clients' freedom
onları tıpkı yargılanan benmişim gibi
to the American psyche
öylesine temel bir konsept ki
to imprisonment.
more people per capita
is that on any given night in America,
Amerika'da herhangi bir gece
in those concrete jail cells
yarım milyon insan
and sons and daughters
orada olmasının
and one reason only:
the price of their freedom.
as a form of conditional release.
şartlı tahliye olarak yaratılmıştı.
that somebody could afford to pay --
to come back to court;
bir teşvik olacaktı;
to be used as punishment.
ceza olarak tasarlanmadı.
to hold people in jail cells.
hapiste tutmak için tasarlanmadı.
to create a two-tier system of justice:
bir adalet sistemi olarak da tasarlanmadı:
and one for everybody else.
ve diğer herkes için bir tane.
in American local jails
hapishanelerindeki kişilerin %75'i
in his South Bronx neighborhood
to pick up a quart of milk.
why he was being stopped,
and the next thing he knew,
ve sonra bir baktı ki
your bicycle on the sidewalk
ve tutuklamaya direnmek''
was sent to "The Boat" --
that sits on the East River
Doğu Gölü'nde yüzen
that sits out there
even for a few days.
biraz konuşalım.
losing custody of your children.
bile kaybedebilirsiniz.
victimization by jail staff
cinsel tacizlerin üçte biri
ilk 3 gün içinde gerçekleşiyor
including suicides,
ölümlerin neredeyse yarısı
if you're held in jail on bail,
hapiste tutuluyorsanız
to get a jail sentence
hapse mahkum olmanız
will be three times longer.
üç kat daha uzun oluyor.
and cash bail has been set,
ve kefalet belirlendiyse
to remain stuck in that jail cell
iki kat daha uzun süre
dehumanizing and violent experience.
insanlık dışı ve şiddet dolu bir tecrübe.
that it's you stuck in that jail cell,
kendinizi düşünün
the 500 dollars to get out.
500 dolarınız olmadığını.
and offers you a way out.
would do in that situation.
şeyi yapıyorsunuz.
whether you did it or not.
kabulleniyorsunuz.
for the rest of your life.
enough money to pay bail
insanları hapsetmek
immoral things we do as a society.
en adaletsiz ve ahlak dışı şeylerden biri.
and counterproductive.
holding people in jail cells
insanları hapiste tutmak için
is it doesn't make us any safer.
bunun bizi daha güvenli kılmadığı.
that holding somebody in jail
birini hapiste tutmak
to commit a crime when you get out
sizi çok daha büyük oranda
have known that for generations.
nesillerdir bunu biliyor.
to buy their loved ones freedom
sevdiklerini oralardan kurtarmak için
and jail cells existed.
has grown too enormous,
aşırı genişledi
has been the result --
yüzde 99'u
for over half my life,
resmi bir savunma avukatıyım
thousands of clients
sadece kefalet paraları olmadığı için
enough money to pay bail.
were subsumed by questions of money,
içine alışını izledim,
of the entire American legal system.
güvenilirliği hakkında şüphe uyandırıyor.
I was wrestling with over a decade ago
eşim David'le birlikte
with my husband, David,
çare aradığım soru
and venting about the injustice of it all
ve bu adaletsizlik hakkında konuşuyorduk,
our clients out of jail?"
Freedom Fund was born.
that told us we were crazy
to lose all of the money.
because they didn't have any stake in it.
insanlar geri dönmüyorlardı.
at the end of a criminal case,
geldiğini biliyorduk,
for more and more bail.
tekrar tekrar kullanabilirdik.
residents of New York City,
insanların kefaletini ödüyoruz
has exploded our ideas
insanların niçin mahkemeye geri geldiğini
legal system itself is operated.
ortaya çıkardı.
people come back to court.
geri gelmesini sağlayan para değil.
the Bronx Freedom Fund pays bail,
kefaleti ödediğinde
return for every court appearance,
mahkemeye geri dönüyorlar,
that it's money that mattered.
algısını sona erdiriyorlar.
that we don't need cash
of surveillance and supervision.
ihtiyacımız olmadığına güçlü bir kanıt.
about when to come back to court.
basit hatırlatma bildirileri.
in jail on a misdemeanor,
kusurlu davranış suçundan tutukluysanız
savuşturuluyor.
of the Bronx Freedom Fund,
have ever received a jail sentence
locked in that jail cell.
intervened and paid his bail.
ve kefaletini ödedi.
his case from outside.
davası için savaşabiliyor.
Freedom Fund was a lifeline,
bir hayat kurtarıştı
locked in jail cells,
diğer Amerikalı için
maybe, audacious?
revolving bail-fund model
kanıtlanmış döner kefalet fonu modelini
of the legal system
as many people as we can
mümkün olduğu kadar insanın
and local community organizations,
organizasyonlarıyla birlikte,
40 bölge belirleyeceğiz.
in high-need jurisdictions.
at the end of a case.
geri gelmesinden faydalanıyor.
two or three times a year,
to pay bail for up to 15 people
önümüzdeki beş yıl boyunca
and the wisdom and the leadership
bizzat tecrübe etmiş kişilerin
this injustice firsthand.
ve liderliğine dayanıyor.
by a team of bail disrupters.
oluşan bir ekiple donatılacak.
advocates from local communities,
çoğu daha önce bizzat hapsedilmiş,
incarcerated themselves,
destek sağlarken
through the legal system,
resources and support they may need.
kaynak ve destek sahibi olacaklar.
disrupter in Queens County, New York.
kefalet karşıtı olmak için eğitim alıyor.
and Louisville, Kentucky.
ve Louisville, Kentucky'de.
the money bail system
eşi benzeri görülmemiş bir şekilde
ve önemini vurgulayacağız,
ve duygularını değiştirebilelim
critical, national data
a better path forward
ihtiyacımız var,
of oppression in just another form.
başka bir biçim almasının önüne geçelim.
over the next five years,
160.000 kişinin de çıkarılmasıyla
non-governmental decarcerations
hükümet dışı hapisten çıkarma
from decades in the system:
şunu söyleyebilirim ki
the civil rights litigators,
the media, the philanthropists,
medya, filantropistler,
of those who are impacted by this system.
kişilerin görüş ve emekleri.
mass incarceration.
sona erdirebiliriz.
in those jail cells,
on bail bondage, right now --
bir yaşam sanşına ihtiyacı var.
to dream big and fight hard,
her seferinde bir kefalet
are a reality in America.
Amerika'nın bir gerçeği olana kadar.
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