bail OUTS

We post bond to secure the safety and liberty of low-income individuals in U.S. jails and immigration facilities, with focus on LGBTQ people.

Detained, even for a day, an individual is at risk of violence and losing employment, custody of children, and housing. Most suicides in jail occur within the first week.

While those with means are released from confinement, those in poverty face only injurious choices: languish at risk, or accept deportation or a guilty plea to get out of jail—often to crimes they didn’t commit.

For those in need, we provide case management and medical-legal-social services linkages.

lgbtq criminalization

We raise awareness of the criminalization in America of LGBTQ folks, who are three times more likely to be incarcerated than heterosexual individuals.

This problem is precipitated by poverty and discrimination in school, employment, policing, family and society at large.

The sweep of criminalization is extraordinary. At some point in their lives, 70 percent of low-income LGBTQ people are homeless by some estimates, and half of homeless people will be incarcerated.

LGBTQ criminalization manifests widespread violence against sexual minorities.

In the decade following the passage of the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), around two million individuals were sexually assaulted in confinement—half are estimated to be LGBTQ. Moreover, LGBTQ youth in detention are 12 times more likely to be sexually assaulted.

lgbtq immigrants

With same-sex sexual activity illegal in over 70 nations, and widespread extralegal discrimination around the world, U.S. immigration detention is unduly felt by LGBTQ folks.

Across the U.S. we pay bail to secure the freedom of LGBTQ migrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, most of whom are people of color and fleeing anti-queer violence in their home countries.

This preempts victimization in custody and improves case outcomes — those free are more likely to get counsel and those with representation are more likely to win their asylum cases.

Problematically, ICE often uses its discretion to detain queer individuals.

In one 2015 study, ICE held 90 percent of LGBTQ immigrants when its automated system recommended detention of 18 percent; ICE held the general population against recommendation only about 16 percent of the time.

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