Justice
Bail Reform Takes Flight in Philly
With the passage of a new resolution, Philadelphia becomes the latest city pushing to end money bail.
On Thursday, the Philadelphia City Council unanimously voted to pass a resolution calling on the city’s District Attorney and Pennsylvania officials to end the practice of using money bail as a means of pre-trial detainment.
In a speech two days before the vote, Councilman Curtis Jones framed bail as a medieval tool that still lived inside the city’s modern criminal justice system. “Anything that’s 1,000 years old might require a check-up, a fix-up, a tune-up, and a change,” he said.