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Covid Bail Out NYC is volunteer-powered, so 100% of your donation goes directly towards getting people out of NYC jails and supported once free. Because of your support, Covid Bail Out NYC can organize bail outs for folks locked in NYC jails pretrial and provide vital post-bail support, such as housing, food, medical care, and healing.  

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Covid Bail Out is the only NYC initiative organized to support everyone, no matter the charges, no matter the bail amount. No-one should be in a cage. The only obstacle to our organizing bail outs for everyone who wants to be free right now is limited funds.

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Every dollar you contribute adds up. Together, we're able to fund folks' freedom from Rikers and the Boat, support their recovery from incarceration, and materially resist systemic oppression of the city's Black, brown, disabled, trans, and other targeted communities. That's people power!

Covid Bail Out NYC mobilized in response to catastrophe, when Rikers Island was the global hotspot for the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, the NYPD, judges, and prosecutors have used the pandemic as a pretext to send more people to NYC jails for longer, all while ramping up criminalization of NYC's Black and brown communities. Disease remains a weapon in the overcrowded jails, that but is not the only violence our people endure. This moment calls on us to be our own protectors.

 

Over 5,000 people are in NYC jails right now. Most are in cages because judges set bail higher than what they can afford. By organizing to pay their bail, we can get our neighbors free, out of the clutches of the state, and into the safety of their communities.

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How do we do it? We don't work alone, but with a whole village of people just like you committed to #FreeThemAll. It takes dedicated lawyers, loving family and friends, and courageous incarcerated folks to request we pay bail. People to donate funds to cover bail and post-bail support. A committed volunteer team to work with the people inside, their lawyers, family, social workers, friends to prepare bail outs and safe releases. More volunteers to travel to bail windows to post bail. And a beautiful crew of resourceful community organizers to corral support for folks after they are released.

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We invite you to work with us to get our people out of NYC jails. Reach out if you have questions or ideas!

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320 people freed from NYC jails!

(since April 1, 2020)