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Arbitrarily high monetary bonds are keeping about 50% of the roughly 600 people currently detained in the jail for no other reason than individuals cannot afford to pay the cost of bail. Individuals are being held pretrial, thereby presumed innocent in the eyes of the law, but have been left languishing in a cell because of their inability to purchase their freedom.
Social distancing is impossible inside the Alachua County Jail. The health of the people inside these cells is not divorced from the health of the community at large. Employees at the jail are entering and leaving the premises daily, encountering people in the broader community. Research indicates that the more people infected with COVID-19 in jails, the greater the spread of the virus will be to the general public (ACLU).
Due to the inaction of our elected officials, State Attorney Bill Cervone and Sheriff Sadie Darnell, community organizers from the Legal Empowerment & Advocacy Hub, Gainesville Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, Goddsville Dream Defenders, and Alachua County Labor Coalition have come together to start the Alachua County COVID-19 Bond Fund. In just a matter of weeks, we’ve raised over $11,000! These funds have been able to free 10 community members so far; reuniting partners and spouses, brothers and sisters, parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren.
With no end in sight for the current COVID-19 pandemic, we must continue our efforts to step in where our elected officials have failed to act.
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