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Lessons From Rikers Island

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“Jails like Rikers—and the broken systems of which they are part—perpetuate inequality and injustice. For example, the current cash-bail system disproportionately punishes poor people, who are consigned to spend weeks and sometimes years in jail when they lack the necessary $500 or less to make bail. In some cases, for-profit bail bond companies exploit the desperation of poor families; in many others, people who can’t pay go straight to jail, which in New York City costs $247,000 per person, annually.”

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