Looking Back on 2021...
As we reflect on another important year in the fight to free Kansas City citizens who cannot afford bail, we want to thank you for your support. Your donations and conversations continue to fuel this bail fund and liberate people from the literal cages of our criminal punishment system. Here are some highlights of what we accomplished in 2021:
With your help, we freed an average of 3 people per month who were detained behind bars simply because they couldn’t afford bail.
We took the month of August to organize our processes behind the scenes. Our executive director, Chloe Cooper, led the charge in developing policies to guide us in serving our clients. For example, we now review requests for assistance on a weekly basis, every Tuesday. We also developed new training materials for future team members.
We welcomed a new social media manager to the team. Lindsay Bowe is a graduate student with a passion for social justice and a knack for turning complicated topics into easily digestible, thoughtfully designed, content. Since Lindsay took over Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for us, we’ve seen your positive response and are excited for more in 2022.
We became more educated in local government issues with the help of our friend and candidate for Jackson County legislature, Justice Horn. After our IG Live discussion about transforming public safety, Justice publicly shared his support for abolishing cash bail in JC!
For the first time, we provided hard copies of bail request applications, along with stamped envelopes, to a KC jail. This allows imprisoned citizens to contact us directly (typically, friends or family members get in touch with us through our website or hotline number). The response has been overwhelming, and we’re working on figuring out the best ways to grow our resources to help as many people as we can in 2022.
We recently filed for 501c3, non-profit status. This is important because as an official non-profit, you’ll be able to deduct your generous contributions from your personal taxes. We can’t wait to introduce you to our board of directors–watch for that early in 2022!
Mass incarceration harms, brutalizes, and robs our communities of the people that we love. We know that this fight for freedom can be exhausting and emotionally draining, so please remember to rest and recharge when you need to. Thank you for all that you do! We hope you had a peaceful, safe, new year’s eve, and we’ll see you in 2022.