Muhammad Ali Nasir was 16 when Pittsburgh police charged him with adult crimes, leading initially to him being held in jail after a magistrate set bail bonds that totaled $100,000.

Last week, the Homewood man told members of the Pennsylvania state House Democratic Policy Committee he ultimately was found not guilty of some charges, while others were dismissed. But the system that put a price on his pretrial release should be eliminated, he said.

“Unaffordable cash bail, which is essentially a pretrial jail sentence for legally innocent people, plays a major role in how those facing criminal charges proceed legally, often leading to coercive plea sentences that include long probation sentences,” Nasir said.

Nasir serves as an organizer for the Bukit Bail Fund in Pittsburgh, a group seeking to abolish prisons. His family, through a bondsman, posted his bail so he could be released from jail pending his trial. Others are not so lucky, he said, citing more than a dozen inmates who died in recent years while incarcerated at the Allegheny County Jail.

A report issued this year by the American Civil Liberties Union found that the cash bail system in Pennsylvania has disproportionally impacted Blacks. The group found that larger bail amounts were set for Black defendants in 2016 and 2017, the study’s time frame.

“Unaffordable cash bail can literally be a death sentence,” Nasir said.

The ACLU’s study examined 383,000 cases and found the average amount of cash bail set in Pennsylvania was $38,433, an amount that was out of reach for many defendants, with 97,000 being held in jail until trial. In Westmoreland, the average bail amount was $23,548.

Westmoreland district magistrates, on average, set bail at just over $38,000 for Black defendants, compared to about $19,000 for white defendants, making the county the third worst in Pennsylvania for that measure, the ACLU’s analysis found. Other Western Pennsylvania counties landed in the top 10, including Beaver, Butler, Indiana, Lawrence, Somerset and Washington.

“Mass incarceration is a crisis in Pennsylvania, and it might not feel like it, but it’s an incredibly local and proximate issue that happens in our backyards,” ACLU criminal justice investigator Jessica Li told the Tribune-Review in January.

The report also found that cash bail is set in 50% of cases involving a Black defendant in Westmoreland County. For white defendants, the rate was 29%. For that measure, Westmoreland ranked eighth in the state.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s criminal procedural rule committee in January proposed a change that would require judges to consider “the least restrictive” measures for bail as necessary.

“The goal of the bail determination procedures is for the least number of people being detained, through timely release at the earliest stage, as is necessary to reasonably ensure appearance for court and the safety of the community,” a January post in the Pennsylvania Bulletin read.

Parties had until March 8 to comment on the proposal. Both the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association and Sheriff’s Association submitted letters in opposition, the Cranberry Eagle reported. There is no deadline for the Supreme Court to issue a ruling on the proposal, a spokeswoman said.

Different options

Other forms of bail are available in Pennsylvania, including release to house arrest with electronic monitors and recognizance bonds that require no money to be paid for a pretrial release.

Opponents of Pennsylvania’s cash bail system claim it makes communities more dangerous and increases recidivism rates among those charged with crimes while also hindering the state’s economy.

Dr. Autumn Redcross, founder of the Court Watch Program of the Abolitionist Law Center in Pittsburgh, told lawmakers the cash bail system in Pennsylvania could easily be eliminated or, in the alternative, require judges to consider a defendant’s ability to pay an affordable bail.

About 100 of the more than 1,700 people incarcerated in Allegheny County are being held only because they cannot afford to post bail, Redcross said.

“I have heard defendants given monetary bail beg for alternative conditions. I remember pointedly a person with theft charges, maybe some drug charges, responding to a magistrate who presided over his preliminary arraignment,” Redcross said. “ ‘I don’t have $500,’ he said, ‘I have a drug problem.’ He was only silenced and asked if he had any procedural questions before he was dismissed.”

Mike Dershowitz, founder of the PA Pretrial Partnership in Philadelphia, testified the state’s bail system has had a negative impact on the economy.

Those held in jail because they are unable to post bail directly impacts businesses being adequately able to fill out their staff, he said.

“Here we have a piece of our criminal justice system that is actually retarding and not advancing our economy,” Dershowitz said.

Christopher Shanley, deputy director of Allegheny County’s Pretrial Services, said most defendants charged with crimes don’t have the ability to pay their bail and ultimately remain in jail until their case is completed.

“Cash bail keeps poor people in jail and allows people with the ability to pay to be released,” Shanley said.

State lawmakers are considering legislation, introduced last year and before the Senate judiciary committee, which calls for eliminating most cash bonds in Pennsylvania. Prosecutors would have the opportunity to argue that bail is not appropriate in cases where the community could be placed in danger if the defendant is released before trial.

New Jersey reformed its cash bail system in 2017. Kevin Drennan, executive director of the New Jersey Senate, told Pennsylvania lawmakers that doing so resulted in a reduction of about 6,000 inmates and no increase in crime.

Committee Vice Chairman State Rep. Peter Schweyer, a Lehigh County Democrat, said New Jersey’s success is an example Pennsylvania can explore.

“How we impose cash bail in Pennsylvania needs to change, and it’s important that we look to examples of where it’s been successfully eliminated so that we can learn how to do so here,” Schweyer said.

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