< All Updates | DECEMBER 2021
Colorado Freedom Fund 2021 Year in Review
Dear Friends,
As 2021 comes to a close, we at Colorado Freedom Fund are excited to share this end of year update. In 2018, when I asked community members if they would help me bail Black mamas out of jail for Mother’s Day, I knew we were laying the foundation for Colorado Freedom Fund - a statewide organization that works daily to Bring Our Neighbors Home from cages through direct action, legislative advocacy, and litigation support. I am humbled, proud, and saddened by the numbers:
Since 2018, CFF has paid over $2.4 million to post more than 1,100 bonds and buy freedom for over 900 neighbors from cages across Colorado. We posted bonds ranging from $1 to over $100,000, averaging $500 per bond.
We bought freedom for folks trapped in many Colorado cages, including Adams, Arapahoe, Aurora, Boulder, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, El Paso, Jefferson, Larimer, Pueblo, and Weld.
Paying ransom to buy folks’ freedom is humbling, gratifying work that requires copious research, family and community connections, and hours of court watch. Your support made this work possible.
Legislative Advocacy
2021 was a year of liberation and learning at CFF, of growth and building power, of success and challenge, and of facing hard truths about the path before us to realize CFF’s goal of working ourselves out of existence. This year, in addition to buying freedom for our neighbors, CFF began to invest more time and resources into legislative advocacy and enforcement. Why? Because we can’t just pay our way out of the system of money bail.
When we post bond, CFF facilitates freedom and interrupts systemic harm, but destruction of this predatory system will come only through community advocacy that demands legislation ending cash bond once and for all. To that end, CFF is deeply engaged in pretrial legislative work.
Photo: July 6, 2021 bill signing for HB21-1280 with Governor Jared Polis. Standing, left to right: Elisabeth Epps (CFF Founder, Executive Director), Denise Maes, Eva Frickle (CFF Operations Coordinator), bill sponsors Representative Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez and Senator Robert Rodriguez.
Legislative Success and Loss in the 2021 Session.
We passed HB21-1280 requiring 48 hour bond hearings in state courts. On our third year trying, we partnered with ACLU of Colorado to pass a bill requiring bond hearings within 48 hours of arrest in state courts, which will speed up releases from jail. This bill is a necessary building block of ending cash bond in Colorado.
We narrowly lost SB21-62/273, the Michael Marshall & Marvin Booker Justice Acts. These bills would have reduced the use of cash bond and arrests for low-level offenses. The loss of this lifesaving bill due to the votes of 2 Democrats who sided with Republicans, coupled with dishonest fear-mongering by certain law enforcement officials seeking to maintain the status quo, remind us of the seriousness of the work ahead.
Our Team Is Growing.
In recognition of the essential role that legislative work plays in meeting CFF’s goal of increasing pretrial liberty in Colorado, I am thrilled to have hired Rebecca Wallace as CFF’s first Senior Policy Counsel in October 2021.
Rebecca comes to CFF from ACLU of Colorado, where she led their powerful pretrial work, year after year passing legislation (in partnership with CFF) that has freed countless neighbors. Rebecca brings deep knowledge in pretrial law, advocacy, and policy, and she will lead CFF’s work at the Capitol. We are so happy to have Rebecca join CFF’s team.
To learn more about Rebecca, check out this story from Colorado Politics.
“I am delighted to join Elisabeth and the CFF team to bring our neighbors home daily, while also working arm in arm with community to end cash bail in Colorado.”
- Rebecca Wallace | Senior Policy Counsel
Office Expansion
Working ourselves out of existence requires growth! In 2021 we doubled our office space to accommodate our growing policy team. We will expand our team further in 2022.
Expanding Horizons
Mental Illness & Indefinite Detention
Too many of our neighbors struggling with mental illness are caged indefinitely, without any conviction, awaiting mental health services. As COVID continues, the delays are growing: folks are jailed in cages for many months waiting for a mental health bed.
Because so many of our most vulnerable neighbors are in crisis, in 2021 CFF focused increased resources on helping secure freedom for our folks stuck in “pretrial competency purgatory.” We prioritize posting bond in these cases, and support legal and social worker advocates in finding other mechanisms for release, including filing legal motions raising constitutional concerns.
Enforcing Pretrial Wins
Colorado has several strong, liberatory pretrial laws with uneven compliance across the state. These laws were hard-fought victories earned by CFF and community partners, and must be enforced. Accordingly, CFF is focusing resources on ensuring statewide compliance with pretrial justice laws and taking action to bring all jurisdictions into full compliance.
New Website
Our beautiful new website makes it easier than ever for folks to apply for help with bond, stay up to date on CFF's work, and donate to support our efforts.
Website designed by Jessie Broom.
What’s in store in 2022? CFF will be BUSY…
Freeing our neighbors from cages: paying ransom as we have since 2018, while expanding our reach across the state.
Coalition building: broadening and deepening the Bring Our Neighbors Home coalition to support legislative reform in 2022 and beyond.
Ensuring statewide compliance with pretrial justice laws already passed in Colorado.
Growing CFF to support statewide organizing to end cash bail in Colorado in the coming years.
Continuing to lay legislative groundwork for ending cash bail in Colorado, by:
Passing legislation for prompt bond hearings in all municipal courts.
Passing legislation to expand statewide text court date reminder program.
Advancing legislation that expands use of tickets instead of arrest for low-level offenses.
Supporting legislation to ensure the right to pretrial release for people found incompetent.
Defeating carceral bills designed to hold more people in jail pretrial.
How can you help CFF accomplish our goals?
Join the Bring Our Neighbors Home coalition
to help end cash bail in Colorado.
Follow us on Twitter or Facebook and share our posts
so that others can learn of our work.
Some personal news…
When we started Colorado Freedom Fund, our vision was to end cash bail in Colorado without replacing it with more carceral forms of detention. We knew ending wealth-based detention would require direct action, litigation, and legislation. It is the legislative aspect of our work that has me venturing into a new challenge: I am running for state legislature, to represent Colorado in our new 6th House District. CFF does not endorse any political candidates, but I need you to be aware of the impact of this shift in my role as Executive Director turned candidate. In the short term, applications for bond help will take longer to process as we are welcoming and training new team members. In the medium and longer term, my running for elected office will provide us the opportunity to expand our capacity and help many more Coloradans.
As I continue to lead CFF as Executive Director, we are looking to expand our team to deepen and broaden our organizing and policy work. Lots of exciting announcements to come in 2022!
Thank you for your consistent support that enables us to do so much good in Colorado. We are laboring daily to work ourselves out of existence, and with your help we will end wealth-based detention and close our doors for good. Until then, our senior staff, fellows, and volunteers will continue to be good stewards of community resources as we work to Bring Our Neighbors Home.
