Who we are:

Believers Bail Out is a zakat-eligible community-led abolitionist organization that uses zakat and sadaqa to bail out Muslims from pretrial and immigration incarceration across the United States, and support them post-bailout. 

Currently, more than 400,000 people are being held in jails across the country awaiting their trial, with more than 60% not able to afford the bond amount so they can fight their charges from home. Bail bonds are racist and criminalize poverty. The majority of incarcerated people are Black, Indigenous, and/or Latinx, and Muslims represent about 9% of the incarcerated population. The Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is rooted in a deep history of anti-Black racism, and it builds upon anti-Muslim racism to expand policing, surveillance, and incarceration targeting the most marginalized. 

In the prison system, Muslims face increased victimization, surveillance, and denial of religious freedom due to the far reaching tentacles of anti-Muslim racism. When we post bail for believers who cannot afford to do so themselves, we help reunite them with their communities and restore their freedom while they fight their cases, which can take years.

Since our founding in 2018 in Chicago, we have expanded to help bail out Muslims across the United States, including 

• Texas
• Connecticut
• New York
• Michigan
• Missouri
• Pennsylvania
• Massachusetts, and
• Georgia.

We have collected and redistributed over $2.5 million, the majority of which came from individual zakat and sadaqa donations, to bail out over 200 Muslims from jails and detention centers and support folks with reentry. 

BBO believes that as Muslims, our faith calls on us to fight for liberation, commit to upholding justice, and stand firm against oppression. We work to free our brothers and sisters whose lives and freedom have been stolen by the carceral system and support them in their transition back into the community. 

As was revealed in the Holy Qur’an, “whoever saves a life, it will be as if they saved all of humanity” (Surat al-Ma’idah verse 32).

How is bail zakat eligible? And why should we free Muslims with zakat? 

The Qur’an (9:60) specifies eight uses for zakat. After deep consultation with Islamic scholars, we have determined that individuals who cannot afford their bail for pre-trial or immigration incarceration qualify for zakat based on the eligibility criteria listed below:

• The Destitute (al-fuqara): Those with neither material possessions nor livelihood.
• The Needy (al-masakin): Those with insufficient means for their basic needs
• The Indebted (al-gharimin): Those in deep burdensome debt such that after paying the debt, they will not have assets above the Nisab ($8,000). When people cannot afford their bail, money bail becomes a burdensome debt..
• The Stranded Traveler (ibn al-sabil): Those who are refugees being held by ICE in immigration incarceration
• The Captive (al-raqib) Captives or enslaved people whose freedom must be secured through payment.

By paying bond and providing support, BBO uses zakat at the local level, as preferred by many Islamic scholars. While we resist the racist tactics used by the American military industrial complex abroad, we are reminded of its close ties to the prison industrial complex in our own neighborhoods. We confront the racism of these intertwined systems by bailing out Muslims from pretrial and ICE incarceration, while we also focus on building solidarity and community amongst our many Muslim communities.

The Carceral System in the United States: 

The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. Almost 2 million people are incarcerated in the United States, with over 400,000 held in pretrial incarceration. 

The prison industrial complex (PIC) is a term used to describe the relationships between government institutions and private companies that build, manage, and service prisons to profit off of the use of surveillance, policing, and imprisonment. 

Although the American legal system claims people are “innocent until proven guilty,” those who have experienced pretrial incarceration know that this presumption is rarely fully afforded them. Bond penalizes people who don’t have the funds to free themselves; 

• people who cannot pay bond can be jailed indefinitely in environments that are often overcrowded, unsanitary, and otherwise filled with human rights violations, sometimes for years.
• Pre-trial incarceration can result in people losing jobs, custody of their children, their homes, and even their lives–
• all without ever being convicted of a crime.

Even after a bond is paid, individuals face numerous bureaucratic hurdles. 

Upon release, people have limited freedom and job opportunities because of surveillance through electronic monitoring. Electronic monitoring, often through ankle bracelets, limits their ability to leave their homes to just two days per week. Within these limited hours, they must prioritize essential tasks such as getting groceries or picking up their children. 

As an abolitionist organization, we seek to build a world without prisons. Abolition is the vision to eliminate imprisonment, policing, and surveillance and, in their place, create long lasting alternatives rooted in community care, accountability, and safety and dignity for all.

Immigration Incarceration in the United States:

In the face of increased ICE raids and the threat of Trump’s use of the anti-immigration legislation last used for the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, using zakat to bail out Muslims from pretrial incarceration is now even more urgently necessary.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detains tens of thousands of people at any given time, including lawful permanent residents (“greencard” holders) who have been charged with criminal offenses, and undocumented immigrants.

 Even after a criminal case is dropped, people may continue to be held for their immigration case. ICE holds asylum seekers fleeing from violence in their home countries, qualifying them as zakat recipients. 

Similar to those who are held in pretrial incarceration, people held in ICE incarceration can lose their 

• jobs,
• housing, and
• custody of their children

 in addition to enduring the unimaginable hardship of incarceration. 

It is extremely difficult for immigrants to find legal representation from behind bars, and even when they have it, individuals can be arbitrarily denied their right to speak to legal counsel. Those who can pay bond are five times more likely to find a lawyer and twice as likely to win their case.

The Changing Landscape of Cash Bail and Our Work in the Next Year:

After years of grassroots organizing and collective lobbying in Illinois, cash bail was eliminated in Illinois in 2024 through the Pretrial Fairness Act, which went into effect September 2023. 

While this new law doesn’t eliminate the racist carceral system, it is a major victory by giving more people the opportunity to fight their cases from outside jail. 

• With cash bail still in existence in every other state, BBO now turns to helping our incarcerated siblings by partnering with bail funds in jurisdictions where cash bail is still in place.
• Meanwhile, we are continuing our community support and organizing in Chicago, and advocating for the end of cash bail across the country.

In the coming year, we aim to:

• Use Zakat to bail out Muslims in states where cash bail is still in place
• Support incarcerated Muslims whom we can’t bail out, using zakat or sadaqa, as appropriate
• Support Muslims after their release from jail or from ICE prisons

Paying bond is one way we take a stand against the PIC, and our ultimate goal must be prison abolition and the building of community infrastructures that respond to the call of our Lord - for the righteous believers “to feed for the love of Allah, the indigent, the orphan, and the captive” (Qur’an 76:8)

Post Release Support

BBO’s work doesn’t end with a bailout. 

Once someone is released from pretrial incarceration, there are few, if any, support services for people who are on electronic monitoring and fighting their cases. People being released from a carceral facility already face intense stigma that limits access to housing, employment, and meaningful connection to community care. Electronic monitoring (EM) systems that presented as a more humane alternative to pretrial incarceration, are in fact, a means by which Black people are criminalized and hypersurveilled.

Black Chicago residents make up a quarter of the population yet represent ¾ of people on EM. 

Ankle bracelets are known to regularly malfunction, burdening people on EM to not only abide by the severe restrictions that their post-release mandates create for them, but to constantly prove that they have not violated EM when their monitor loses signal or glitches. It is notoriously difficult to get movement on EM outside of their two pre-approved days each week, and getting a job while on EM has proven to be a challenge for many of the people we’ve bailed out.

 The BBO post-release support team assists those we’ve bailed out to 

• get to their court dates,
• get groceries,
• help secure job interviews, and
• provide a Muslim community they can turn to.

Learn More

Join us for our virtual programming to learn more. All events will be live streamed on our YouTube page and Facebook page, and will be available afterwards for viewing.

Allow Us to Reintroduce Ourselves: A Livestream Retrospective of the Past 7 Years: Watch our retrospective on the past 7 years of the work done by Believers Bail Out. Hear directly from the organizers providing court support and post-release support to our incarcerated Believers and how the Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act has shaped the bail landscape.

A conversation with Brother Marcellus Williams Jr.: Join us on Saturday, March 17th at 5:30pm CST with Brother Marcellus Williams Jr., the son of the late beloved Imam Marcellus (Khalifa) Williams, rahmat Allah 3allayh. He will reflect on his father’s legacy and how his father's faith was foundational to his lifelong resistance to state violence. This event will honor his legacy through an exploration of what it means to praise Allah in every situation. In-person attendance requires registration, but the event will be streamed virtually at the link above. 

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and X (Twitter) to learn more about the carceral system and what BBO is doing to build community as Muslims to fight this unjust and racist carceral system.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believersbailout/ 

X: https://x.com/believerbailout 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BelieversBailOut/