Believers Bail Out is a community-led effort to use Zakat to bail out Muslims in pre-trial and ICE incarceration. By paying bonds, we free believers and restore the presumption of innocence while our siblings fight their cases. Bail bonds criminalize poverty and are inherently racist in nature. It is our duty as Muslims to be part of ending this unjust cycle. 
 

The Qur’an (9:60) specifies eight uses for zakat, including helping the poor (al-fuqara) and the needy (al-masakin), freeing of slaves or captives (al-raqib), the debt-ridden (al-gharimin), and the wayfarer (ibn al-sabil). People being held in pretrial or immigration incarceration who can’t afford bail qualify for zakat. 

WHAT WE DO

Our goals this Ramadan are to: 

• Raise $350,000

In order to:

• Free 30 believers from pretrial incarceration & immigration detention in 2022
• Expand our bailout & post-bond support work throughout the United States
• Educate Muslims on how the prison industrial complex, anti-Muslim racism, and anti-blackness are connected in order to mobilize our communities.
   

Along with providing bail and support for individuals released on bond in Chicago, IL, Believers Bail Out also hosts fundraising iftars, webinars, and teach-ins to support legislative efforts (like the Pretrial Fairness Act in IL) to abolish money bond and to raise awareness within Muslim communities on the injustices of the bail bond system and the broader prison-industrial complex. 

WHY BAIL OUT BELIEVERS? 

Right now, there are over 2.3 million incarcerated people in the United States, predominantly Black and Latinx. Almost half a million of these people are being held on pre-trial bond (bail). Cash bail penalizes poverty and reproduces racism. Nationwide the median bail is $10,000, which is the equivalent of 8 months income for a typical defendent being held pretrial. Black people are 25-50% more likely to be held pretrial as white people and Muslims in pretrial detention face an increased risk of victimization, surveillance and denial of religious freedom in the prison system due to anti-Muslim racism (Islamophobia).

While the criminal legal system proclaims the principle of “innocent before proven guilty,” the reality is that people who have not been convicted of any crime can be jailed indefinitely because they are poor and unable to pay bond. In addition to being jailed without a conviction, they can lose their jobs, their children, their homes and even their lives while in pretrial incarceration. 

In addition to the over 2.3 million people incarcerated in jails and prisons, tens of thousands of people are being held in immigration detention in ICE facilities on a daily basis. Any non-citizen without legal status who comes to the attention of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) can be detained for deportation proceedings. Lawful permanent residents who have been charged with criminal offenses and all undocumented people can also be detained by immigration. Many detainees are asylum seekers, fleeing from violence in their home countries. Often, immigrants are detained after arrest by local law enforcement, regardless of the severity of the alleged offense. People whose criminal or misdemeanor charges are dropped can still be held in detention for their immigration case. 

Similar to the criminal legal system, while detained, many immigrants lose their jobs, housing and custody of their children -- in addition to enduring the hardship of incarceration. While people facing jail time for criminal charges have the right to a lawyer, immigrants in detention may never speak to legal counsel. It is extremely difficult for immigrants to find representation from behind bars. Immigrants who get out are five times more likely to find a lawyer; and immigrants with legal counsel are twice as likely to win their cases.

GET INVOLVED

Join us in the fight to end mass incarceration! See how you can be involved with Believers Bail Out: http://believersbailout.org
 

Please support our work and consider ways to extend our work into your own communities. Paying bonds is one small thing we can do, because not being in a cage is always better than being in one, but 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)