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 Muslims and restore the presumption of innocence while our brothers and sisters are fighting their cases. Bail bond criminalizes poverty and are inherently racist in nature. It is our duty as Muslims to be part of ending this 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 because they can’t afford bail qualify for zakat.

WHAT WE DO

Our goals this Ramadan are to:

• Raise $75,000
  Free 20 believers from pretrial incarceration and immigration detention
  Expand our bond and post-bond support work from Chicago to three additional pilot locations throughout the United States
  Mobilize a Muslim movement to end mass incarceration by educating Muslims around the country on how the prison industrial complex, anti-Muslim racism, and anti-blackness are connected.

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Along with providing bail and support for individuals released on bond in Chicago, Illinois, Believers Bail Out hosts digital programming and teach-ins to support legislative efforts 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 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. In 2015, nationwide the median bail was $10,000, while the median pre-incarceration annual income of people incarcerated was $15,000. Black people are twice as 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 million people incarcerated in jails and prisons, more than 45,000 people are being held 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 incarcerated for deportation proceedings. Lawful permanent residents who have been charged with criminal offenses and all undocumented people can also be incarcerated by immigration. Many are asylum seekers, fleeing from violence in their home countries. Often, immigrants are incarcerated 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 incarcerated for their immigration case.

Similar to the criminal legal system, while incarcerated by ICE, 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 ICE incarceration may never speak to legal counsel. It is extremely difficult for immigrants to find representation from a cage. 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.

Zakat, one of the five pillars of Islam, is an annual tax on wealth. The Qur’an (9:60) specifies eight uses for zakat, including helping the poor (al-fuaqara) 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 detention because they can’t afford bail qualify for zakat.

GET INVOLVED

Join us in the fight to end incarceration! See how you can be involved with Believers Bail Out: https://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)

For more information visit: https://believersbailout.org