The Minnesota Freedom Fund is a non-profit organization that operates a

bail fund A bail fund is an organization, often charitable, community and volunteer-driven, or both, that collects money for the purpose of posting monetary bail for those in jail on pre-trial detention. Recipients may include those who cannot afford bail on ...

. It was founded in 2016 and is based in the

U.S. city Local government in the United States refers to governmental jurisdictions below the level of the state. Most states and territories have at least two tiers of local government: counties and municipalities. Louisiana uses the term parish and Alas ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

. The organization pays

bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countries ...

for people who have been arrested and are awaiting trial. Initially a small organization with a $100,000 in financial assets by 2017, the organization raised $40million in 2020, following the

murder of George Floyd On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's n ...

. By May 2021, the organization had spent $19million largely on posting bail for local cases. Money returns to the organization when a person appears in court and it can be reallocated to other bail posts. The organization does not make bail determinations based on the types of crimes allegedly committed and the posting of bond is made without details of a particular case. Leaders of the organization have expressed support for the abolition of all bail fees.

History

Founding

The Minnesota Freedom Fund was founded in 2016 by Simon Cecil, a graduate student at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

who received a $5,000 grant through the university's

Carlson School of Management The Curtis L. Carlson School of Management is the business school of the University of Minnesota, a public research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Carlson School offers undergraduate and graduate degr ...

and a further $5,000 from a business competition, the Acara Challenge. By April 2017, the organization reported having posted bail for 33 people, all but two of whom had attended their trial. In 2018, the fund paid $9,464 across 113 bail cases. It raised $100,000 in the

fiscal year A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ...

2017–2018 period.

Slow expansion

By March 2020, the group reported having provided bail money in 500 cases, including a limited number of

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...

detention centers. In early 2020, during the initial months of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Minnesota The COVID-19 pandemic in Minnesota is part of an ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the state of Minnesota. The first confirmed case was reported on March 6, 2020. Governor Tim Walz declared a state of emergency on March ...

, the group sought the release of more inmates, concerned about the virus spreading rapidly throughout the prison population. It removed its upper limit of $1,000 in bail payments. In May 2020, the organization's then executive director Tonja Honsey said that the average amount of money needed by recipients of the fund was $150. Bail amounts of $78, the surcharge cost of

Hennepin County Hennepin County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its county seat is Minneapolis, the state's most populous city. The county is named in honor of the 17th-century explorer Father Louis Hennepin. The county extends from Minneapol ...

court fees, were also common. Prior to May 2020, the organization had one full-time employee.

George Floyd protests and aftermath

Following the

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

George Floyd George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd may have used a counterfeit twe ...

on May 25, 2020, and the subsequent

protests A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can be thought of as acts of coopera ...

, the fund received $20million in donations over a four-day period, with public postings of donations to the group becoming popular on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. Several public figures and celebritiessuch as

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, and

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were among those praising the organization's mission on social media. Publications such as ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' and ''

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'' published articles promoting bail funds and how to contribute. On June 2, 2020, the group temporarily suspended further donations, suggesting that visitors to their website donate to the non-profits

Black Visions Collective Black Visions Collective (BLVC) is an American nonprofit organization for black liberation based in Minnesota, founded in December 2017. The group intersects with transgender and LGBTQ communities. Active in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropoli ...

, Reclaim the Block, Rebuild Lake Street, Northstar Health Collective, or West Broadway Business and Area Coalition. By September it had accumulated $35million in donations, and its total for 2020 reached $40million. The organization said that they would prioritize bail for people who had been detained in connection with the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internati ...

. Most of the people who were arrested during the late May and early June 2020 events in Minneapolis and Saint Paul were for curfew violations, and many were issued citations and quickly released. Around a dozen protesters had their bail posted by the Minnesota Freedom Fund, according its interim director, Greg Lewin. Among them, the organization posted the $75,000 bail for a 28-year old Saint Paul man who was charged with attempted second-degree murder for allegedly firing gunshots at Minneapolis police officers who were patrolling East Lake Street during the overnight hours of May 31. About the large financial assets the organization amassed during protests following Floyd's murder, Jeffrey Clayton, executive director of the insurance company trade group American Bail Coalition, said later, "The purpose for what they got the money was not there."

Fund growth and distribution

The organization faced criticism on

in mid-2020 for its mostly White executive board, and the small proportion of its recent income which had been distributed. In mid-2021 it went through arbitration due to turmoil between staff and the board. Simon Cecil, the founder, formally cut ties with the organization on May 31. In September 2020, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' reported that 92% of people arrested in the locale within the fund's scope did not require monetary bail, and that the average bail paid by the group had increased from $342 to $13,195. In May 2021, the

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said that they had spent $19million of the money they received in 2020, but money returns to the organization when the people released on bail appear in court. The majority of their expenditures were local Minnesotan cases, but $4.5million went to the National Bail Fund Network. One recipient of money from the Minnesota Freedom Fund attested that it paid for his bail, legal fees, and to pay for property damage that he was charged with after a Black Lives Matter protest he attended. In 2020 and 2021, efforts in Minnesota were made to reduce inequities in the application of bail, but also to seek greater oversight of the Minnesota Freedom Fund. In December 2020, prosecutors in the Minnesota counties of Hennepin and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

stopped seeking bail for people charged with nonviolent felonies, which the use of bail had disproportionately effect on

People of Color The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the U ...

. In the 2021 Minnesota Legislative Session, some lawmakers proposed legislation to require bail funds to make public the person or organization that posts bail for certain violent crimes, and to prohibit bail funds from posting bail for people charged with violent crimes or had a prior conviction for violent crime. By May 2021, the organization had distributed $19million for more than 900 criminal and immigration bonds. According to then-leader Greg Lewin in 2020, the bail fund "do not make determinations of bail support based on the crimes that individuals are alleged to have committed". Co-executive director Mirella Ceja-Orozco had said that the organization does not "judge whether the person had committed a crime or not because that's what the courts are for". The fund has drawn criticism for some of the people it bailed out. A 32-year-old man from Minneapolis who was bailed out of jail by the organization in July 2020 after an alleged assault, was charged in connection to another alleged assault in August. By August 2020, the organization had paid the $100,000 bail for a person accused of second-degree murder and the $350,000 bail for a person accused of sexual assault and kidnapping. In February 2021,

Attorney

Michael O. Freeman Michael Orville Freeman (born May 7, 1948) is an American attorney and politician who served as the county attorney for Hennepin County. Early life and education Freeman was raised and educated in Minneapolis before moving to the Washington, D. ...

criticized the organization for twice bailing out a man with pending charges for weapons and rioting charges, and a judge set a bail threshold for the man above what the organization typically pays. According to the ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief i ...

'', the fund was also used to bail out people accused of violent crimes and people with prior convictions for sexual assault. Thomas Moseley, a 29-year old man from Blaine, Minnesota, was arrested and charged by authorities for his role in several protests and riots in 2020. He twice had his bail paid for by the Minnesota Freedom Fund and was released from law enforcement custody. Authorities alleged that Moseley was responsible for vandalizing a Minneapolis police station on August 15, 2020, possessing unauthorized weapons and damaging property inside the

Hennepin County Government Center Hennepin County Government Center is the courthouse and primary county government administration building for Hennepin County in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is located in downtown Minneapolis, the county seat of Hennepin County. Before its c ...

building on October 15, 2020, and participating in a riot in downtown Minneapolis on December 31, 2020. The Minnesota Freedom Fund paid the $5,000 bail for the arrest on October 15, 2020, and the $60,000 bail for his arrest related to the December 31 riot. Mosely pled guilty to federal weapons charges in August 2021, stemming from investigations from his prior arrests. In June 2021, the organization posted bail for people arrested during the

Line 3 pipeline The Line 3 pipeline is an oil pipeline owned by the Canadian multinational Enbridge. Operating since 1968, it runs from Hardisty, Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin, United States. Concerns about the safety of the pipeline led Enbridge ...

protests.

Policy positions

The organization supports abolition of bail fees. It believes that bail furthers poverty by keeping people in jail longer, resulting in job loss, and it promotes plea deals that can allow people to leave jail.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website
2016 establishments in Minnesota Bail in the United States Organizations based in Minneapolis