Amber, a California-based Black mother of four daughters, was arrested for violating probation. Due to housing insecurity, she was unable to report for probation. Instead of giving her housing resources or conducting a needs assessment, police handcuffed Amber in front of her three-year-old daughter and locked her up. Amber was not allowed to call a family member to pick up her child, and her daughter was taken to Child Protective Services, where she was placed with strangers. The judge set Amber’s bail at $50,000, an insurmountable amount for a mother already struggling to meet her family’s basic needs.

That meant she spent two weeks behind bars while legally innocent. Last May, in time for Mother’s Day, women with incarcerated loved ones from the nonprofit Oakland, California–based organization Essie Justice Group bailed Amber out of jail as part of the national #FreeBlackMamas campaign. Our community of women and gender-nonconforming people raised the money and paid the bail, yet still had to spend hours fighting for Amber’s freedom at Lynwood Women’s Jail in Los Angeles. Amber was eventually released into the loving arms of women—but they were not just any women; they were women with incarcerated loved ones who, because of their experiences, understand the system intimately and are skilled in supporting individuals and families through the re-entry process.

Amber’s story is not uncommon; 80% of jailed women are mothers, and most of them are primary caretakers of their children. The costs are devastating. Our families and communities suffer when our loved ones languish in jail pretrial because of money-bail requirements. Furthermore, people often face enormous collateral consequences, such as losing jobs, housing, and even children, only to be found innocent later on.

Avoiding pretrial detention is particularly challenging for women. Incarcerated women, who have lower incomes because of the systemic challenges of finding employment, have an even harder time affording money bail. With a median bail amount of $50,000, California has a particularly problematic system, with bail amounts set at five times the national average.

Read the full article about Black mothers in jail by Gina Clayton-Johnson at YES! Magazine.