Dignity Power, Inc.

Dignity Power’s mission is to build political power amongst incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and impacted women and girls across the country. Dignity Power mobilizes constituents to systematically undo years of white supremacist, colonialist, and patriarchal policy-making, starting with the state of Florida and beyond.

We are a grassroots movement founded by formerly incarcerated women of color on the LGBTQ+ spectrum who have had two successful legislative sessions of advocacy in Florida: (2019) the passage of the Dignity for Incarcerated Women and Girls Act (HB 49/ SB 332) and (2020) the passage of the Tammy Jackson Act (HB 1259/ SB 852).

#FreeBlackMamas is an annual campaign by the National

Bail Out collective that seeks to raise awareness about the

human and financial costs of money bail and emphasize

its impact on Black mothers and caregivers. Every year

since 2017, we have coordinated tactical bail outs

nationwide to free as many Black mamas and caregivers

as possible so they may spend Mother’s Day with their

families — where they belong.

The prison industrial complex is an interconnected system of institutions that criminalize, punish, surveil, and incarcerate people based on hierarchies and social power. Our strategies, organizing and policy proposals are driven by a shared goal of abolishing pretrial detention, and thus money bail, to actualize a vision of abolition.

The money bail system fuels mass incarceration and disproportionately impacts Black and low income communities. Black folks are often accused and jailed based on discriminatory and racially-biased policies and monitoring. Money bail often keeps our folks in cells because of their inability to pay.

Corporate opportunists have created an unaccountable and unnecessary $2 billion bail industry to profit from taking away people’s freedom. They have the jurisdiction to follow and track people across state lines to deny them any form of freedom. Every year, millions of people are coerced into paying money bail after they’re arrested just to remain free while their cases are processed. Even though these individuals are still innocent in the eyes of the law, they and their families or communities are forced to pay non-refundable 10% deposits to for-profit bail bonds companies.

When mothers languish in jail because of money bail, our families and communities suffer. Women and caregivers often lose their jobs, housing or even children only to be found innocent. Some, like Sandra Bland, have lost their lives. The cost to the children Black women and caregivers nurture, the partners they love and the communities they hold is incalculable.

We need to abolish the for-profit bail industry. Big companies whose only goal is profits should not be the gatekeepers of pretrial detention and release. The money bail system perpetuates racial bias within the criminal justice system and only benefits the for-profit bail bonds industry and the big insurance companies that back it. Bondsmen and the big insurance corporations that underwrite them are profiting from a corrupt system that preys on marginalized communities.