When you support National Bail Out, you're not just bailing out mamas and caregivers; you’re also ensuring they get the resources needed to heal.

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We understand that abolition is not merely the absence of cages but also the presence of resources, wellness, opportunity, and justice.

When we provide anti-oppressive healing practices, we’re saying that we don’t need cages, we need care.

Every participant will receive anti-oppressive, anti-carceral, and anti-colonial space to discuss challenges and emotions related to coming home after incarceration.

This year, National Bail Out partnered with the Liberatory Wellness Network to offer free wellness coaching to the Black mamas and caregivers we bailed out.

Rather than receiving care, our people are often met with surveillance, psychiatric incarceration, or mandated treatment, which further reinforces carceral control.

Share + read Dione’s powerful story and help us break open even more cages: www.nationalbailout.org/ourmamas/dione

Like many of the Black mamas and caregivers we bail out, Dione was in a cage because she was poor, Black, and in a time of crisis.

True safety comes from access to housing, employment, education, and healthcare.

It’s about ensuring people have a real quality of life.

“Without the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund, I don’t know how long I would have been in jail. They gave me my freedom back. They gave my children their mother back. They gave me a chance to start rebuilding my life.”

The far more likely answer is that incarcerated women, who have lower incomes than incarcerated men, have an even harder time affording money bail, especially when the average bail amounts to a full year’s income for women.

“I had never been arrested before. The first time it happened, my children were standing right there, watching me being taken away in handcuffs. I can still see the fear on their faces. It was traumatizing for them and for me.”

Avoiding pretrial detention is particularly challenging for women. The number of unconvicted women stuck in jail is not because courts consider women to be a flight risk, particularly when they are generally the primary caregivers of children.

A staggering number of women who are incarcerated have not even been convicted: more than a quarter of women behind bars have not yet had a trial.

“At first, my bail was set at $5,000. Later, it was reduced to $500, but even that was like $50,000 for me at the time. I sat in that cell for a month, waiting, not knowing when or if I’d ever get out.”

Dione, a mama of four who we bailed out this year, was languishing in a cage for over a month because she couldn’t afford a $500 bail. 

www.nationalbailout.org/ourmamas/dione