Pretrial decisions Should be grounded in actual risk, not a person’s access to money
By Danielle Matthias, Director of Policy and Advocacy | April 23, 2026
At Minnesota Freedom Fund, we believe public safety is strongest when pretrial decisions are grounded in actual risk, not a person’s access to money. Moving away from a wealth-based system toward a more intentional, risk-based framework allows courts to make clearer, more consistent determinations about who truly needs to be detained and who can be safely released.
This is why the Intentional Release & Detain bill is important. It puts the focus back on what matters: safety, not whether someone has access to resources. The bill would require courts to clearly justify when detention is necessary, eliminate reliance on financial conditions that distort decision-making, and support outcomes that are both more equitable and more aligned with true public safety.
Through our Court Watch program, we regularly observe first appearance hearings where judges, attorneys, and defendants navigate these decisions in real time. What we consistently see is that many individuals explicitly tell the court they cannot afford the bail, yet financial conditions are still imposed, functioning as a de-facto detention order.
This is why the Intentional Release & Detain bill is important. It puts the focus back on what matters: safety, not whether someone has access to resources.
We also know, based on both national research and our own data, that bail is not applied equitably. Black and Brown individuals are often assigned higher bail amounts than their white counterparts facing similar charges. These disparities reinforce a system where race and wealth intersect to determine who remains jailed pretrial.
Through our work, we know that this reality destabilizes lives and communities in ways that can actually undermine safety, including loss of housing, employment, and critical supports. These disruptions ripple outward, impacting families and entire communities — particularly those already navigating systemic inequities — and ultimately undermines the very safety it claims to protect.
See more about MFF Action’s legislative agenda focusing on Intentional Release and Detain and why it matters below.
Caitlin Guilford joined the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility as an Assistant Director in April 2022. Caitlin previously worked as a Supervising Attorney in the housing and consumer units at Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS) in the St. Paul Office. Before that, she practiced as a Consumer Litigator specializing in foreclosure litigation at Drewes Law, PLLC. Caitlin received her JD from Georgie Washington University Law School and her BA from Cornell University.
Alan Goldfarb
Alan Goldfarb joined the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility as Senior Assistant Director on January 31, 2024. Before joining the OLPR, Alan worked as an Immigration Attorney in private practice for more than 25 years. Alan served as Chair of the Ethics and Professionalism Committee of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Chair of AILA’s Minnesota-Dakotas Chapter, and Chair of the Immigration Law Section of the Minnesota Bar Association.
Alan earned his JD from the University of Minnesota and his BA from Columbia University.
Susan Jorgensen Flores
Susan Jorgensen Flores is the Immigration Attorney for the MN State Board of Public Defense. Prior to joining the Public Defender’s office, Susan Jorgensen Flores worked at The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota for 15 years where she led the Public Defender Project and focused on Deportation Defense. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School. While in law school she was a law clerk at ILCM, Co-Student Director of the University of Minnesota Immigration Law Clinic, and held a teaching specialist position in the Spanish department at the U of MN. Jorgensen Flores has also served as an Adjunct Professor at the Hamline University School of Law Immigration Clinic.
Alicia Granse
Alicia Granse is a Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Minnesota (ACLU-MN), where she facilitates the Criminal Legal Reform and Police Surveillance issue team. Her work focuses on dismantling Minnesota’s system of mass incarceration, addressing racial disparities in the criminal legal system, advocating for alternatives in community safety, and ensuring police transparency and accountability.
Before joining ACLU-MN, Granse worked as a Hennepin County Public Defender. At ACLU-MN, Granse has litigated cases relating to book bans in schools, observer and protester rights, unlawful detention, and excessive force; has drafted numerous amicus briefs across various legal areas; and serves as a public voice for the organization’s work through media appearances and testimony.
Bruce Nestor
Bruce Nestor is a Criminal Defense, Immigration and Civil Rights Attorney in Minneapolis, MN. Bruce is the past President of the National Lawyers Guild (2000-2003), a national bar association of progressive attorneys, law students, and legal workers, founded in 1937 as the first racially integrated bar association in the United States. He is a past President of the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, a member of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, and a member of the Minnesota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. His community work and political organizing focuses on immigrant rights, criminal justice reform, and racial justice.
He has also traveled to Nicaragua, Cuba, Palestine, Arizona, Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Egypt as a member of human rights delegations. He was counsel in State v. Reynua, 807 N.W.2d 473 (Minn. App. 2011)(reversing conviction on grounds that federal I-9 form is not admissible in state prosecution) and Campos v. State, 816 N.W.2d 480 (Minn. 2012)(non-retroactivity of Padilla v. Kentucky). He has successfully obtained post-conviction relief in dozens of cases in Minnesota and regularly consults with criminal defense attorneys regarding the immigration consequences of criminal convictions.
Discover more from Minnesota Freedom Fund
Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.
