2021 in Review: Pre-Trial Bail Data Report
Each year in Minnesota, approximately 69,000 different people are booked into county jails.
Statewide, about 60% (or 41,500 people) are presumed innocent and awaiting trial, jailed simply because they can't pay their bail. A 2018 “one-day snapshot” study found that 88% of people in the Hennepin Co. Jail could not afford bail.
A Racist, Wealth-Based System
Since our founding in 2016, we've challenged the deep racial disparities in the pre-trial system by focusing our resources on the people the cash bail system hurts most — poor, Black, brown, and Indigenous people.
Data on racial makeup of state population and statewide incarceration data from Vera Institute; data on Hennepin Co. cases from the Hennepin Co. Attorney Dashboard.
Public data reflecting the statewide jail population, particularly disaggregated by race, is not made available in Minnesota, making it impossible to present complete data at either the state or (in many cases) the county level. Gaps in data shown above (i.e. where data columns do not add up to 100%) represent instances where the number and race of people jailed pre-trial is unreported.
Black people account for 80% of police stops and searches in Minneapolis; are 8.7 times more likely to be arrested for low-level offenses; are assigned bail amounts as much as double those of white defendants with similar charges, and — because of all these factors — are at least 25% more likely to be jailed pre-trial in large urban areas.
It's not race alone, however, that explains these disparities. Because the pre-trial system specifically targets and exploits poor people, people jailed pre-trial are poorer than their peers who are not in jail, and poorer even than similarly situated people in prisons.
On top of that, Minnesota has one of the worst racial wealth gaps in the nation. That means a Black or brown defendant would likely struggle to afford bail even if assigned the same bail amount as a white defendant. In reality, bail amounts assigned to Black defendants are much higher compared to white defendants.
Data on income of people in jails from Prison Policy Inst.; Data on per capita income by race from Career Force.
MFF does not collect economic data on its clients, and statewide data on the incomes of people incarcerated pre-trial is not available. But using public data and internal, we compared the average bail requested from MFF to median individual income levels.
In 2021, the average bail request we received from Black defendants was $76,816 — nearly twice the average request we received from white people and, breathtakingly, 7.5 times the national median income of Black people in jail who cannot afford their bail amounts.
Supporting Women & LGBTQ+ Clients
The population of women in Minnesota jails rose from 2.5% in 1970 to 13% in 2015, making women the fastest growing jail population in Minnesota. Because women are often caretakers, jailing women pre-trial often results in family separations, regardless of guilt or innocence. Even when women are not jailed themselves, their gendered role as caretakers makes them more likely to bear economic burdens associated with the pre-trial system.
MFF also prioritizes aid for trans and non-binary people, who face high rates of harassment and assault, lack of access to healthcare, and long periods in solitary confinement.
Charge Level & Charge Type
In a single day "snapshot" study conducted in Hennepin Co. in 2018, 88% of people in Hennepin Co. Jail reported being unable to pay their bail.
At least 70% were charged with non-violent offenses, including non-violent felonies like drug possession, theft, and criminal property damage.
Half of all charges MFF paid in 2021 were misdemeanors (including gross and petty misdemeanors), and the most common charges we paid were protest-related.
The total amount of bail paid for protest-related charges in 2021 was nearly $700,000 with an average bail of $3,839. Forty-three percent of protest-related bails paid in 2021 were paid in Hubbard Co. for Line 3 water protectors.
While MFF does not make bail decisions based solely on charge, we have a strong commitment to supporting individuals arrested and jailed during protest activities.
Case Outcomes
In 2019, 97% of felony convictions in Minnesota were achieved via guilty plea. Those numbers reflect the reality of "coercive plea bargaining," which allows prosecutors to use coercive tools – including pre-trial jailing – to pressure people into unfavorable plea deals, regardless of their guilt or innocence.
People who are released pre-trial, especially those who work with our Post-Release Program to access services like housing, employment, and mental healthcare, are less vulnerable to coercive pleas and better positioned to fight the charges against them.
In 2021, 58% of charges brought against MFF clients were dismissed, and 34% of people MFF helped release had the entire case against them dropped. In the same year, 16.1% of cases against Hennepin Co. defendants were dismissed, and an additional 16.4% of cases were dismissed when defendants pleaded guilty in other cases.
Conclusion
2021 saw many internal changes at MFF, including the hiring of new co-executive directors, a big increase in the number of staff, and the establishment of new areas of work like our Post-Release Program. We are growing into an organization with the power to not only mitigate the harms of cash bail — but to eliminate pre-trial detention.
Our goal is to put ourselves out of business, and we look forward to the day when the work documented in this report is no longer necessary.