Poor people often can’t afford to pay bail — even when they’re innocent. An app developed in Chicago offers help using your spare change

Poor people often can’t afford to pay bail — even when they’re innocent. An app developed in Chicago offers help using your spare change
Chicago Tribune by Darcel Rockett
3/7/19

Devoureaux Wolf was getting a ride home with friends in the spring of 2016 when they were pulled over by police for not wearing seat belts. A friend in the front seat recorded on a cellphone as Wolf was taken out of the car and wrestled to the ground by the officers. Wolf was charged with three counts of aggravated battery to an officer and two counts of resisting arrest.
“I wound up getting assaulted by an officer, and somehow I end up getting charged for assaulting him,” Wolf says in a promotional video for the Chicago Community Bond Fund (CCBF), which also shows cellphone clips from the incident. The nonprofit pays bail for imprisoned people in Cook County.
Wolf, now 27, spent 3 ½ months in Cook County Jail because he couldn’t come up with 10 percent of his $30,000 bond. He eventually came across CCBF’s phone number and, within a week of his mother calling the organization, was released.

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