re: Rape suspect among 100s of arrestees freed (N.O.)from jail with help from mayor’s aide

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DeQuan Ayers faces multiple charges at Criminal District Court. When police arrested him in June for distribution of marijuana, they say he had two and half pounds of it on him.

Ayers, though, got out of jail on a $3,500 bond - but he didn’t pay a dime.

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“Someone essentially posted, for a lack of better term, a complimentary bond for this person. My understanding is there is no relationship between the defendant and the person who posted the bond,” says Cannizzaro.

Ayers’ bail order shows Jennifer Schnidman bonded him out. She’s a member of the New Orleans Freedom Fund.

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The New Orleans Freedom Fund is an organization that bonds people out of jail. In Ayer’s case, after the organization bonded him out, he failed to appear in court - twice. The judge issued a warrant for his arrest.

That arrest came Wednesday afternoon, when police say he committed second-degree battery and simple robbery in the French Quarter. Now, Ayers is being held without bond.

“This individual was involved in the French Quarter again. This time it was with a robbery involving a tourist and a felony battery with that tourist,” says Cannizzaro.

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According to the Secretary of State, Cox registered the New Orleans Freedom Fun as a low profit liability company in May of 2017. He’s listed as the manager and member.


Cox is also a member of Mayor Latoya Cantrell’s administration as the director of strategic initiatives.

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Am I missing something? Why is this a thing?

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This is why...and I have to agree. It will be TLDR for most, so skip to the summary if you must and then go straight to the downvote

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Nationwide, more than 60 percent of jail inmates are jailed pretrial; over 30 percent cannot afford to post bail. Black and Hispanic defendants are much more likely to be held on bail than white defendants. [Criminal Justice Policy Program / Harvard Law School]
Often, those being held on bail have simply been accused of low-level offenses. Seventy-five percent of pretrial detainees have been charged with only drug or property crimes. [Criminal Justice Policy Program / Harvard Law School]
Being jailed pretrial has collateral consequences: It leads to people losing their jobs, not being able to care for their children, and losing contact with loved ones. Holding people in jail who do not pose a significant safety risk also exacerbates overcrowding, creates unsafe conditions, and places a huge financial burden on taxpayers. [The Price of Freedom / Human Rights Watch]
A study out of Kentucky found that people who are held because they cannot afford bail are 40 percent more likely to commit another low-level offense. In other words, jailing people who cannot pay bail is criminogenic. [The Hidden Costs of Pretrial Detention]
We also know that people are more likely to be acquitted if they pay bail, in part because they are less likely to take plea deals just to get out of jail. Being released before trial closely correlates with a not-guilty verdict, suggesting that the system is not punishing the most guilty, but rather the people who cannot afford to pay for their release. [The Atlantic / Bouree Lam] [Pretrial Justice Institute]
One study suggests that those people are “over three times more likely to be sentenced to prison” and “over four times more likely to be sentenced to jail” than those who are not detained pretrial. [Criminal Justice Policy Program / Harvard Law School]
Similarly, a study out of Columbia Law School found “significant evidence of a correlation between pretrial detention and both conviction and recidivism.” [The Heavy Costs of High Bail / Arpit Gupta et al.]
Meanwhile, there are costs to taxpayers as well. Incarcerating individuals awaiting trial costs taxpayers $13.6 billion each year. [Prison Policy Initiative]
There are effective, low-cost ways of ensuring that defendants appear at trial, including a simple notification system that reminds people of their court dates. [Court Appearance Notification System: Evaluation Highlights / Multnomah County]

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I was arrested in a bar fight back in 2007 and had to spend the night in jail because some Gump douchbag thought my face needed a slap. It was the night Nick Sabans Alabama team lost to ULM in his first year and we had just beaten Ole Miss and my friends and I stroll into this bar in Mt. Pleasant, SC with our purple and gold on. One of my buddies made a joking comment to the bartender that was wearing a Bama shirt but otherwise we were minding our own business. I go to the bar and order a crown and scanning the bar for ladies and as I turn to my left this skinny little Gump is staring me down, I nod and say "what's up?" and he open hands me across the face! I put him down in about 5 seconds but then his buddies jump me from behind, get me down and start kicking me in the back and head. My 2 buddies finally saw, cleared those d-bags off me and we promptly cleaned house. Point being is cops showed up...everyone points the fingers at everyone else so they load us all up in the paddy wagon and take us to jail. I paid my bail and got out in the morning but one of my buddies sat for a couple days to come up with his. We go to court and the guy that slapped me admitted to starting it and the judge dismissed charges on everyone else and reprimanded the officer for not doing a thorough investigation wasting our and the courts time with people that were just defending themselves.

Moral of the story, I did not deserve to be in jail in the first place and had I been a poor man and unable to afford bail I could have sat there for a couple of months before the court date and meanwhile lost my job, been evicted and then homeless upon being released by the judge for doing nothing wrong. That is the problem with the bail system. Reform is necessary and it is possible sometimes people that are not held may get out and commit another crime. I do not have all the answers but it needs reform and the lobby for the Bail Bond industry is doing all they can to prevent it.