Just Facts
Bon AppéSweet believes in liberty and justice, for ALL.
Standing up for what is right, isn’t always easy, but it is always NECESSARY. We have stood on the side of justice since our founding and each of our pints helps to raise awareness of important social issues. Together we can make change for good.
We are the greatest nation in the world, but that doesn’t mean that we can ever stop evolving.
The Facts
Restoration of Voting Rights
When a person is released from prison, they are freed because they have served their debt to society. Why then do we continue to punish them by stripping them of the rights that are held by every citizen?
Creating financial blockades, such as requirements to pay fines, fees or restitution prior to the restoration of voting rights favors the wealthy and prevents millions of every day citizens from exercising one of our most basic rights.
Underfunding Public Defense
Most public defender’s offices are dramatically underfunded and their attorneys overworked. Some attorneys have 19,000 cases in a single year allowing for an average of 7 minutes per client and violating the Constitutional right to adequate defense.
These limitations give a great advantage to prosecutors who often overcharge defendants in order to coerce them into taking a plea instead of going to trial. Some judges punish individuals who choose to exercise their right to a trial with steeper sentences.
Cash Bail
Our Constitution prohibits excessive bail and yet over 412,000 innocent people sit in jail every day, most, because they can’t afford to pay their bail. Excessive bail can cost the incarcerated their livelihood, homes, and children plus costs America $15.26 billion a year.
The money bail system serves only bail bondsman. D.C. has proven that a system that uses public safety and likelihood to return to court as a measurement for release does work.
Decriminalize Drug Addiction
The "war on drugs" has led to the incarceration of millions of Americans with at least a million more incarcerated every year. 68% of drug offenders are re-arrested within 3 years, costing American's millions of dollars annually.
Many of those arrested are drug addicts and punishing them with jail or prison time will not break the addiction, but treatment might. Drug treatment models have been proven effective and will save our nation money