Minnesota Freedom Fund switches focus from cash bail to policy
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A nonprofit that seeks to end cash bail in Minnesota said Wednesday that it’ll no longer post bail for people who are in pretrial detention. The Minnesota Freedom Fund said it’s shifting its focus from helping individual clients to education and legislative advocacy.
A University of Minnesota graduate student started the nonprofit in 2016 in an effort to reduce inequities between low-income defendants and those who have the financial means to post bail or contract with a bail bondsman.
Freedom Fund spokesperson Noble Frank said in a phone interview with MPR News that the change is both a fiscal and philosophical decision.
“For every person whose release we facilitate, another person is arrested and booked into that same cell without a fundamental change in the pretrial system,” Frank said. “And so on a fundamental level, that is not a model that is infinitely sustainable.”
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During the unrest that followed George Floyd’s murder in 2020, the Freedom Fund got a large influx of donations. Tax records from that year show nearly $42 million in contributions, but donations later leveled off.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, the Freedom Fund was the target of attacks from surrogates for President Donald Trump, who pointed to a 2020 tweet in which Vice President Kamala Harris expressed support for the group. Republicans accused Harris of helping to release violent criminals.
While the Freedom Fund did bond out two people who went on to commit murder, the group posted bond for the two only for low level charges that prosecutors filed prior to the homicides. The Freedom Fund never posted bond in the subsequent murder cases.
Frank said that politics were not a factor in the decision to move away from providing cash bail to defendants. They said the group’s goal remains getting rid of Minnesota’s cash bail system.
“We are going to reinvest the resources that we have towards community education, towards advocacy and towards legislative change in the areas of pretrial bail and immigration.”
Bond is meant to ensure that a defendant shows up for subsequent court hearings following their initial appearance. Failure to appear typically results in the forfeiture of those funds. Frank said forfeitures make up a significant portion of the nonprofit’s expenses.
While the Freedom Fund opposes cash bail, it is not seeking to eliminate pretrial detention. Frank said they’re advocating for a system in Minnesota that’s similar to what the federal judiciary and states such as Illinois use. Illinois eliminated cash bail in 2023, and its use in the federal system is rare.
In those courts, judges decide whether to detain or release defendants based on factors such as their potential threat to public safety or whether they pose a flight risk. Federal prosecutors in Minnesota typically do not seek pretrial detention for defendants unless they’re charged with a violent crime.
