The state of Indiana is facing a lawsuit over a new law placing restrictions on charitable bail funds.

Among other provisions, the law would limit who can be bailed out by the charitable organizations, and attach a $300 certification fee to certain bail groups.

Ken Falk, legal director for the Indiana ACLU, pointed out the new law applies only to charitable bail funds, and not individual citizens or bail bond companies. The Indiana ACLU filed the suit on behalf of the Bail Project, a national nonprofit which helps post bail for folks in jail, and the only large bail fund in Indiana.

"Under Indiana law now, anyone can pay that bill," Falk explained. "Except, there are limitations placed on one entity only, and that's The Bail Project. And for the life of me, I can't figure out why that would be."

Falk argued the new law violates the Bail Project's constitutional right to equal protection under the law and their First Amendment right of "expressive advocacy." Last year, news outlets and Republican lawmakers alleged the project was posting bail for people who later committed violent crimes, allegations largely debunked by an Indianapolis Star investigation.

The new law would bar charitable funds, but not for-profit companies, from posting bail for people charged with a violent crime or anyone who has a prior violent crime conviction and is charged with a felony.

Twyla Carter, national director of legal and policy for The Bail Project, said the number of people the project bails out who later go on to commit violent crimes is very small.

"Anytime you legislate around extreme cases, it can be problematic," Carter noted. "We would just ask people to keep that in context and recognize the full body of our work."

The Star investigation found, since December 2018, three people in Marion County previously bailed out by the nonprofit have since been accused of murder. According to its website, The Bail Project provided support and resources for more than 1,000 Hoosiers during the same time period.

While acknowledging lawmakers should not legislate based on a small minority of cases, Carter said she does not want to downplay the issue of violent crime.

"Certainly we don't deny the tragedies that occurred, certainly those particular cases will work their way through the criminal-legal system just like any other case," Carter pointed out. "But unfortunately what we saw then was the politicization of those particular stories."

The law is tentatively set to go into effect in July, although Falk said the Indiana ACLU has filed for an injunction to block the policy while the case is litigated.

A recent report from the Prison Policy Initiative calls for better state laws to keep incarcerated parents close to their kids. It finds 12 states including New York have measures designed to improve a child's access to incarcerated parents, but not all of these laws have the same protections.

New York has a proximity law, which means there's a maximum distance allowed between a child and an incarcerated parent. While this does make in-person visits more accessible, Wanda Bertram, a communications strategist for the Prison Policy Initiative, noted there are better ways to keep parents and kids together, and said caregiver mitigation laws can be more beneficial to parents facing prison time.

"Caregiver mitigation laws work by creating diversion programs that parents of children can go to instead of prison to serve their sentence," she said, "or, simply by authorizing judges to sentence people to those programs as opposed to prison if they are the primary caregiver of a child."

While these programs can be beneficial, Bertram said, the biggest challenge is ensuring there's sufficient funding for them. Lawmakers in Washington debated The FAMILIES Act in 2020 and 2021, which aimed to create a federal diversion program, but it failed to advance out of committee.

A 2022 report from The Sentencing Project found that 2.7 million American children have a parent in prison. Almost twice as many have had a parent incarcerated at some point in their lives. Outside of more funding for diversion programs, Bertram said community investments are needed to keep parents from ever being incarcerated in the first place.

"We need to invest heavily in the communities that are the most incarcerated communities in this state, and just make sure that parents don't get caught up in this system in the first place," she said, "because prison is not the answer for families that are being torn apart."

Bertram added that New York's geography can make its proximity law hard to enforce. The report from the Prison Policy Initiative showed that about 41% of prisoners in the state are from New York City. But most of the state's prisons are in Upstate New York, meaning parents and kids are separated by more miles than is ideal.

A large percentage of Missourians who could to have their criminal records "expunged" have not done so, despite the effects expungement -- referred to as "clean slate" -- can have on earnings and opportunities.

Missouri House Bill 352 would make the expungement process automatic for eligible individuals.

Lindsey Baker, research director for the Missouri Budget Project, stressed expungement already exists, and making it automatic would not change the type of qualified offenses.

"Folks who are eligible, for the most part, are going to be folks with lower-level, nonviolent offenses," Baker pointed out. "Violent crimes, higher level offenses, are not eligible for expungement."

Baker explained once records are expunged, they do not appear on public records but are still available to law enforcement.

Research shows the average annual wage increase for those who have their record expunged is more than $4,000. A Missouri Budget Project report estimates this could lead to an additional $2.9 billion in economic activity for the state.

Opponents believe potential employers and others have the right to know a person's criminal history, and some fear it increases the chance a person will commit another crime. Currently, 10 states have clean-slate laws in place, including Oklahoma, and others have legislation pending.

Baker noted many individuals whose records are not expunged struggle to get hired at all, leading to high rates of unemployment.

"For those who are able to secure employment, often they're prevented from reaching their full earning potential because they may only be able to get hired in those fields with lower wages and lower benefits," Baker emphasized.

The Missouri Budget Project's report showed the percentage Missourians' wages would increase after expungement would vary, with women experiencing the highest increase of roughly 30%, compared with 17% for men. For Black Missourians, the increase would be an estimated 25%, compared with 18% for white Missourians.

Baker added the 2022 changes in the state's marijuana laws contribute to it being the perfect time for enacting Clean Slate.

"What really makes sense about this is that we already are putting together an automatic expungement system for marijuana here in Missouri," Baker remarked. "The courts are already going to have to do this."

In 2021, more than 500,000 Missourians were eligible to have their records expunged, but fewer than 1% of them did so. House Bill 352 was introduced by Rep. Phil Christofanelli, R-St. Peters.

California will soon become the first state in the nation to offer health insurance to income-eligible individuals who are incarcerated - starting 90 days prior to their release. The feds just agreed to match funds spent on Medi-Cal or CHIP for people leaving jail, prison or juvenile correctional facilities.

Hagar Dickman, senior attorney at the nonprofit Justice in Aging, said it is in everyone's interest to set justice-involved people up for success.

"The idea is to ensure that people are connected with services prior to their release, and individuals with mental-health needs and substance-abuse disorder also can have their medication given to them prior to the release," Dickman said.

Previously the feds would only reimburse the state's Medi-Cal expenses for people upon their release. In addition, the state passed a law last fall put people's Medi-Cal into suspension instead of terminating it while incarcerated. Now their status will be reactivated without them having to reapply.

This is not just a health initiative, it's an equity initiative - since a disproportionate number of people of color face incarceration, Dickman said. And it puts people on stronger footing as they re-enter society.

"This is really an important way to combat the significant effects of mental illness, mental health issues, and substance abuse in the jails particularly in light of both high rates of homelessness and also suicide and overdose as people are released," she said.

The move is part of the larger project called Cal AIM
which will modernize Medi-Cal - and allow it to cover things like housing supports, since secure housing is considered a social determinant of health.