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It started in 2019 with a PayPal link and less than $5,000. It’s grown into the only community bail fund in the Pittsburgh region.
Bukit Bail Fund supports people held for trial at the Allegheny County Jail by posting bail at no cost to the defendants. Like similar efforts across the country, the fund’s organizers say their work is a way to address injustices in the criminal justice system.
"Being an abolitionist organization means being care-oriented when it comes to harm,” said Eli Namay, a volunteer with Bukit. “These institutions [jails and prisons] attempt to prevent us from organizing for a truly democratic, egalitarian society. This is why it is imperative we take bail fund and prisoner support work seriously, not only to reduce harm in the immediate term, but as part of a larger movement ecology aimed at growing a world based on care for both people and planet."
Unlike companies that specialize in posting bail for people, Bukit doesn’t assess the risk of a person failing to show up for their court date. If a judge deems a person is eligible for bail, Bukit bails people out of jail as funds are available, on a first-come, first-served basis through a revolving fund that’s replenished when people make their court dates.
“We're not in a position to make those evaluations,” said Edwin Everhart, a volunteer with Bukit. “We're not interested in making those evaluations.”
The purpose of cash bail is to secure someone’s release from jail and to serve as the security someone puts forward to encourage their return to court. Just one state — Illinois — has eliminated cash bail, though some other states are curtailing its use.
Grassroots bail funds have emerged in recent years as an alternative to for-profit companies, which charge people a nonrefundable fee – a percentage of the bail – in return for assuring they appear in court at the appointed time.
Unlike companies, bail funds often operate through community donations, sometimes as nonprofit organizations, and sometimes, like Bukit, as a collective of like-minded residents. While the groups are decentralized, the National Bail Fund Network lists more than 50 such funds throughout the country.
University of Pittsburgh law professor David Harris said when people are detained pretrial, they can lose employment, a place to live, and even access to their children. Due to these concerns, people who cannot afford bail sometimes plead guilty to charges which they otherwise wouldn’t “because that’s the only way to get out right away.”
“So they build up a criminal history sometimes for things they did not do, just because otherwise they're going to be held because they don't have the bail money,” Harris said.
Across the country, funds like Bukit have been the subject of both praise and criticism. In Georgia, a federal judge blocked part of a law that would make it impractical for community-based bail funds to operate. A measure that could have made it difficult for bail funds to operate in Pennsylvania was proposed in 2021, but never made it to a vote.
Community-driven funds have been the target of criticism for bailing out people who may present a danger to the public. The Minnesota Freedom Fund, for example, came under fire in 2021 for bailing out a man arrested on a domestic violence charge, who then was charged in a fatal road rage shooting.
Of the 31 cases that Bukit Bail Fund supported from July to December 2024, 23 people made their court dates and eight did not, according to information provided by Bukit. The information they provided showed that most bail amounts ranged from $100 to $5,000.
Sarah Linder Marx, senior deputy director of public outreach and staff development at the Allegheny County Public Defender’s office, said cash bail is a “complicated and divisive topic,” partially because the way it is used varies.
“It depends on the magisterial district justice who sets bail, so it can vary wildly,” she said. “Cases that are violent may have a cash bail or not.”
In Pennsylvania, judges can consider factors such as the defendant’s employment status, criminal history, community ties, and estimated risk of not returning to court. In some cases, judges determine that a defendant is not eligible for bail.
Magisterial district judges are guided by the Rules of Criminal Procedure criteria, said Joseph J. Asturi, director of government affairs-media relations for the Fifth Judicial District of Pennsylvania.
Asturi said he was not aware of how many, if any, Allegheny County magistrates choose not to use cash bail. At least one, Xander Orenstein, has operated without setting cash bail.
Defendants or families can pay bail, but when those resources aren’t available it often falls to companies that assess the risks before they write a check.
The American Bail Coalition is a trade association made up of bail insurance companies; the organization also includes bail agent members. Insurance companies underwrite the financial guarantees made by the bail bondsman, said Jeff Clayton, executive director.
“So if I'm your bail bondsman, you call me and I decide whether I want to post your bond or not,” Clayton said. “The role of insurance companies is to decide whether to underwrite the amount that the bondsman is posting for you.”
Within the industry, companies usually evaluate who the co-signer is as well as the defendant’s background and criminal record before they decide to make a contract with them, Clayton said. The most important factor is whether there is a prior record of failure to appear in court, he said.
Grassroots bail funds do not charge nonrefundable fees or do background checks on the people they bail out, unlike bondsmen and bail bonds companies.
Bukit Bail Fund’s work was inspired by a man who died in 2015, less than 48 hours after he arrived at the Allegheny County Jail.
Smart, known to friends as “Bukit” died Jan. 5 after being deprived of his anti-seizure medication and, during a resulting seizure, being restrained by corrections officers in the jail, according to a July 2017 report by federal Magistrate Judge Cynthia Reed Eddy. Allegheny County paid $950,000 to settle the lawsuit filed by Smart’s family.
His mother, Tomi Harris, started the Bukit Bail Fund along with her son’s friends and community residents.
“If he could’ve made bail, he wouldn’t have died there,” said Harris, of Verona. “He would still be here.”
Though Harris is no longer directly involved in the fund’s day-to-day operations, she supports the group’s mission.
Milica Bogetic joined the group shortly after the bail fund was formed and helped the group start posting bond.
Bogetic, who worked as a criminal defense investigator at the state and federal level for about a decade, said she saw firsthand how bail can be a “major limitation” on the outcomes of people’s cases.
“The outcomes of the folks who are outside fighting their cases from their community is so much better,” Bogetic said. In her experience, she said that "if everyone was out [of jail] fighting their cases, there would be a lot more equity in the results and dispositions of cases.”
Bogetic partially attributes these results to the difficulty detained people have communicating from inside a jail. The lockup isn’t the best place to review sensitive legal documents, she said.
If incarcerated persons want to participate in planning their defense, their options are limited to in-person visits contingent on the availability of their lawyer, talking by phone, and talking on video calls through the inmate tablets, Bogetic said.
“If you’re out in the community, it’s a world of difference. You can help with your own investigation, with your own defense, you can meet meaningfully,” Bogetic said.
Linder Marx said a lot of digital evidence, including videos, have “certain security restrictions” that lawyers must follow when they go into jails or prisons.
“It does take more work to get digital evidence to a client, and oftentimes they're not able to view it without us there with our equipment that's been pre-approved,” Linder Marx said.
If the client is out of jail, they can also bring an “eyewitness or supportive family member” to help their lawyers “get really useful information that we otherwise wouldn't be able to review and share,” Linder Marx said.
David Harris, the Pitt professor, said the cash bail system continues to be used because some people in the system like this tool.
“There are people who want to have the ability to hold people inside in pre-trial confinement, because they see that as a way to force a plea bargain out of somebody,” Harris said. “They see this as a way to protect the community, even though there are other ways that can be done that are just as effective for police and prosecutors.”
While Bukit grew using online donations, it no longer accepts funds that way. Today, Bukit organizers use money from a fund that is replenished when people make their court dates, to assist other people eligible for bail. They are also able to accept donations via checks.
