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The US is addicted to incarceration. Here’s how to break the cycle | Robin Steinberg

Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. Nearly half a million people in the US are in jail right now without being convicted of a crime, simply because they can’t come up with the money to pay cash bail. To try and fix this system, public…

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Nearly half a million people in the US are in jail right now without being convicted of a crime, simply because they can’t come up with the money to pay cash bail. To try and fix this system, public defender and activist Robin Steinberg asked a straightforward question: What if we paid bail for them? In conversation with TED Radio Hour host Manoush Zomorodi, Steinberg shares how her nonprofit The Bail Project — which uses a revolving fund to post bail for those who can’t afford it — is scaling up their efforts across the country and rolling out a new community-based model to fight mass incarceration. (This ambitious plan is part of the Audacious Project, TED’s initiative to inspire and fund global change.)

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73 Comments

73 Comments

  1. neo8378

    June 1, 2020 at 6:17 pm

    how about, OBEY THE LAW in the first place?

    • chiefRaho

      June 1, 2020 at 6:42 pm

      🤫

  2. thegenie

    June 1, 2020 at 6:27 pm

    More like this

  3. mrs unbreakable

    June 1, 2020 at 6:38 pm

    It’s modern day slavery the system always try to find away to keep people down. It’s sickening and just to make money all the poor. They claim their lazy, poor and unworthy but the y build wealth off of them.

  4. Hussam Itani

    June 1, 2020 at 6:57 pm

    US is doomed. I feel really bad for them. A lot of things are going wrong. Very wrong

  5. Melo Tube

    June 1, 2020 at 7:05 pm

    Beautiful! As she said, educate yourself, teach your kid to be good person

    • Sownheard

      June 1, 2020 at 7:58 pm

      Teach not tech

    • André Marinho

      June 1, 2020 at 9:12 pm

      What does it mean to be good?

  6. Pape Ndiaye DIOUF

    June 1, 2020 at 7:26 pm

    I’m really disappointed that she didn’t address the root cause of this whole “incarceration addiction” : for profit private prisons.
    As long as jailing somebody is profitable there is not a single chance to witness change in the forseeable future.
    Private prisons are the ones lobbying in Congress for harsher criminal statutes and negotiating really expensive penalties in case a 90% + rate of cell’s occupation isn’t reached.
    Stop treating symptoms, focus on the illness.
    Good luck anyway, at least she’s working for change.

    • John Thiris

      June 1, 2020 at 8:11 pm

      did you know american interests also own and make a profit from immigration detention centres in australia?
      it is a ridiculous state of affairs and nobody talks about it
      surely arrangements like this undermine the authenticity of the political debate on the legitimacy of refugee detention

  7. ChiefGunny

    June 1, 2020 at 7:28 pm

    I 100% agree that the system is broken but this isn’t gonna work. We already see that since this was applied crime is up 17% It should completely depend on the crime. Obviously it does but, they got it wrong. You steal a car your back out on the street to steal another within the day and the stats show this to be true.

  8. James James

    June 1, 2020 at 7:33 pm

    Here’s how.

    *Stop breaking the law*

    • Giorgi Zeikidze

      June 1, 2020 at 9:00 pm

      You have nerve to say everyone who goes to court is criminal, just how low is your intelligence

    • James James

      June 1, 2020 at 9:04 pm

      @Giorgi Zeikidze the fact you replied to a comment that was posted for laughs just shows how low your IQ is

  9. ROBERTO OROZCO

    June 1, 2020 at 7:35 pm

    I’m ashamed. Two cis gendered white women shouldn’t be on that stage talking about this. It should be a trans black women who are probably disabled. I’m outraged.

  10. Economics-vs-Nature

    June 1, 2020 at 7:55 pm

    Incarceration?…camon Ted….Lets talk about Goverments failing population and suporting Big Companys instead?…MONEY IS THE PROBLEM.

  11. Sownheard

    June 1, 2020 at 7:59 pm

    For profit prison system.

  12. Devin Stevens

    June 1, 2020 at 8:20 pm

    For the people who really are criminals and rapists and scum of the earth in jail, do they deserve any kind of good living conditions in a jail or anywhere else? I agree we don’t need to keep minor offense charges under a bail they can’t pay, i think bail should be based on a percentage of what the person earns, and it should be a stinging blow of a percentage to incentivize them to not want to try to get away with it again, but I hope this won’t lead to blanketing the whole thing where we’re bailing out people with offensive records and serious crimes.

  13. Bob Frog

    June 1, 2020 at 8:49 pm

    Same Leftist noise I have heard all my like. NO THANKS!

  14. Mr. Direction

    June 1, 2020 at 9:01 pm

    77 prosecutors watched this video and didn’t like what she stood for.

  15. Zenn Exile

    June 1, 2020 at 9:14 pm

    Poverty and forProfit Justice are cornerstones of the American Dream. The rich can’t stay rich without impoverished people to manipulate and exploit. And those impoverished people won’t conform to social standards and work unless there’s a threat of incarceration. Imagine actually having to pay living wages to poor people. The hedge fund economy would collapse. Much easier to trap them in a cycle of poverty and prison terms than it is to just end poverty. I mean we can absolutely afford to permanently end poverty in this country, and it would be cheaper over the long run. But, rich people won’t be able to get richer if they end poverty. Back to that catch 22.

  16. Help Me Reach 1,000 Subs Without Videos

    June 1, 2020 at 9:19 pm

    This is a hard vote. I’m 14 and it sounds like homework 😂

  17. Wood Work

    June 1, 2020 at 9:21 pm

    Trenches loll bs

  18. Bothand Nether

    June 1, 2020 at 9:27 pm

    This commercial was brought to you by the prison industrial complex

  19. MostlyLoveOfMusic

    June 1, 2020 at 9:51 pm

    End the war on drugs, legalise them, tax them, free non-violent drug prisoners, simple

  20. RhythmOfHeaven

    June 1, 2020 at 9:58 pm

    So, do you guys at Tedx not have coronavirus or social distancing?

  21. moose boy

    June 1, 2020 at 10:38 pm

    It’s a manufacturing labor force that states use to recoup the cost of incarceration.
    In most cases it’s the only opportunity to have cash for commissary goods. Very minimal wages, $1.00 a day.
    State hospital I worked at did the same thing, wood and ceramics shops, gave patients an opportunity to earn real money, and offset the cost of care. State hospitals are all closed now and those patients are now the homeless.

  22. moose boy

    June 1, 2020 at 10:43 pm

    The 13th Amendment states that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”[

    • moose boy

      June 1, 2020 at 10:43 pm

      That’s why racism exist.

  23. Sogol Naishaboori

    June 2, 2020 at 12:04 am

    👍👏

  24. Lisa Love Ministries

    June 2, 2020 at 12:10 am

    Develop a personal relationship with Christ our LORD and Savior. 🌍
    Ephesians 6:12 John 14:6

  25. Belial

    June 2, 2020 at 12:19 am

    Not the time TED, not the time…

  26. Kialessa Sunstrider

    June 2, 2020 at 1:31 am

    The rich shouldn’t be able to wait for their day in court safely at home while the poor have to wait in a holding cell while surrounded by those who hate them. We have the right to a “SPEEDY” trial, and yet, we sit in jail for weeks awaiting trials that may even just throw out our cases. America is not the land of the free until the cash bail system is properly reformed.

  27. Kripton Man

    June 2, 2020 at 1:34 am

    US is addicted to racism, actually

  28. Mr. D

    June 2, 2020 at 2:02 am

    do not interrupt your guest

  29. asmacarthur

    June 2, 2020 at 4:06 am

    Physical punishment instead?

  30. khawla Al Hafiz

    June 2, 2020 at 5:46 am

    It’s really a good initiative to help people to pay their billout, poverty it’s a real challenge to countries and communities activists as well. Because if you not put a real solution to mitigated of it you will end up in a poor country because its majority are poor people.
    All community should help and government also not in US only but everywhere helping and social backed is a magical key solution for poverty problems around the world.

  31. ST7A Bad Karma

    June 2, 2020 at 6:42 am

    Bleeding heart liberal garbage. Stop coddling criminals. Do the crime you do the time. It’s called being held accountable for one’s actions. It’s this type of bleeding heart passivity that’s leading to the anarchy and lawlessness that’s destroying inner cities that are lead by Liberal lunatics.

    • Trainable Monkey

      June 2, 2020 at 4:58 pm

      This is about people who may be innocent. If you think all people who fail to make bail are guilty than get rid of all the courts and public defenders. Might as well become a true police state…

  32. Hammer Ology

    June 2, 2020 at 6:43 am

    #1. Stop breaking the law.
    #2. See number one!

    • Geom 30

      June 2, 2020 at 8:05 am

      Facts

    • Andrew Cisneros

      June 3, 2020 at 12:39 am

      say that to the children who were raised with neglectful parents or under foster care who were misguided and had to face life at n early age.

  33. Rekurzion

    June 2, 2020 at 8:51 am

    Maybe joe Biden can help with our mass incarceration probl… oh wait

  34. Shang Hong Tan

    June 2, 2020 at 9:19 am

    I think the base of this problem should be address where the problem doesnt lies in bailing and this system is very likely to abused by the ones with power and wealth

  35. Ms.Docileone

    June 2, 2020 at 10:19 am

    when i had just become a teen my father took me to the local police station and had the officers put me in jail because my uncle (his brother) gave me marijuana, i was not arrested, i was underage, i was put in a cell next to an adult twice my size – what does this program do for people in this situation?

  36. อรทัย ลาภยืนยง

    June 2, 2020 at 10:28 am

    it in across ud2

  37. อรทัย ลาภยืนยง

    June 2, 2020 at 10:29 am

    TV true bad QQ which use

  38. อรทัย ลาภยืนยง

    June 2, 2020 at 10:33 am

    my panyaไทย

  39. อรทัย ลาภยืนยง

    June 2, 2020 at 10:33 am

    ใครใชเเบอ์กูเกิ้ลซิม

  40. Dani Vasquez

    June 2, 2020 at 12:17 pm

    I was pretty supportive about this talk until she said that women were disproportionately targeted by the criminal justice lol. Disproportionately targeted by getting 30% of a man’s sentence at club fed

  41. Kingofmphs

    June 2, 2020 at 1:01 pm

    Screams liberal BS in the first 30 seconds! 😂

  42. Bradley S

    June 2, 2020 at 3:50 pm

    NO!!!….America is addicted to CRIME!!….step outside in any big city, and WATCH!!….MORE prisons please!!

    • Talia Shadroui

      June 3, 2020 at 6:20 pm

      As a society, shouldn’t we work on addressing the factors that put individuals more at risk of committing crimes? Such as drug addiction? And poverty? Sending people to prisons doesn’t solve these problems so crime is likely to continue to happen.

    • Seth Jacoby

      June 7, 2020 at 1:52 pm

      How about more psychologist rather than more prison guards

  43. Robert Zawasky

    June 2, 2020 at 6:13 pm

    It makes me sick to think, people who’ve committed victimless crimes, who’s motivation for said crime, was simply to provide for there family’s. Lives are destroyed, for the sake of privatized prison profits.

    • Arcux

      June 3, 2020 at 7:09 pm

      What is a “victimless crime”?

    • Daniel Hertzler

      June 6, 2020 at 12:01 am

      Yeah, thats a VERY small minority of cases I’d imagine though. Most people getting locked up aren’t out here like Robin Hood with some altruistic motivation for their crimes.

  44. Tulio Muñoz

    June 2, 2020 at 6:49 pm

    Brilliant.

  45. Jobert Ding

    June 3, 2020 at 1:23 am

    Good conversation

  46. James L

    June 3, 2020 at 1:30 am

    Not completely new. Vera Institute of Justice did something like this in the early 90’s. I worked there as a bail enforcement person then. She is right though, making bail is a big deal.

  47. badr the best

    June 3, 2020 at 3:17 am

    I like this conversation ♥👌

  48. roshiron 18

    June 3, 2020 at 5:59 am

    13:44 are there only women in the audience?

  49. Mohammad Zakria

    June 3, 2020 at 5:59 am

  50. Youtube Nonsense

    June 3, 2020 at 1:37 pm

    she should not have hosted this… as someone who previously worked in podcasting, that was uncomfortable. she was not prepared nor fully understood the wight of the topic.

  51. Manay Shah

    June 4, 2020 at 9:19 am

    Superb!

  52. Noddy

    June 4, 2020 at 3:12 pm

    It’s all about the money back to the origin hence that’s the reason there are lot of crimes in US🤨

  53. Telley Jay

    June 4, 2020 at 7:03 pm

    Wow!!! I just love this!!!

  54. Telley Jay

    June 4, 2020 at 7:04 pm

    Kalief Browder!!!

  55. Lolop Callulu

    June 5, 2020 at 2:59 am

    She snapped

  56. Adan Mora

    June 7, 2020 at 1:19 am

    Or people can stop being criminals 🤷🏻‍♂️ crazy concept, I know

    • Seth Jacoby

      June 7, 2020 at 1:51 pm

      Imagine if more people could put that bad energy to good purpose

  57. Jay Powell

    June 7, 2020 at 11:11 am

    Awesome!! Thank you!

  58. THG Business & Ecommerce

    June 7, 2020 at 4:06 pm

    in principle people should be innocent until proven guilty, but some people awaiting trial should not be free at all. so it is a difficult issue, but i think anyone that is not involved in serious violent or dangerous cases should be allowed to be free until they are potentially found guilty

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