How We Do It

Spending just a few days in jail can result in the loss of housing, jobs, and even custody of children. We recognize that cash bail criminalizes poverty, thus perpetuating inequities in the justice system that disproportionately impact Black people.

We enable our people to return home to their families and communities while awaiting their court dates by providing bail assistance to individuals deemed eligible for release before trial contingent on paying bail. We post bail regardless of charge and/or court history.

Connect → Bail → Court Reminders → Advocacy and Support/Participatory Defense

Who We Are

FAAM is a Black and Queer-led collective – consisting of carceral state abolitionists and intersectional feminists challenging mass incarceration. FAAM is a growing abolitionist, radical Queer Black Feminist bail formation that offers bail support, stabilization and case management, political education and a myriad of other services we believe are deeply necessary to our communities and our movement writ large. We are uniquely positioned to impact mass incarceration and the penal system that reproduces injustice. Our work inherently interrogates and defies the assumption that punishment and incarceration can serve as a path to communal safety – we prioritize the needs of those most likely impacted by state-sanctioned violence and abandonment during crises. If there’s one thing that has remained true throughout FAAM’s history, it is that with greater investment from the community, our ability to directly change lives and expand freedoms is only amplified – building power through organizing and expanding care & safety through bail, we are FAAM.

Our Work Together

Our strategy is to remove as many people as possible from cages, providing them with healing, legal, and mutual aid in sustainable life-affirming ways. FAAM creates opportunities for stabilization by providing housing and economic empowerment programs in collaboration with our partners. We radicalize community members into this work via political education and experiential learning. And we step into alternative futures by building alternative business and institutions for with our people.

Progressing through 2023, we have bailed out 28 Black mothers and a total 34 Black people from Atlanta area jails. Additionally, we are nurturing partnerships while establishing new ones. Lastly, we launched our stable house, providing a living space for recently freed people struggling with housing insecurity. We also worked with our partner Barred Business to ensure that Atlanta added Justice impacted individuals, our base, to the list of protected classes as part of the Protected Campaign.

Much of the success of our work is based on how many folks we can free. FAAM is unique in that we don’t pay bond, which we view as another carceral system trapping Black people and poor people. Because we pay full bail to set folks free, our work is often expensive. We seek to free at least twenty people a year while providing the resources necessary to reduce recidivism. This means assessing the needs of our folks, providing immediate aftercare, 90 day social support, and connecting them to an organizing community to support them. 80% of people in Atlanta’s jails have not been found guilty of anything. If we bail out 20 folks annually who do not recidivate within five years, we will consider our program a success.

Our Plans for the Year

The future of the Free Atlanta Abolition Movement is one that builds out life affirming economies and institutions for those that need them most. Collectively, we have dreamed of being able to offer returning citizens grants to open up cooperative businesses and form partnerships with employers for job placement. We see clearly a world in which formerly incarcerated folks become incorporated into the support network of the bail fund, ensuring that Black people are in good hands upon release. We have discussed using funds to create healing circles, partnering with Black therapists and healers who are dedicated to social justice. Though we are a revolving bail fund, we additionally hope to execute mass bail-outs around holidays and other significant events, returning groups of Black people to their families and communities.

We also plan to host six political education workshops centering around abolition over the course of the year. Help us to sustainably work to abolish the carceral system, to support Black communities, and to liberate Black people globally as we seek to continue the work of our abolitionist ancestors.

Abolition is about presence, not absence. It’s about building life-affirming institutions. – Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Free Atlanta Abolition Movement

By Organization for Human Rights and Democracy

Free Atlanta Abolition Movement

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