Orange County Is Taking Steps to Make Its Criminal Justice System More Equitable
Orange County Courthouse in Hillsborough
Cash bail, whereby prisoners have to fork up money, pretrial, to buy their temporary freedom is a concept as old as the most rudimentary of justice systems. But only recently in the United States have we come to seriously scrutinize a system that has racism baked into it at every level.Â
In the weeks following George Floydâs murder and the beginning of Black Lives Matter protests, Governor Roy Cooper created the Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice. The task force, which included Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall, submitted to the governor in December more than 100 recommendations to make the justice system more equitable, including one to eliminate cash bail for certain low-level charges.