In Fulton County, bail fund organizers are on the front lines in the fight to prevent the further expansion of pretrial detention in the face of federal and state intervention.

The Bail Project, a national organization that currently works in 11 jurisdictions across the country, posts bail for 20 to 40 people in Fulton County each month through its four-person Atlanta operation.

Anyone can reach out through The Bail Project’s help form to find out if they or the incarcerated person they know is eligible for its services. The organization never asks for the bail to be paid back, and the charge the person is being held on does not impact their eligibility. However, a person with other outstanding warrants may not be eligible because The Bail Project prioritizes getting people released from jail.

Since coming to Atlanta in September 2020, The Bail Project has posted $5.2 million in bail. In the most recent fiscal year from July 2024 to June 2025, it posted approximately $585,000 in bail in Fulton County alone, with 86% of the group’s clients identifying as Black.

“I think a lot of times, people don’t understand that the system is just unequal,” Angela Wright, an Atlanta-based client support specialist with The Bail Project, told Capital B Atlanta. 

“So if you’re wealthy and you commit a horrendous crime, you’re able to get out because you can pay your way out, whereas if you’re poor and you don’t have the money, but it’s a low offense crime, then you’re stuck staying in jail until — God knows when — until your court date comes.”

As the push from “tough-on-crime” politicians to prevent low-income people from being able to use their signature as a form of bail instead of cash gains momentum, bail funds like The Bail Project are seeing more demand for their services. The organization will generally post up to $5,000 in bail for an individual, but has made exceptions based on circumstances. They also work with them to make sure they are supported while their case makes its way through the courts.

“We get referrals from family members, attorneys, community advocates, and even prosecutors sometimes,” Wright said.

As a client support specialist, Wright will arrange transportation so her clients can get back to court. She will also connect them with other organizations in the area that can help connect people with housing and other services.

“We don’t leave the sole responsibility on [our clients],” she said. “And with our help, we have a 93% rate of our clients returning back to court.”

The situation in Fulton County is unlike any of the other jurisdictions The Bail Project operates in because of how long it takes for indictments to be handed down and resolved, according to Tara Watford, the group’s chief data and program innovation officer.

“We stay in contact with folks, sometimes for up to two years, while their cases are moving through the courts. And that’s quite long” she said. “The longest other place we see is Ohio, and there we’re talking about a six- to nine-month waiting period.”

Even for the approximately 25% of The Bail Project’s Fulton County clients who have their cases dropped, it takes on average 480 days for the case to be resolved. But Watford said she has seen clients wait over 1,000 days just to find out that the county is declining to prosecute their case.

“This is really something we’ve only seen in Fulton County, and I think is an important part of understanding our work there,” Watford said.

What happened to bail reform?

Although the Atlanta City Council voted in February 2018 to eliminate cash bail as a condition of release from the Atlanta City Detention Center for city ordinance violations, widespread bail reform was not enacted until later that year. In the summer of 2018, then-Gov. Nathan Deal signed a bail reform bill aimed at preventing people charged with misdemeanors from getting stuck in jail.

In recent years, however, despite clear evidence that pretrial detention actually has a negative impact on overall public safety, the use of cashless bail or signature bond has become a sticking point for conservative lawmakers.

A signature bond allows anyone who has been arrested for a crime to be released by signing an agreement saying they will return for their court date. This happens pretrial, while a person is still considered legally innocent. 

In August, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to identify jurisdictions that had effectively eliminated cash bail. The order then directed departments and agencies within the executive branch to suspend or terminate any federal funds, including grants or contracts, to those jurisdictions.

Last year, the Republican-controlled Georgia state legislature passed Senate Bill 63, rolling back some of the very reform measures championed by former Governor Deal. The bill added 30 charges to the list of crimes that require a judge to impose a cash bail rather than allowing for a signature bond. It also requires any person or organization who wants to post bail for more than three people in a year to comply with the legal requirements to be a bail bond company.

The bill was signed into law last summer by Gov. Brian Kemp.

The ACLU of Georgia and the Southern Center of Human Rights have since sued the state to challenge SB 63’s legality.

Earlier this year, groups like The Bail Project were given a reprieve when a Fulton County Superior Court Judge issued an injunction allowing them to continue to operate while the case is litigated.

“I think we had to stop posting bail for about 90 days,” Wright said.

Since the injunction, however, she said she has seen an uptick in need for its services.

“We talk about safety, but we’re jeopardizing [people’s safety] by leaving them especially in Fulton County; we are all aware of how that jail is and how dangerous it can be,” she said.