Mayor: End cash bonds

Action designed to aid poor defendants held for low-level offenses.

Atlanta’s new mayor is pushing to eliminate the use of cash bonds for poor defendants accused of low-level offenses.

The move comes after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that some indigent people were spending months in the crowded Fulton County Jail for nuisance crimes like panhandling and disorderly conduct. The Southern Center for Human Rights has challenged the city’s cash bond system and warned it could be unconstitutional.

Keisha Lance Bottoms told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution late Monday a proposal, set to debut before a City Council committee today, is far from finished and she expects more changes before the new ordinance is final.

“The goal is to move us away from the cash bond system,” Bottoms told the AJC, adding that the city’s legal staff will be suggesting “cleanup” as it moves through the process.

The issue arose last year, when 10 men were not allowed into the courtroom to ask for bail before Municipal Court Judge Terrinee Gundy sent their cases to Fulton County State Court. The men — accused of crimes like darting into traffic, possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and failure to maintain auto insurance — spent two weeks in jail before they were released.

Even more extreme examples have become public since then.

On Sept. 19, Sean Ramsey was arrested for holding up a handwritten sign asking motorists for help. Ramsey, who is homeless, couldn’t pay the $200 bond for the offense of being a pedestrian soliciting in a roadway. His charges were dismissed Oct. 4 but he remained in jail until Nov. 29, 70 days after his arrest, apparently overlooked. He was released after the Southern Center filed