Pretrial Justice Institute
200 East Pratt Street, Suite 4100
Baltimore, MD 21202

(667) 281-9141

The Value(s) of Pretrial Freedom

How does the value we place on someone’s freedom reflect our values as a society?

Catch the replay of this extended 45-minute conversation in our What If? Series. PJI’s Meghan Guevara and Tenille Patterson—along with special guest Robin Steinberg of The Bail Project—discussed the role money plays in our system, from bond amounts to tax dollars, and what it would look like to invest resources in a way that puts our money where our values are.

Speakers

As a former foster youth and child of a formerly incarcerated parent, Shavonte has spent over a decade of her career using her life experiences to support her work in advancing systemic solutions to the distinct challenges and barriers that system-involved youth and their families face. At PJI, Shavonte develops and implements the organization’s change work and curriculum.

Tenille’s work at PJI is part of a lifelong mission to create safe, nurturing workplaces for people representing diversity of thought, lived experience, gender, race and ethnicity. A CPA by trade, she transitioned to the nonprofit field to align with her spirit of advocacy and social justice. She has spent the last ten years as an executive leader, helping to drive transformational change in nonprofit organizations, including the Center for Urban Families and PJI.

Robin Steinberg is the founder of The Bail Project, a national effort to combat mass incarceration by transforming the pretrial system in the United States. Over a 35-year career as a public defender, she represented thousands of low-income people, trained public defenders across the country and internationally, and founded several other innovative organizations including The Bronx Defenders in New York City and Still She Rises in Oklahoma.