The faith-based nonprofit Faith In Texas is giving a helping hand to some who are unable to post bond this holiday season. According to a press release shared with WFAA, Faith In Texas will use $100,000 from its Luke 4:18 bail fund to pay the bond for nine incarcerated people who would not have been able to free themselves from the Dallas County Jail.
The Luke 4:18 bail fund is based on the Bible verse where Jesus said upon his return from the desert, in part, “He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”
As its website proclaims, Faith In Texas’ mission is to draw attention to the inequities within the money bail system and engage community members – especially those directly impacted – in the processes to address those injustices.
On Thursday, the organization set out to gain freedom for nine individuals and give them each one hundred dollars for transportation, food, or any other needs.
“The city tried to take something away from us, but we are here to bail these individuals out today,” Mark Walters of Faith In Texas said via the organization’s Instagram Stories.
Jamie Kowlessar, also of Faith In Texas, posted a video stating that they were able to free six individuals. However, he said the “other people who were supposed to be released couldn’t be.”
Senate bill six, also known as The Damon Allen Act, which Governor Abbott signed in September, prohibits the release on a personal bond of defendants charged with a violent offense or who are charged while released on bail.
The bill also requires suspects to be granted or denied bail within 48 hours of their arrest and that their criminal history be examined before setting bail. Abbott said the bill will “make it harder for dangerous criminals to be released on bail.”
The law was passed after State Trooper Damon Allen was murdered in 2017 while in the line of duty by a person out on a $15,000 bond.
