The judge whose bail requirements leave cash-strapped defendants in jail

For those who live in poverty, money bail can mean an incarceration. And some judges believe that’s in their best interest

Richard A Webster in New Orleans
Mon 3 Feb 2020 11.00 GMT

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Five months after his mother’s death, on 19 June 2017, Caliste hit rock bottom. Police pulled him over in his pickup truck with a suspected drug dealer, and found crack, marijuana, and a glass pipe in his possession. They arrested him on two drug charges.

The following morning, Caliste appeared before Magistrate Court Judge Harry Cantrell, the father-in-law to Mayor LaToya Cantrell. The judge, a registered Democrat, has been repeatedly accused by civil rights attorneys and public defenders of setting excessive bail without considering defendants’ ability to pay. Caliste was no different. Even though his lone source of income was a monthly $1,100 disability check and though he didn’t have a violent criminal history, Cantrell slapped him with a $5,000 bond.

And like so many poor people before him, Caliste was sent back to his cell in the violence-plagued Orleans Parish jail to await trial while wealthier people accused of the same crimes walked free.

This moment sparked a historic class action lawsuit against Cantrell, where attorneys alleged that he was “locking up people for being poor”. When a federal court, one year later, struck down his bond-setting practices as unconstitutional, civil rights advocates rejoiced.

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Such sweeping reforms, however, have yet to materialize in New Orleans. Cantrell continues to set excessive bonds in defiance of the federal order, according to civil rights attorneys, while city leaders have shown little appetite to force his hand. (The judge and mayor declined an interview request for this story.)

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