Warns that proposed system would incarcerate thousands of Granite Staters who are still innocent in the eyes of the law - at enormous taxpayer expense
Black Granite Staters would be disproportionately impacted, as they already face higher rates of arrest
CONCORD, N.H. - Advocacy organizations in New Hampshire issued an urgent warning today to state politicians intent on rolling back New Hampshire’s bail system that their plans would lead to the needless and harmful incarceration of thousands of Granite Staters – disproportionately people of color – at enormous taxpayer expense.
The ACLU of New Hampshire, Manchester NAACP, American Friends Service Committee, Granite State Organizing Project, and Black Lives Matter New Hampshire said in a joint statement:
- “Returning back to a cash bail system would have devastating impacts on New Hampshire’s community overall and especially for our communities of color, who already face disproportionate incarceration in our state.
“Bail should be based on the danger someone poses to the community, not on how much money they have in their wallet. In the old cash bail system, Granite Staters arrested for minor offenses who could not afford bail sat in jail awaiting trial, while others could remain in our community if they had the money.
“One Black man who could not afford $100 for bail died in a New Hampshire jail before our bail system was reformed. That same man previously spent 33 days in jail for simply walking in a park after he could not post $100 for bail. Before bail reform, the system was hopelessly broken, with poor people needlessly in our county jails.
“We cannot go back to a time where thousands of Granite Staters, and disproportionately Black Granite Staters, were held in jail for days or weeks because they could not afford bail. This meant time away from family, jobs, and other responsibilities - all while supposedly presumed innocent.
“For years, law enforcement and other politicians have shared frightening anecdotes to inject unmerited fear into discussions about bail. The current rhetoric surrounding a specific case in Manchester is especially concerning: this time, they have chosen to politicize a case surrounding an altercation between a Black person and a white person, when – according to a police affidavit – the white person may have been the initial attacker and used a racial slur, the N-word. Regrettably, state officials politicizing this case have concluded the Black defendant should have his bail revoked despite two judicial rulings deciding against revoking bail due to the likelihood of self-defense.
“The police prosecutor did not even initially argue that this man should be held during his arraignment, but this all changed when law enforcement decided to politicize this case for political gain. The extravagant misuse by state and elected officials of this case concerning a Black man allegedly responding to a punch and racial slur is both telling and troubling.
“These proposals and the accompanying fear-based rhetoric are an unacceptable encroachment on our liberty in New Hampshire and prop up an unjust, wealth-based system of incarceration. With the freedom of thousands of Granite Staters on the line, we urge lawmakers to remain focused on the facts.”
Bail is the process that determines whether someone accused of a crime is incarcerated before their trial. New Hampshire’s reformed bail system does not mean all people are set free when arrested. People who are deemed a danger are detained pre-trial - and if the police or prosecutor disagree with a magistrate’s determination releasing a person, they can ask a judge to review that decision and revoke bail.
This is precisely what happened in the Manchester case, where the prosecutor sought to revoke bail, and the court rejected this because, “The video reflects that … both played a role in this incident …They both appeared to be aggressors at times. The video appears consistent with the defendant’s affidavit.”
Bail reform has prevented people from being needlessly detained, all while crime has gone down. According to the NH Department of Safety, crime and arrests are down substantially since bail reform efforts began in 2018 and continue to drop as shown in the data publicly available on their crime statistics website. New Hampshire’s crime rate has decreased across the board with violent crimes dropping between the years 2017 to 2024 almost in half, according to the NH Department of Safety’s own data.1 The Granite State is consistently ranked one of the safest states in the country.
Black Granite Staters are 3.33 times more likely to be arrested overall in New Hampshire, according to 2023 numbers.2 Because they are disproportionately arrested, they will also be disproportionately incarcerated under this proposed system.
Now politicians in the Granite State, including in the state House of Representatives and Senate, in addition to Governor Ayotte, have pushed for measures that would undo the critical reforms made in and since 2018.
The House recently passed HB 592 out of committee, while the Governor has put a bail rollback bill directly into the proposed budget. There has been no public discussion around the racial disparities and unjust harms that will be fueled by this proposed bail rollback.
The organizations also gave additional statements:
James McKim, 1st Vice-President of the Manchester NAACP, said, “Proponents of this bill seem to be using reductionist rhetoric ignoring the facts of the Manchester case intimating an accusation of guilt, possibly unintentionally based on race, in an effort to use the case as a reason to change bail policies that have helped reduce crime in our city and state. We hope legislators still recognize and will support the traditional judicial principle of presumption of innocence and not revert to policies that have been proven to be discriminatory.”
Livia Gershon, member of the Granite State Organizing Project and a volunteer with the NH Bail Fund said, “Being locked up even for a few days can cost people their jobs, cut them off from medical care, and harm family members who depend on them. Destabilizing people’s lives isn’t a way to keep anyone safer.”
1 For example, in 2017 the number of violent crime was 2625 and in 2024 it was only 1525, available at https://crimestats.dos.nh.gov/tops along with other data showing consistent drop in crime including across the board from 2023 to 2024.
2 FBI Arrest Data from 2023 shows white people were 91% of arrests and Black people were 7% in New Hampshire, so while Black people are only 2.1% of New Hampshire’s population and white people are 92.5% according to estimates by the most recent Census Data for 2023, Black people are 3.33 times more likely to be arrested than white people in the Granite State.