FAQs

Who directs Sound Off: Music for Bail?

Multi-instrumentalist, writer, and first-generation Filipinx-American Jay Julio started organizing Sound Off events in July 2020. Since 2023, we have expanded the size of our administrative team to four core members.

We have a long list of collaborators and friends beyond our administration who help along the way, whether by organizing their own fundraising events, by offering organizational services, or by arranging press interviews! You can get involved too — we’d love to hear from you.

Where does money raised go?

We have a few different pathways for money, depending on the event. As of March 2023:

For fundraisers, such as our music workshops and open mic events, we suggest that participants pay a $5 participation fee either to the Bail Project and send us a receipt or to Sound Off directly via our Fractured Atlas.

For concerts, funds generated go to paying fees for speakers and performers. Speaker fees either go directly to individuals or the organizations they represent.

Our concerts in New York amplify the work that our partner organizations do of bail reform and the removal of money from the criminal justice process. Unless otherwise stated, the money directed to those organizations goes towards their abolitionist work; we trust that it will be used effectively, whether specifically to pay cash bail or to further inform New Yorkers about the realities of the system.

Why is it necessary to help people out with bail? If people are accused of a crime, shouldn’t they have to take care of it themselves?

This is a common question and a very good one! Our answer relies on an understanding of several interlocking concepts:

1) As we have seen both on-camera and in-person, police officers arresting and charging individuals with crimes often has little to do with actual crimes taking place and often is linked to quotas from higher-ups, chilling protests, and resisting arrest.

2) Once charged with a crime and booked, many people do not have the financial capability to sit in jail to await trial, particularly if they cannot afford bail, which can reach upwards of $10,000 for felonies. Child care is needed, employment will typically not be flexible for people assumed to be criminals, and, most devastatingly, individuals that refuse a plea bargain — accepting a guilty charge in exchange for a shorter term of imprisonment or a smaller fine — are often subject to significantly longer sentences if they lose their trials.

3) On the other hand, individuals who do receive bail support, trial support, and legal aid from organizations such as the Bail Project both overwhelmingly return to court to finish out trials and have their cases closed without criminal convictions.

4) We are aware that many actions that do not typically face criminal charges, such as companies’ wage theft, tax dodging, and overseas human rights abuses are responsible for significantly more societal harm than the charges the current criminal justice system typically wields. To this effect, we call for a sea change in who is found accountable for what in this country and for creative disruptions to oppressive systems in order to allow us to get free.

Crime is not the issue; otherwise, declining crime rates over the past decades would cause a reduction in the size of policing. As has been established time after time, societal harm caused by defunded public services, communities emptied of people, and a state of “forever war” poses a far more insidious threat to our world.