NEW ORLEANS - In keeping with its commitment to transparency and improved public reporting, the City Council Criminal Justice Committee has released its latest public-facing dashboard. The dashboard provides information on bonds paid as a condition of release for criminal charges this year, the average amounts set over 12 months, and the percentage of bonds under $1,000 over 12 months.

"This Bonds Paid Public Information Dashboard is very much of the moment as leaders and advocates nationally and locally wrestle with the inequities that have existed with respect to bail, fines and fees," said Committee Chair and Councilmember-At-Large Jason Rogers Williams. "The crippling financial burden of money bail placed on vulnerable communities pre-trial, without respect to guilt or public safety risk, is not typically represented in black and white letters and numbers. Citizens are asking for and deserve this information."

The Bonds Paid Public Information Dashboard is available on the New Orleans City Council Criminal Justice Committee page or by clicking here. The Committee will hear a presentation on the dashboard at its July 23 meeting. The full agenda for that meeting is available here.

Councilmember Williams continued, "We have unprecedented access to data from our criminal justice agencies, and we are duty-bound to put that power in the hands of all New Orleanians. Public-facing dashboards like this one give constituents and inter-agency partners a close to real-time picture of the state of public safety city-wide and in their respective neighborhoods. That knowledge and access are invaluable to a fully informed citizenry."

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Media Contact:

Keith D. Lampkin, Chief of Staff

Councilmember Jason Rogers Williams, At-Large

kdlampkin@nola.gov

(504)758-8913