On Wednesday, March 23rd, the LBA hosted an open community forum to discuss the current state of the cash bail system and ideas to reform it for the better.

Click here to view a recording of the event, and check out the local news coverage on it below:

Louisville Bar Association hosts discussion about changes to current cash bail system | News | wdrb.com

Cashless bail system discussed in forum | wave3.com
Louisville legal officials push for cash bail reforms | WFPL

Moderated by Bonnie Feldkamp, Opinion Editor for The Courier-Journal, our panel included:

Tom Wine, Commonwealth’s Attorney

Leo Smith, Louisville Metro Chief Public Defender

Hon. Josephine Layne Buckner, District Court Judge

Sadiqa Reynolds, President and CEO, Louisville Urban League

Kentucky has historically implemented progressive reforms to its pretrial release policies, from eliminating for-profit bail bondsman companies in the 1970s to initiating one of the country’s first statewide pretrial services programs. Today, calls to make additional reforms have become more common and have given rise to community-based solutions that address some, but not all, of the issues facing our current cash bail system.