We recently connected with Jessica Lopez and have shared our conversation below.
Jessica, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
In America, we believe innocent until proven guilty, yet when you cage someone against a dollar amount, they can’t pay, you are treating them as though they’ve already been convicted.
Here at the Lancaster Bail Fund, we provide direct service to people who are behind bars at the Lancaster County Prison because they cannot pay their bail. In this situation people experience disrupted medical care, loss of jobs, housing, personal property, and even custody of their children. At worst, pretrial incarceration is a death sentence. Outside of directly posting bail we advocate against harmful mass incarceration policy’s locally and are currently focused on reducing the impactful harm Lancaster Pa will do with building a new 400 million dollar county jail.
I personally have lived experience with the incarceration system and know first-hand what it is like to not have the money to pay for my freedom pending litigation. Working for the bail fund has put me in place to be a direct bridge to resources in my community and to those who truly need support, here at the bail fund we use a hashtag that sums up who we are fairly well #NOJustUs. Without all of us working together to dismantle unfair and biased incarceration practices we will continue to be imprisoned for profit and enslaved by mass incarceration.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
“Jessica Lopez” Lead advocate and organizer. Growing up I made a lot of poor uneducated choices that led me to be incarcerated in all facets of our justice system from juvenile to state to federal. Where I am not proud of my choices, I know I had to experience these institutions to give me the life experience to understand the issues and to connect with the people who need our help and the changes we so desperately seek in our justice system.
Following a federal lawsuit for excessive force I was the lead complainant in 2018 against the Lancaster City Police Department and my activeness in 2020. I became a target for arrest leading the city of Lancaster to claim my presence at a protest incited riotous behaviors in others. After a three year trial I was sentenced to 13-30 months in Muncy State Prison on 4/4/23. Following my release from state prison I was approached by Michelle Batt who is president of the Bail Fund to continue the work and keep getting into good trouble. I also work for Let’s Get Free which is an org out of Pittsburgh Pa that focuses on Communtation and longtime offender issues on a state level.
“Michelle Batt” is a capital certified practicing attorney who worked as a public defender and advocate pro bono attorney for six years with the Lancaster Public Defenders office. She resigned from the public defender’s office in 2021. She went on to start the Bail Fund in 2021 in response to the dire need for justice reform and influx of donations after the summer of peaceful protest in 2020 and the police involved homicide of Ricardo Munoz all while practicing law as a children’s immigration attorney with Church world services.
How’d you meet your business partner?
Michelle and I met in 2017 when she became my attorney on the case that led to the federal lawsuit I filed against the city in 2018. We later met again in 2020 when we unintentionally became neighbors and worked unofficially together in 2022 when the Bail Fund hosted the trail to end bail. It wasn’t until 2024 that I would officially call the Lancaster Bail Fund home, but the story is far from over and our impact has been powerful ever since.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
For materials to dive into to educate yourself on the issues I would say of course Creative Resistance Magazine, Daughters Magazine (Lets Get Free), We Do This Till They Free Us, Abolition For The People, and the The New Jim Crow.
If your looking for a book to lead you to your purpose and feed your soul The Alchemist.
Contact Info:
- Website: www,bailfundlancaster.org
- Instagram: Lancaster Bail Fund
- Facebook: Lancaster Bail Fund
- Other: https://linktr.ee/lancasterbailfund?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=75204966-6879-4cf1-9d55-4cd75c6d58c3
Image Credits
photo listed Lopez and Corrrectional facility batt credit to Tim Struldreher