We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tiera Rainey. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tiera below.

Tiera, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.

The Tucson Bail Fund provides free bail assistance to predominately Black, Brown, and Indigenous people being held at Pima County Jail. The criminal justice system disproportionately impacts people of color and that is who we serve. These are mothers, fathers, and sometimes children who are being held pre-trial (who have not been convicted of a crime yet) whose detention can lead to the loss of custody of children, eviction, and job loss. The goal of the bail fund is to disrupt this cycle and allow people the opportunity to fight their charges from outside a cage which can drastically change outcomes. One of the first people we bailed out in 2018 was facing nearly 10 years in prison for drug possession and because he was able to fight his case from outside the jail was ultimately offered 6 months probation. Providing free bail relief isn’t just a lifeline to marginalized families, it can also make such a deep impact on slowing down the crises of the criminalization of poverty,

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?

Tucson Bail Fund started off as a project with Black Lives Matter Tucson. We were hosting a Black Mama’s Day Bailout to draw attention to the disproportionate impact of cash bail on Black families. However, over time it evolved into an actual organization with an expanded mission to not only provide bail support to directly impacted communities but to also serve as a hub for abolitionist organizing and community education in Tucson. My mother is the one who founded the bail fund and she retired in 2021. I have been the Executive Director ever since and continue to work tirelessly to bring our shared vision of the work to life. For example, we previously partnered with Pima County Public Defense Services to start a program that provides free juvenile restitution assistance. In the year TBF was a partner on the project we distributed over $100,000 to discharge the carceral debts of Pima County minors. We also have hosted multiple “Dreaming Abolitionist Futures” trainings to our community where we use art, creativity, and fun to help folks envision what a resourced community outside of incarceration looks like.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

One of our top questions we get is how do people find you? It’s taken years to build our referral system but we rely on a network of attorneys (primarily public defenders), Google search results for our website www.tucsonbailfund.org, community outreach and word of mouth as ways to connect with directly impacted families in need. People most often find us when they are googling for bail support in Tucson and we know that we are one of the top results- our name, Tucson Bail Fund, is very intentional. Referrals also allow us to connect with families who are applying for bail assistance on behalf of their loved ones.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

The second most common question we get is, “how do you fund this work?” While TBF is not a non-profit we are a fiscally sponsored project of a 501(C)(3) that extends that status to us. We have raised the funds for our revolving bail fund directly from community donations. We also have an assortment of grants that have allowed us to maintain a small staff of 3. We are grateful to all those who have supported our work over the years. This work simply would not be possible without the generosity of our community.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tucsonbailfund.org
• Instagram: @tucsonbailfund
• Facebook: FreeTucson

Image Credits

Portrait of Tiera Rainey- Julius Schlosburg
All of photos- Tucson Bail Fund