After helping free 219 people, Tucson Bail Fund shuts down — but its work lives on

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Tiera Rainey, her mom and sister are waiting for Pima County jail officials to release a woman they’d never met before, but for whom they had just posted a $5,000 bail bond. The woman’s family can’t afford that much money to free her to await trial at home with her child.

Knowing it will be a few hours before the jail processes paperwork, they call her family and walk to the parking lot. The woman’s son, then about 5 years old, and her sister and mom wait nearby in their car. They watch the jail release door for any movement, any sign that their loved one is safe and coming home.

It’s late in the afternoon on a sweltering June day when the mother finally walks free into the Tucson sunlight…

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