Keep The Change--New App 'Appolition' Turns Your Spare Coins Into Bail Money For Black Inmates

We don't want to go full hotep on y'all, but the American prison system is out to get Black folks. 

Just check out the #facts. According to the  NAACP Criminal Justice Sheet, Black people are incarcerated at more than 5 times the rate of whites. The sad truth is, even though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately 32% of the U.S. population, they comprised 56% of all incarcerated people in 2015. Simply put...the number of people of color in jail is more than the overall population percentage of people of color...a lot more! It's called mass incarceration and it's been happening for generations. 

Michelle Alexander wrote a bestseller on the topic in her book, 'The New Jim Crow'. She put it this way:

“Today’s lynching is a felony charge. Today’s lynching is incarceration. Today’s lynch mobs are professionals. They have a badge; they have a law degree. A felony is a modern way of saying, ‘I’m going to hang you up and burn you.’ Once you get that F, you’re on fire.” 

Here's a visual.

Food for thought right? Well, Dr. Kortney Ziegler, PhD, a Compton native and social justice activist, has designed an app that will allow you to help fight mass incarceration. It's called Appolition and it allows you to link your bank account and convert your spare coins into bail money. #DopeAF 

So, here's how it works. Your everyday purchase totally will be rounded up to the nearest dollar. For example, if you pay $5.75 for parking, then .025 cents will be put towards donations and when you reach $2 dollars your contribution will go towards bail money. Users are free to pause and resume their contributions any time.

Our hope is that for the many people of color that are sitting in jail unable to pay bail as they wait on a court date, this app will provide some relief. There is much work to do!

Make no mistake, mass incarceration is an epidemic...people of color are being sabotaged. Take for example Philadelphia rapper, Meek Mill, who is suffering for this exact thing. Unfair sentencing of Black people by the justice system. Recently Mill was sentenced to up to four years for violating probation. Colin Kaepernick tweeted this in support of Meek. 

Ziegler been busy creating other social justice platforms like the non-profit ZaMFunds which sponsors a scholarship to help female students in Livingstone, Zambia attend a private secondary school. 

Salute to Kortney for his heart and willingness to fight the good fight! Now go link your bank account and spread the word...frfr.