Unable to post bail, Elijah Peterson, 30, awoke in a Philadelphia jail cell longing to go home. He prayed, “Please, Allah, get me out of this situation, because I got kids and responsibilities out there.” This had been Peterson’s life since getting arrested six months ago. On Jan. 23, he recalled that an officer unexpectedly said, " ‘Peterson, pack up.’ I thought I was being transferred to a whole different jail.” Peterson learned he had been selected to be part of a surprise bail out organized by Tone Barr, 45, community liaison of The Philadelphia Masjid, and his network of friends who have dubbed themselves The Brotherhood, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. Barr has spent years connecting with people who support each other with community efforts: feeding the hungry, providing pop-up services for the unsheltered, getting youth jobs, and creating scholarships for high school students.
Ameer Barber, 43, Suleiman Hassan, 45, and Tyreek Williams, 37, joined Barr in after their first bail-out event to recall how it came about and their upcoming plans. “Changing lives, brightening futures, that was our goal,” Barr said. Their solution was to provide full-service re-entry support, the kind they all wished they had when they left prison. Everybody [in the network] has experienced prison. We know what’s on the other side of that, and if you don’t have a good support system, the likelihood is very high you are going left,” Barr said. The Brotherhood, and the bail-out events, are new efforts that they hope to maintain without the usual bureaucracy. “This is not a 501(c)(3), this is not a nonprofit, this is not government [funded]. These are brothers from the hood, the inner city, that collectively came together because we care,” Barr said. Members put up a total of $10,000 to post bail for as many people as possible, surround them with support, and provide critical resources. Barr doesn’t disclose the number of people bailed out or when the next bail-out date is in an attempt to manage the thousands of requests they would receive. The January bail-out received over 100,000 views on Barber’s, Hassan’s, and Barr’s social media accounts.
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