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Juneteenth protest will call for bail reform

A protest Tuesday evening is calling for bail reform.

Ashley Gantt is an organizer and says since Tuesday is Juneteenth, a day that recognizes the abolition of slavery, they wanted issue a call for another emancipation.

"We're doing it in commemoration and saying now emancipate our jails. Because even though Juneteenth happened and there was this emancipation of slavery, we believe that slavery was just reinvented in the form of mass incarceration."

Gantt says across New York State there are 25,000 men and women sitting in county jails; not because they are convicted of a crime but because they can’t afford bail. And inadvertently that is people of color and people who are poor.

Protestors will gather outside City Hall prior to the City Council meeting at 6pm Tuesday evening and march to the jail afterwards.