Philadelphia Eagles pay bail for nine people using social justice funds

The Philadelphia Eagles bailed nine people out of jail the day before Thanksgiving with money raised from their social justice fund.

The nine people were bailed out of jail in Philadelphia with a $50,000 grant made up of money raised by players and matched by the team itself.

{mosads}”We recognize that the only reason that these people were in jail is because they couldn’t afford to get out. If any of them had the resources I did, they would be out,” Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins told ESPN. “So it’s not a matter of public safety or being convicted of a crime, which they haven’t yet, it’s just they’re simply too poor for their freedom.”

The players used money from the Eagles Social Justice Fund to help the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund bail the people out of jail.

“The cash bail system punishes poverty and nothing else,” Jenkins told the local CBS affiliate. “Incarceration is not working.”

On Monday, Eagles players held a service fair to link the bailees with community nonprofits to help them moving forward with life and job placement.

The Eagles Social Justice Fund was established as a result of a deal between the Players Coalition and the NFL. The $89 million agreement between the league and the network of players organized by Jenkins attempts to address community issues, such as social justice reform.

The deal also gives each NFL team the ability to match donations from its players up to $250,000 to be used as the team and players see fit. The Eagles have distributed $190,000 of its funds so far to several Philadelphia-area nonprofit organizations.

“To have that support and backing is something that we wanted to do because now it can be replicated in every market. Every NFL market has an opportunity to get to know their local grass-roots organizations, get to figure out what the issues are, and decide as players where they want those funds to go, to be able to interact and have impact in a way that we could never do in silos as individual players,” Jenkins said.

Other teams such as the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers have also begun distributing money they have raised through the fund.