Ideas worth spreading

Robin Steinberg's quest to reform cash bail

The TED Interview • The TED Interview

On any given night, 450,000 people in the United States stay in jail without having been convicted of any crime. Most of them are there because they don't have enough money to pay bail. Exasperated at what she saw as a systemic design flaw that primarily affects poor and marginalized people, public defense lawyer Robin Steinberg came up with a plan to fix things. As she explains in this sparky conversation with head of TED Chris Anderson, that idea is about as bold as they get.

On any given night, 450,000 people in the United States stay in jail without having been convicted of any crime. Most of them are there because they don't have enough money to pay bail. Exasperated at what she saw as a systemic design flaw that primarily affects poor and marginalized people, public defense lawyer Robin Steinberg came up with a plan to fix things. As she explains in this sparky conversation with head of TED Chris Anderson, that idea is about as bold as they get.

About the speakers

Robin Steinberg

Robin Steinberg

Public defender, activist

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Robin Steinberg is the CEO of The Bail Project, an organization designed to combat mass incarceration in the United States by disrupting the money bail system -- one person at a time. As she says: "I hate injustice and simply can't sit still when I see it."

Chris Anderson

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After a long career in journalism and publishing, Chris Anderson became the curator of the TED Conference in 2002 and has developed it as a platform for identifying and disseminating ideas worth spreading.

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