unBail

The criminal legal system is a maze of laws, language, and unwritten rules that lawyers are trained to maneuver to represent defendants. Without clear guidance, defendants are often left feeling overwhelmed, lost, and severely disadvantaged while attempting to navigate the system. 

There is no “one-stop-shop” or trusted advisor that defendants can access free of charge, 24/7. That’s why we created unBail, an intuitive and comprehensive mobile application that delivers valuable and relevant legal and case information to users in plain language. unBail helps defendants navigate the criminal legal process, access vital resources, and use their stories to help other defendants and inform targeted legal reform efforts.

Our goal is to democratize information about the criminal legal system, empower defendants to navigate it, and ultimately reform it.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 73% of county public defender’s offices exceed national caseload recommendations for cases per attorney, leaving most public defenders overworked and their clients underrepresented. Defendants must complete an estimated 200 discrete tasks during their legal proceedings. Without clear guidance, defendants are often left feeling overwhelmed, lost, and severely disadvantaged while attempting to navigate the system. Nationally, Black people are incarcerated in jail at a rate 3.5 times that of white people. In Cuyahoga County, that rate is 6.4 times.

Our product eases the burdens of the criminal legal system for defendants and court systems alike by increasing defendants' case engagement and court appearance rates. unBail is currently the only mobile app that provides a comprehensive guide dedicated to defendants navigating the criminal legal system.

unBail is an intuitive and comprehensive mobile application that delivers valuable and relevant legal and case information to users in plain language.By using case numbers or personal identifying information, users will find their case seamlessly translated into a step-by-step guide of the legal process, from point of first arrest to expungement options, and beyond. Defendants and their families will be empowered with the information they deserve, helping them navigate the intricacies of each case and predict potential roadblocks. Defendants will be encouraged to share their experiences and what they've learned at each step of the process. Users will be connected to resources tailored to their individual needs if necessary, including housing, mental health, legal, transportation services, and more. 

unBail seeks to benefit populations that are disproportionately affected by the criminal legal system.  These groups include Black people, Indigenous people, men, people who earn less than $15,000 per year, people who have not received a high school diploma or GED, disabled people, people diagnosed with mental health disorders (and those who may also be undiagnosed), people who identify as transgender or gender non-conforming, LGBTQ+ people (in particular LGBTQ+ women), veterans, and people under the age of 40.  It is important to remember that none of these groups are mutually exclusive and that certain demographic groups such as Black men under 40, Black transgender women, people with mental health disorders, and people of low socioeconomic status are particularly impacted by the criminal legal system.

unBail is creating a new way for the public to interact with court systems by democratizing information about the criminal legal system for everyone, free of charge, accessible 24/7. Through deep listening conversations with those impacted by court systems, we learned that defendants found the court system challenging to navigate to the detriment of their cases and futures. We know that the legal system disproportionately impacts Black men under 40, Black transgender women, people with mental health disorders, and low-income people. That's why we set out to create an accessible solution to balance the scales between defendants and court systems. 

In 2019, through a partnership with Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, unBail created a practicum dedicated to creating a matrix of possible outcomes for defendants in Cleveland. We co-taught this class with Erika Cunliffe, veteran attorney from the Cuyahoga County Office of the Public Defender. Using this matrix, we created a clickable wireframe that displays the steps of the criminal legal process based on the information gathered during the practicum.  This wireframe has since been used by the City Tech Collaborative to conduct holistic user testing sessions to get feedback on the usability of the product. Testers were very excited about our product. Many testers expressed frustration in their past experiences navigating the system and over half of the testers did not or could not access pre-trial information at the time of the test. unBail has since updated the prototype to reflect feedback from the user testing sessions. 

We are the only non-profit social impact startup to create a version of Google Maps for individual court cases.  unBail addresses the severe limitations of existing legal tech products in terms of scope and usability.  For example, the existing platforms such as those listed above rely on text-heavy designs to communicate complex legal information to defendants when most people feel overwhelmed by paragraphs of unstructured text.  These platforms also tend to be limited in their scope (i.e only for domestic relations court, etc.) and rely on links to external websites to communicate information.  These issues result in a fragmented user experience and ultimately low usership.  By studying these existing platforms and asking for feedback directly from our users, we hope to provide comprehensive, engaging, and accessible content that empowers defendants and their families. Our work also aligns well with The Bail Project, a national organization whose work is limited in scope by the number of “Bail Disrupters” they have on the ground in various cities.

Our goal is to democratize information about the criminal legal system, empower defendants to navigate it, and ultimately reform it. In the future, unBail plans to scale to other jurisdictions in Ohio and across the country.

We are currently in the process of building a beta version of the application to test with defendants. Since nothing has been built yet, we are serving 0 people. 

In one year, we hope to have the application fully built, beta tested, and launched. Initially, we will focus our energy on serving the Court of Common Pleas in Cuyahoga County, with about 8,000 felony cases filed per year, or about 6,400 defendants (assuming 80% of cases are unique, the other 20% represent people with multiple felonies).

In 5 years, we hope to have successfully launched unBail in court systems throughout Cuyahoga County and taken steps to scale the operation to other municipalities. An average of 52,000 misdemeanor and felony cases are filed each year in Cuyahoga County, representing about 41,600 people (80%). Scaling over the 5 years to serve all municipalities at 25% per year, we hope to have served over 110,000 people (details below).

Y1 6,400 ; Y2 10,400 ; Y3 20,800 ; Y4 31,200 ; Y5 41,600

Total: 110,400 people

Key Performance Indicators

• Number of downloads and active users
  • >70% of users who download unBail are active (have enabled push notifications for case reminders while their case is ongoing).
• Court appearance rates and their relationship to app usage
  • >90% of defendants who use unBail appear in court.
• Defendants’ sentencing outcomes
  • More engaged and proactive defendants will have better sentencing outcomes if found guilty compared to the national average for specific charges.
• Feedback from users about how the app has improved their experience of the legal system
  • For defendants who have previous experience with the legal system, >90% feel their experience was improved by using unBail.

We have a fiduciary sponsor, Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Centers Association, and will being the 501c3 process later this year. 

Our product has six co-founders, and three of those six co-founders work part-time on unBail. Two other co-founders co-chair the unBail steering committee.  

Our group has a very unconventional and fortuitous origin story. We were six strangers who attended the Hack CLE FIX216: Criminal Justice Reform Hack-a-thon in October 2018. We all wanted to make a difference. We were assigned in groups by the event organizers based on diverse skill sets and perspectives, and we immediately clicked. We presented our pitch and won 1st place, which included seed funding from the Cleveland Foundation and support from Microsoft and the Cleveland Civic User Testing (CUT) Group.  We did not attend this scope-a-thon thinking we would leave as social impact entrepreneurs, but we did. There were many points since then where this work could have stalled or life could have gotten in the way of advancing this project, but that never happened. Our commitment to this work has only grown.

After the hack-a-thon, our team conducted deep listening conversations focused on what those who are criminal justice affected needed to better navigate the legal system. We collaborated with those affected by the legal system to create this product, and members of the core team have been either directly affected by the legal system.  We believe that technology should not be imposed on the community, but co-created with it.

unBail is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in several ways. unBail uses a distributed decision-making model. While we recently defined roles within our organization to streamline our efforts, we are still committed to the egalitarian nature of our founding group.  We believe deeply in sharing power, holding ourselves accountable, and empowering everyone on our team. 

We know that early investment in diversity, equity, and inclusion will pay dividends in the long run. That’s why we’ve included a line item in our current funding requests to hire Enlightened Solutions (https://www.enlightened-solutions.com) to help us build our inclusive workplace from the ground up, including helping us to further diversify our team. 

The majority of our founding team has participated in the Racial Equity Institute (REI) training in Cleveland. As we grow, we will provide opportunities for new team members to participate in these life-changing learning opportunities. 

I’m an advocate, researcher, and social impact entrepreneur focused on pushing institutions to be more democratic and produce fairer and more equitable outcomes for all, especially those who experience disproportionate impacts. I'm applying to this program because I believe the organizers and participants share our vision of a more just, sustainable, and equitable legal system that serves all people, created using the voices and experiences of defendants.

I’ve been personally impacted by the inequities in the criminal legal system. I’ve seen firsthand how who you are can determine your future when faced with possible jail time. Two of my family members were facing similar charges at a similar time. One of them had money and connections and the other did not. The one with money and connections did not face any jail time and went to a weekend rehabilitation program in a hotel that served continental breakfast. The other, without the money and connections, went to jail. There was little to no difference between them and their initial charges, so I learned at a young age that these decisions weren’t made in a fair or consistent manner. 

That's why I'm committed to bringing our product to the public. This program can help us overcome potential barriers in the areas of institutions, funding, and technology by providing expert critiques of our existing strategies and approaches. unBail has an established track record of succeeding in collaborative environments, and we hope we can bring that spirit to this program. 

Financial: We are looking for partners and supporters who can help us improve our fundraising strategies and critique our existing pitches as we deliver them to foundations and government entities. 

Legal: We are looking for partners and supporters who can help us as we develop content that is accessible, engaging, and legally accurate. 

Public Relations: We are looking for partners and supporters who can improve our existing public relations strategy, as it is critical in recruiting users, supporters, and funders. 

We would like to partner with MIT faculty, initiatives, and members who share our vision of a more equitable and human-centered criminal legal system and technological landscape.  They can help us advance our solution by providing feedback to our tested prototype and help us to strategize are we translate it into a cross-platform mobile application. Expertise areas include mobile app development, data management, and user experience. Partners can also help us to improve our existing fundraising strategies, legal content development, and public relations approach. This is the perfect time for unBail to participate, as we are laying a strong foundation for a successful launch in Cleveland and cities across the country. 

The criminal legal system is a maze of laws, language, and unwritten rules that lawyers are trained to maneuver to represent defendants. The average defendant must complete 200 tasks during their legal proceedings, with any misstep having serious consequences. Legal aid providers for low-income defendants are overworked and underpaid. Only 73% of County Public Defender’s Offices meet national caseload recommendations for cases per attorney. These factors lead to stark racial disparities in the criminal legal system: in Cuyahoga county, Black defendants are held in jail at a rate 6.4 times that of white defendants.

unBail is a free mobile app that allows defendants to access information about their specific case and how it relates to the broader system they are navigating whenever they need it. Our app breaks the legal system down into easily digestible parts and provides engaging content, making it easy for defendants to stay informed. Defendants also have the opportunity to connect to resources within the app if necessary.

By increasing defendant engagement and improving the transparency of the legal system, unBail aims to increase court appearance rates and encourage more equitable case outcomes for defendants. As defendants engage with the system and share their experiences, we hope to learn about where the system fails defendants and how to address these failures. 

As a non-profit leader creating anti-racist technology, this opportunity will help us to create a more just, sustainable, and equitable legal system that serves all people, created using the voices and experiences of defendants.

The criminal legal system is a maze of laws, language, and unwritten rules that lawyers are trained to maneuver to represent defendants. The average defendant must complete 200 tasks during their legal proceedings, with any misstep having serious consequences. Legal aid providers for low-income defendants are overworked and underpaid. Only 73% of County Public Defender’s Offices meet national caseload recommendations for cases per attorney. These factors lead to stark racial disparities in the criminal legal system: in Cuyahoga county, Black defendants are held in jail at a rate 6.4 times that of white defendants.

unBail is a free mobile app that allows defendants to access information about their specific case and how it relates to the broader system they are navigating whenever they need it. Our app breaks the legal system down into easily digestible parts and provides engaging content, making it easy for defendants to stay informed. Defendants also have the opportunity to connect to resources within the app if necessary.

By increasing defendant engagement and improving the transparency of the legal system, unBail aims to increase court appearance rates and encourage more equitable case outcomes for defendants. As defendants engage with the system and share their experiences, we hope to learn about where the system fails defendants and how to address these failures. 

As a non-profit leader creating anti-racist technology, this opportunity will help us to create a more just, sustainable, and equitable legal system that serves all people, created using the voices and experiences of defendants.

The criminal legal system is a maze of laws, language, and unwritten rules that lawyers are trained to maneuver to represent defendants. The average defendant must complete 200 tasks during their legal proceedings, with any misstep having serious consequences. Legal aid providers for low-income defendants are overworked and underpaid. Only 73% of County Public Defender’s Offices meet national caseload recommendations for cases per attorney. These factors lead to stark racial disparities in the criminal legal system: in Cuyahoga county, Black defendants are held in jail at a rate 6.4 times that of white defendants.

unBail is a free mobile app that allows defendants to access information about their specific case and how it relates to the broader system they are navigating whenever they need it. Our app breaks the legal system down into easily digestible parts and provides engaging content, making it easy for defendants to stay informed. Defendants also have the opportunity to connect to resources within the app if necessary.

By increasing defendant engagement and improving the transparency of the legal system, unBail aims to increase court appearance rates and encourage more equitable case outcomes for defendants. As defendants engage with the system and share their experiences, we hope to learn about where the system fails defendants and how to address these failures. 

As a non-profit leader creating anti-racist technology, this opportunity will help us to create a more just, sustainable, and equitable legal system that serves all people, created using the voices and experiences of defendants.

The criminal legal system is a maze of laws, language, and unwritten rules that lawyers are trained to maneuver to represent defendants. The average defendant must complete 200 tasks during their legal proceedings, with any misstep having serious consequences. Legal aid providers for low-income defendants are overworked and underpaid. Only 73% of County Public Defender’s Offices meet national caseload recommendations for cases per attorney. These factors lead to stark racial disparities in the criminal legal system: in Cuyahoga county, Black defendants are held in jail at a rate 6.4 times that of white defendants.

unBail is a free mobile app that allows defendants to access information about their specific case and how it relates to the broader system they are navigating whenever they need it. Our app breaks the legal system down into easily digestible parts and provides engaging content, making it easy for defendants to stay informed. Defendants also have the opportunity to connect to resources within the app if necessary.

By increasing defendant engagement and improving the transparency of the legal system, unBail aims to increase court appearance rates and encourage more equitable case outcomes for defendants. As defendants engage with the system and share their experiences, we hope to learn about where the system fails defendants and how to address these failures. 

As a non-profit leader creating anti-racist technology using data science, this opportunity will help us to create a more just, sustainable, and equitable legal system that serves all people, created using the voices and experiences of defendants.