Josh Falcone – General Assignment Reporter
The Southern Connecticut State University fraternity Beta Mu Sigma along with the Southern Police department and the Special Olympics of Connecticut, held the eighth annual Jail N’ Bail fundraiser event. According to Beta Mu Sigma Alumni and Fundraiser Chair Mike Sampson, Jail N’ Bail allows students at the university to put warrants out on other members of the campus community.
“So basically Jail N’ Bail is all about us connecting with Special Olympics of Connecticut and the SCSU Police station, us three pretty much are the people that brought it to Southern and have been doing it ever since,” Sampson said. “You can arrest your friend, your professor, faculty member, administrator, almost anyone who goes to the university, for five dollars.”
Sampson said that last year the group raised close to 7,000 dollars.
Beta Mu Sigma President Tyler Grant said at the event that the amount of money being raised in the first few hours had surpassed the previous year. “So far we have overshot our expectations in revenue this year, we are close to breaking even without even being half way through the event, to what we did last year,” he said. “The goal is 10,000 dollars and we are close to half way there and we still have, well more than half of the event to go.”
Beta Mu Sigma held tabling events in the week leading up to Jail N’ Bail last Wednesday, April 23, Sampson said, the events gave students the ability to put out warrants on those that they chose.The purchaser of the warrants just had to fill out some basic information, Sampson said.
“You fill it out, it’s pretty much a brief sketch of what they look like, where they are going to be, your information, their information, then you just pay the five dollars and go ahead,” he said.
Those that wished not to be able to be arrested had the option to purchase a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card for 25 dollars, which prohibited the carrier from being put under arrest, Sampson said. Grant said that everyone seemed to be having a great time at Jail N’ Bail. “It is a great time, everyone is having a great time in the jail, we are providing food for them, it is all smiles in there. They are happy to raise the money,” Grant said.
The Jail N’ Bail event also had a dunk tank set up with various members of the Southern faculty and staff, including Chief Joseph M. Dooley, Coach Michael Donnelly, Coach Tim Quill, and Adanti Student Center Director Brad Crerar, Grant said. The chance to dunk the faculty and staff only cost one dollar.
Sampson said the process of being arrested for Jail N’ Bail is that the brothers of Beta Mu Sigma along with a police officer, find the person who has a warrant out on them and brings them back to the makeshift jail on the quad to face the judge.“It is all on a volunteer basis, so if somebody says that they don’t want to go, they don’t have to go,” Sampson said. “We go over to the judge and the judge sets a bail.” The judge then sets the arrestee’s bail and they are put in the jail, Sampson said.
“They start texting their friends, calling their friends, family members, as well as kind of hassling people as they walk by on the sidewalk,” he said. “We also have online donations, so a lot of people will put it up on their Facebook or twitter page and say hey donate to the Special Olympics and we track that too.”
Grant said the bail amount is set on an individual basis by the judge.“Bail is determined on an individual basis, so it all depends on who the individual is. They describe themselves to the judge and the judge sets the bail anywhere from 50 bucks to 100 bucks. They could be like, ‘you are on the basketball team, all right, you have friends, your bail is going to be set at 100 dollars,’” Grant said.
