Philanthropist Louis Schweitzer created the Vera Foundation—named after his mother—in New York City in 1961, after being told by a friend that 2,000 boys had been in a Brooklyn jail for over 10 months, waiting for trial.
[3] The Vera Institute conducts research, demonstration projects, reform initiatives, and technical support in the area of criminal justice.
[3] The project supplied New York City judges with defendant background information and recommendations as to whether to release without bond.
[5] It led to the Bail Reform Act of 1966, signed by US President Lyndon B. Johnson, who called the Vera Institute's work an example of what "one man's outrage against injustice" could accomplish.
The commission was co-chaired by former US Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach and former judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, John Joseph Gibbons.