thread: late last night, our team found another 17-year-old child trapped in the adult jail in houston because he can't pay $1,000 cash. he's been there for almost two months, forgotten. he was arrested after missing court because he was given the wrong date on his paperwork.
the child is one of about 9,000 people trapped inside the harris countty jail as the virus surges. most of them are trapped there because they can't pay cash to be home with their families while they are presumed innocent.
our team is working hard with people on the ground to get him out of jail, and i will keep you posted.
UPDATE: the child has now been released from jail this evening, for free.
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THREAD: It is with sadness that I tell you about Preston Chaney, who died in the Houston jail of COVID. He was trapped there for 3.5 months because he couldn't pay $100 after being accused of stealing lawn equipment and frozen meat. His story is important. (1)
Preston Chaney was 64 years old, and he had diabetes, heart disease, and liver disease. He was forgotten inside the jail because he was poor. Records show he was never even taken to the court in charge of his case. (2)
There is no room for social distancing in the crowded jail. Preston Chaney couldn't protect himself. He had difficulty breathing and was taken to the hospital where he was intubated and died struggling for oxygen. (3)
THREAD: In 135 years of US history since 1886, scholars have been unable to find a single reported instance in which any court anywhere in the US dismissed a criminal case because of racial bias in prosecution. (1)
In DC, where I live, prosecutors choose to imprison Black people at 19 times the rate of white people. (2) yalelawjournal.org/forum/the-puni…
The US now imprisons Black people at 6 times the rate of South Africa at the height of Apartheid. (3)
THREAD: Today's $61.7 million settlement against Amazon tells you a lot about how the legal system really works. (1) ftc.gov/news-events/pr…
In most contexts, when someone steals money from people, it's called "theft" or "fraud." But when large corporations do it to thousands of people, the system treats it as a civil case to be "settled." No one is prosecuted, no one is caged and separated from their family. (2)
Wage theft from low-income workers by rich corporations costs over $50 billion per year. That's 3.5 times more than all robberies, burglaries, larcenies, and motor vehicle thefts COMBINED. Yet police and prosecutors choose not to treat wage theft as a "crime." (3)
THREAD: Democrats are now demanding an increase to the Capitol Police force budget. A few things you might not know about the Capitol Police: (1)
Capitol Police already have a $515 million dollar budget. This is more than 10% of the entire budget for the whole Legislative Branch of the US government. (2)
52% of their time is spent on traffic charges, and 14% of their arrests are minor drug arrests. They mostly arrest very poor people in the surrounding DC community (DC also has the largest racial disparity in arrests of any US jurisdiction). (3) firstbranchforecast.com/2021/01/06/a-p…
THREAD: When politicians talk "reform" of racist systems, remember the story of how New York politicians used "reform" after Kalief's death to perpetuate violence against Black children. (1) newyorker.com/magazine/2014/…
Kalief committed suicide after three years of pretrial detention at Rikers, falsely accused of stealing another child's backpack. He spent 18 months in solitary confinement. (2)
THREAD: This video is the daily churn of injustice. A Black man arrested for "drinking beer in a parking lot" is jailed because he cannot pay $5,000 cash. He begs for release, judge says: "Thank you, go with the deputy." (1)
This isn't an issue of "good cops" or "bad cops." This video right here is most of what police do. There are more arrests each year in the US for marijuana possession than all of what police call "violent crime" combined. (2)
96% of all police time is spent on what they call "non-violent" crime. (3)