Tweet

Scott Hechinger

3 May, 18 tweets, 5 min read

🚨CRISIS IN TEXAS: 40,000 caged pretrial. State violence, denial of medical care, starvation, solitary, infection. Jaquaree was killed. I’ve listened to hundreds of desperate calls. Yet *this week, TX poised to pass a racist law to significantly expand pretrial caging.* Thread:

Jaquaree Simmons. Probably haven't heard of him. Just 23. Caged pretrial in TX. Called mom almost every day from his jail cell. Crying & begging for help. One week later, found dead. Only answers for his family is HB 20. Law that'll only make things worse. click2houston.com/news/local/202…

More than 60% in Texas jails--40000--have not been convicted of a crime. Majority are caged bc they cannot afford bail. Yet racist Gov. Abbott, police, prosecutors want more to suffer. This bill--HB 20--will literally take away power from judges to release people. It's sinister.

The night before his death, Jaquaree was attacked by a "detention officer." Hit the floor. "He’s small at 5-foot-3 & 125 pounds." Jail saying there's no video. “We still haven’t seen Jaquaree." Texas's answer back to his family this week: we're gonna pass a law to cage even more.

@TxJailProject

This past year, I've been working with local organizers at @TxJailProject who for years have been fighting for humanity in jails in Texas. I've listened to hundreds of phone calls. And Jaquaree's death doesn't surprise me. Desperation in their voices:

LISTEN: 2 men caged pretrial on affordable bail in Harris County, TX. No food. Denied meds. Freezing. Over 7000 caged during a pandemic. Treated like animals. "Theyre not worried about us. Theyre not worried about nothing going on with us." More:

LISTEN: Man caged pretrial in Harris County TX. Called with terrifying details. Freezing. Starving. Denial of care. Lack of food. "I’m calling this morning because I don’t really have anywhere else to turn. I need your help." Asked this to be shared:

Call from Taylor County, TX: "What’s the law on excessive use of force, police brutality. Are jailers allowed to punch inmates, choke, kick, knee inmates, & put inmates in full body straight jacket handcuffed behind their back? Is it cruel & unusual to do these things?"

Call from Harris County, TX: "They don’t care. With all that’s going on with George Floyd and they’re still slamming people on the ground and throwing their knees on their backs."

Call from Eastland County: "We are human beings. There should be a total reset of this system. Because obviously the foundation is full of cracks. But until then, we must stay strong and trust in the lord-pray in our hearts that things will get better."

Call from Victoria County, TX jail: "The emotional trauma of thinking that you’re going to die & never see your family again is just as bad as it actually happening in a sense. Trying to mentally cope & accept this mental emotional abuse is hard to make sense of."

Some of these are letters too. They all wanted words shared.

Smith County jail: "They told me over & over 'I do not care if you die.' Not my problem.' When I started to throw up blood they left me on the floor for 45 minutes till all other inmates started to yell for help."

Letter from Taylor County TX Jail: "I’m not getting my necessary medications. Told by jail staff my meds are too expensive & I had to pay for them myself. I have medicare, but can’t use it while in jail! I’m stressed over my current untreated health & fearful of dying everyday."

Letter from Taylor County Jail in Texas: "I don't know whats right or wrong in here. They do it all. I pray to wake up to another morning."

Letter from Harris County Jail in Texas: "I have not seen the sky since May 2019. I have not had no natural elements on my skin. Haven’t heard bird sing. Haven’t smelled a fresh cut of grass. This is not easy on anybody."

Letter from Harris County Jail in Texas: "I haven’t been able to sleep. I have night terrors. I’ve been trying to get something for pain. They forgot to feed us the other day. The lack of attention we get..."

Governor Abbott & TX lawmakers are now poised to make it all worse.

This week, theres a bill about to voted on in Texas to increase the number of people caged pretrial, make it impossible to pay bail for a significant additional number, strip the few judges who have any qualms about the injustice of bail of their power. It's sociopathic.

Read back through this thread. These are words, terrors, fears of only a few. Things were bad before COVID. COVID just made the cruelty in Texas jails more apparent. The last thing in the world Texas should be doing is making it worse. Please sign here: act.grassrootslaw.org/sign/hb-20/

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

More from @ScottHech

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

28 Apr

THREAD: Meet Cash Spencer. Oregon juror. Only Black person other than defendant. Thought he was innocent. White jurors didn’t need her. Convicted him anyway. Oregon juries didn’t have to be unanimous. “It breaks my heart. The system is not built for me.”

Most think of the KKK in terms of physical violence. Lynchings. Intimidation. But they also used legal & legislative process to pass laws exacting legal violence. In Louisiana & Oregon they pushed laws to silence Black jurors. To convict who they wanted. "Non-unanimous juries."

Impact: Black people are already less likely to be selected to be on a jury. More likely to be accused of crime. Non-unanimous juries led to disproportionate convictions. *They would have never been convicted & sent to prison anywhere else in the country.* The KKK got their way.

Read 14 tweets

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

22 Apr

"The first breath that this baby had on this earth was one born out of violence."

A mom will get $750k after being shackled during labor. Yet:

-Taxpayers paid for this abuse. Not NYPD.
-It's not uncommon.
-NYPD patrol guide *still allows cops to do it.cnn.com/2021/04/21/us/…

The trauma of this brutality is incalculable: "That was not my birth plan. I felt like a failure to my unborn bc that wasn't something that was planned for neither of us. I just didn't feel like myself anymore after that. I feel like my memory got taken away & still I'm in pain."

Meanwhile, for the NYPD and NYC Administration, it's just another settlement.

"NYPD declined to comment on the settlement. The New York City Law Department did not respond to requests for comment."

For the officers responsible: they're likely still on force. No discipline.

Read 4 tweets

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

21 Apr

NEWS: Accountability just nominated for a Webby Award!!

Last year, my org helped defenders, organizers, people caged, & artists, including Fiona Apple, amplify horrors of pretrial caging. Result: 100s new court watchers. Vote now to support transparency: wbby.co/soc-coactv

Defenders & organizers from PG County, MD reached out. With over 60 sworn declarations from courageous people inside of the COVID-infested jail. Knew we had to do something. GaspingForJustice.org is the product. To make it harder for people to ignore human suffering. Explore:

60+declarations like this. All submitted to a judge who called them "unhelpful." Potentially "isolated" incidents. Only "marginally relevant." Complained it hard to "cull the chaff from the wheat." Yet credited the jail.

Traditional legal advocacy wasn't going to work here.

Read 8 tweets

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

15 Apr

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1382763172558475274

Reminder: Mayor Lightfoot demeaned the "defund" movement as a "nice hashtag," fought bail reform, supported militarized responses to protests, & fought to block transparency & protect the most outrageous misconduct when cops raided a social workers home. She enabled this murder.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1382763172558475274

If history is any guide--and unfortunately it is--Mayor Lori Lightfoot will soon be slandering protestors as "looters" & defending her militarized police force as they beat, gas, & maim her residents. And then go on to support an increase in their budget for next year.

Last year, the Chicago Police Department’s budget totaled $1.68 billion, with $5 million spent on policing every day. chicago.suntimes.com/2020/6/8/21284…

Read 10 tweets

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

14 Apr

What if Derrick Chauvin didnt asphyxiate George Floyd? Kim Potter didnt shoot Daunte Wright? They'd still be alive, of course. But George & Daunte would still have been subjected to normal, brutal systemic physical & emotional violence. Like tens of thousands nameless every day.

The epidemic of police *murders* (call it what it is) underscores the ultimate & inevitable result of hypermilitarized policing w/o accountability. The ultimate loss for George Floyd, Duante Wright, & 1000s other Black men & families. But there's so much more invisible violence.

Millions of people each year suffer violence short of death. Unnecessary interactions not just with the police, but the legal system that go unnoticed. Not talking about just physical violence -- although state violence short of murder is also an epidemic. Emotional violence.

Read 10 tweets

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

13 Apr

"It’s easy to say you care about Black & Brown people. But when you have power to challenge systemic racism & you choose not to, that's scary."

Message to Oregon's Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum & other "progressive" leaders now calling for "justice:"

Weeks ago, Soledad O'Brien interviewed Terrence Hayes. Convicted by a non-unanimous jury. A practice enabled by Oregon's KKK to silence dissenting jurors & preserve white supremacy. Caged 13 years. His judge then is now the AG. With the power to topple this racist legal monument.

Ellen Rosenblum is now claiming falsely she doesn't have the power to act. "She said her hands were tied in the matter 16 years ago. It's no longer 16 years ago. They’re not tied today. She has ability and capacity to make a change and do something different." More: