Thread: This mothers day, I'm thinking about Cindy Rodriguez. She was a 51-year-old mother of two living with a physical disability. She was arrested for shoplifting from a grocery store. What happened next will shake you to the core, and inspire you. (1)
Because Cindy had never been arrested in her life, the DA told her that her case would be dismissed if she just paid some fees. This kind of extortion is common. But for Cindy it unraveled her life. She was so poor that she had trouble even paying for utilities. (2)
Like hundreds of thousands of others in Tennessee, Cindy was placed on "probation" with a private company because she couldn't afford the debts. The company began adding many of its own fees, taking its cut first and threatening her that she would be jailed if she didn't pay. (3)
Cindy was mocked and threatened for having disability and not being able to pay the company. Even though her grocery store theft didn't involve drugs, the company made her submit to humiliating drug tests where someone *watched* her urinate. Each test added $20 to her debts. (4)
Cindy was so afraid of being jailed and separated from her kids that she paid the company instead of paying her car loan, and she lost her car. She couldn't go places and became isolated. She then started diverting her disability check to the company. (5)
After about a year, Cindy had paid off most of the original debt, but with all the new fees, she still owed about as much as she started. Because she couldn't pay, the company and the court issued an arrest warrant. The same thing happened to hundreds of thousands of others. (6)
Across the U.S. the police spend much of their bloated budgets enforcing these warrants. They don't want you to know that. Here's what police did to Cindy (7)
Police then posted her mugshot on Facebook, and Cindy's preacher and friends all saw that she had "violated her probation." She was not even allowed to appear for her court hearing without paying the company another $20 for a new drugs test. (8)
The company and court made millions of dollars. But Cindy told her story to a group of law students who were on a spring break trip to Tennessee, and Cindy decided to fight. She filed the most important civil rights case to challenge privatization of court debt collection. (9)
But as the company and county fought in court, Cindy became homeless and too sick to carry on. She passed away before the case was finally resolved--a life destroyed by the daily violence of cops, prosecutors, judges, and the bureaucracy that enriches already wealthy people. (10)
Cindy and our other clients won the case. They put the company out of business, got $14.3 million for tens of thousands of the poorest people in Rutherford County, TN, and won a federal injunction banning people from being jailed because they can't pay debts. (11)
And our incredible team @CivRightsCorps just won another settlement this past week in a similar case against another county and two more for-profit probation companies. We'll keep fighting these injustices with every ounce of energy we have. (End)
Thread: Today's story is heartbreaking, but it's important. Police arrested a woman who was homeless because a cop said she hit him with an umbrella. What happened next is the everyday violence of our court system. (1)
Based on the cop's allegations, the court in Houston had a bail hearing after the arrest. But the judge, DA, and Sheriff didn't bother bringing the woman to her own bail hearing. In her absence, the judge required a cash bond for her release, even though she had no money. (2)
Then she sat in jail. One month, two months, three months, five months her case was continued. Then her case was forgotten for nine more months while she languished in jail. Then, 455 days after the cop arrested her, she was brought to court to decide whether to plead guilty. (3)
THREAD: Today's story is about a man who was jailed in Houston because he couldn't pay $100 cash. What happened next is horrifying: the system lost him. What he endured is important, and people should know about it. (1)
The man was arrested for allegedly writing two bad checks. When the court held his bail hearing the next day, jail guards couldn't find him. So the prosecutor and judge just did his bail hearing without him! The judge said he could be released, but only if he paid $100. (2)
Then he was forgotten. A week passed, then 4, then 8. About 2.5 months later, he sent a desperate handwritten note to the judge. He begged to finally come to court b/c COVID was killing people in the jail: "So my hope is to be seen one less person out the way. God Bless." (3)
THREAD: This is the story of a man arrested for trying to steal a loaf of bread, meat, cheese, and deodorant from a grocery store in Texas, and what it says about our society. He was kept in a jail cell because he couldn't pay $10 cash bail. (1)
When the man was arrested, he told the police that he was "hungry." It is difficult to imagine a more cruel act than to tell someone with no money that they are free to be released from a virus-ridden cage so long as they pay $10. (2)
The reason the prosecutor, police, and court kept him in jail for $10 even though he is presumed innocent is a new emergency rule by the Texas Governor bars release of certain people unless they pay some amount of cash. (3)
THREAD: There is so much dangerous nonsense in Biden administration's budget request for federal prosecutors and cops. And the media coverage is just state violence propaganda. Wow. Here are a few important points: (1) nytimes.com/live/2021/05/0…
First, feds are requesting $1.2 billion *more cash* for local police, a 33% increase after federal felonies by cops against protesters across the country on video. This money will be used to brutalize poor people, Black people, and immigrants, and the feds know it. (2)
This is incredible: the NYT ignores the entire history of federal "community policing" spending as a counterinsurgency tactic and tells readers that these brutal violent initiatives are "programs that address systemic inequities in policing." Shameful. (3)
It is with a heavy heart that we watch what is happening in Texas. Legislators have been hoodwinked into a "bail reform" bill that is illegal and expensive, that will separate tens of thousands of families, and that will mean more deaths on cold jail floors. (1)
A few months ago, we all learned of the gruesome death of Preston Chaney, one of so many human beings who have continued to die because of Texas's cash bail rules since Sandra Bland. (2)
THREAD: Preston Chaney died in the Houston jail. He was trapped there for 3.5 months b/c he couldn't pay $100 after being accused of stealing lawn equipment and frozen meat. This week Texas may pass a bill that would kill many more poor people. It's vital that you help. (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 before he contracted COVID and died struggling for oxygen. (2)
Sandra Bland died in a Texas jail cell when she was 28 years old because she couldn't pay cash bail. In Houston alone, about *10 people died every year* before @CivRightsCorps@tfdp@ACLUTx@ACLU@TXCivilRights sued on behalf of people who are too poor to pay cash bail. (3)