Thread by @billybinion

This is the stuff of nightmares. Raquel Esquivel spent 11 years in prison on a drug charge. She was released amid COVID & got pregnant.

Now, she's been separated from her baby & sent back to prison—because of a clerical error.

My latest @reason: reason.com/2021/10/26/raq…

Esquivel should be the poster child for prison reform. She got 15 years for a drug offense. She had an exemplary record on home confinement.

...And she was taken back to prison because the halfway house forgot to log one of her check-in calls. Absurd. reason.com/2021/10/26/raq…

Thousands of prisoners were put on home confinement during COVID. Esquivel's story speaks to the success of that program.

It also speaks to the utter incompetence of our prison bureaucracy. The state forgot to log a phone call. She pays with her freedom.
reason.com/2021/10/26/raq…

This is not the first time the U.S. has sent someone to prison over a phone call. In July, I wrote about Jeffrey Martinovich, who failed to answer the phone one night on home confinement.

He was labeled an *escapee* & sent back to prison for 4 years. reason.com/2021/07/16/jef…

Conservatives have been slower to come around on prison reform.

@KevinARing explains why they should be first in line: If you care about families & about spending taxpayer money responsibly, then you cannot support locking up people like Esquivel. reason.com/2021/10/26/raq…

Let's review: A woman spent 11 years in prison for a drug offense. She has now had her newborn taken away so she can do *more* time—not bc she reoffended but bc a gov't contractor made a dumb error.

We can all agree this kind of thing needs to change. reason.com/2021/10/26/raq…