THREAD: This past year, I supported publication of commentaries by extraordinary advocates with perspective & expertise that all-too-often goes overlooked. Public defenders. Formerly incarcerated. Family of those in cages. In case you missed them: 
In Oregon, people are still imprisoned/burdened by a KKK law allowing up to 2 jurors votes to be disregarded. Terrence Hayes was caged 13 years prison in 2004. "While I was not kidnapped by white men in hoods, I was caged because of their law." usatoday.com/story/opinion/…
In Harris County, TX, people who need help for mental health crises get armed cops & trauma. Mary-Grace Ruden is a public defender who represents people w/ mental health issues. “Our communities are not made safer or healthier. Instead, people die.”currentaffairs.org/2021/03/our-no…
In Chicago, Cassandra Greer-Lee’s husband Nick died in a Chicago jail from COVID. She called for help 132 times. In this powerful essay, she *slams "so-called 'progressive' leaders praised for their pandemic response," but indifferent to those they cage.currentaffairs.org/2021/02/covid-…
Chicago public defender Takenya Nixon Brail takes on violence & fearmongering about a "surge" in a crime. "A tragic death was once again being weaponized by the media, police, leaders, & lawmakers to scare the public into thinking more police is the answer.teenvogue.com/story/rising-c…
Juvenile defender Cathryn Crawford on how e-carceration *is* incarceration. “I recently sat w/ a young man. About missing 4th funeral bc of electronic monitoring. Not allowed to grieve w/ family. Had to sit home & mourn alone." Second in Teen Vogue series.teenvogue.com/story/electron…
Civil rights attorney Iveliz Orellano on prosecutions of protestors. For stealing dish soap: 7 years prison! Prosecutors call it "looting." Not one Chicago cop charged in violent crackdown. Yet nearly 200 protestors still face 100s years for similar things.teenvogue.com/story/black-li…
NYC public defender @msolurin grappled w/ why even those who oppose mass criminalization keep believing in it. "Weve been educated by the same popular culture — taught to accept the same cruelty." A Law & Order mindset. 4th in Teen Vogue series. teenvogue.com/story/law-and-…
Sharone Mitchell is a Black man from the Southside of Chicago. A lifelong organizer. An advocate for gun control. Now Chief Defender of Chicago. He wants Supreme Court to end criminalization of gun possession. "I am tired of seeing my community broken."thenation.com/article/politi…
Lori James Townes is a lifelong social worker & educator. Pushes back against idea of social workers responding to crises w/ police. “The response of officers, looking to control & suppress instead of solve problems, typically only escalated a situation.” slate.com/news-and-polit…
Elder Qualls is father to a Black 42 y/o man sentenced to life w/o parole for murder at 16. Long before the trial, he cautioned against our demanding harshness for Rittenhouse. He knows well who harshness usually gets dolled out against. And doesn’t help.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Video op-ed. 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.”
Video op-ed. Robert Jones. Community Coordinator at New Orleans public defenders. On the 1000s caged in Louisiana w/o access to a lawyer. Louisiana has always underfunded defense. But COVID has left the state in constitutional crisis.
Shearod McFarland, who spent *over 9 years* in solitary: “It’s a way the institution has of wearing you down, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, physically. It’s like a slow war, like a slow burn. Like a slow, quiet form of torture.” theappeal.org/solitary-confi…
Audio op-ed. A man caged pretrial in Texas. 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 really need your help." More:
Working in partnership with local advocates who had developed profound relationships of trust w/ people caged in solitary confinement in Michigan, we helped launch this growing digital archive of first hand experiences. 100 letters. So much courage. silenced.in
Audio op-ed. 4 men in Miami jail tried to save Charles Hobbs suffocating in a cell of men infected w/ COVID. Guards ignored them. He died. Those men bravely spoke out. “I went to sleep w/ tears in my eyes. Grabbing my bible.” These are their voices:
Working in partnership with local advocates @TxJailProject who had developed profound relationships of trust w/ people caged pretrial in Texas, we helped launch this growing digital archive of first hand experiences. 100 letters/audios/art. Sheddinglight.in
Blessed to work with so many extraordinary colleagues working behind scenes to ensure those closest to the problem are heard & listened to. The work continues. Now and this coming year and beyond.
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