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Update in P.G. County, MD. 3 months later. The jail population is up over 700. 200+ more than even the jail admitted in court was "safe" from COVID. New cases are spiking in Black overpoliced communities. Those arrested brought in. Courts just closed out Court Watch from Zoom. https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status/1282496571951767552
Back when Fiona Apple read 1 of over 60 sworn declarations, local public defenders were banging their heads against the wall. Top prosecutor Aisha Braveboy ( @SABraveboy) was doing nothing. And local judges were so cold they started issuing boilerplate denial decisions:
60+declarations like this. All submitted to Obama-nominated Paula Xinis. On June 22, she expressed her frustration. Called them "unhelpful." Potentially "isolated" incidents. Only "marginally relevant." Complained it hard to "cull the chaff from the wheat." Yet credited the jail.
Advocates were shut down. The people they represented, were unable actually to be heard, so at risk of retaliation shared their experiences via writing. Then denigrated as "marginally relevant" by a federal judge. We launched http://GaspingForJustice.org . Their words read on camera.
Jesse Williams. "I didn't come here to die." https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status/1281414028456337410?s=20
Professor & Pulitzer Prize-Winner, James Foreman: "When people first started to get sick we didnt even get soap for free." https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status/1281416749506863105?s=20
Alec Baldwin. "They don't seem to care about us." https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status/1281425134017040384?s=20
Things started to change after launching http://GaspingForJustice.org . $25k in bail fund. 175+ new court watch volunteers. Thousands of petition signatures. Top prosecutor, Aisha Braveboy ( @SABraveboy) got concerned. Howard Law, her alma mater, started showing up to court watch. Then:
Then COVID in jails & prisons receded from national & local headlines. Yes, prosecutors were acting a little more careful in court with all these court observers. But still, the jail population started to climb, as in the rest of the country: https://twitter.com/davidminpdx/status/1309653818649595904?s=20
Just last week, unannounced, the courts in Prince George's County, MD cut the court watch program off from Zoom. Courts are supposed to be "open." But who is going to go down in person given everything?
