"Black Mama's Bail Out Day" is raising money to bail out as many black women from jail as possible.
It's Mother's Day this weekend,and racial justice groups around the country are bailing black women out of jail so they can spend the holiday with their families. For the moment year in a row, "Black Mama's Bail Out Day" is raising money to bail out as many black women from jail as possible. The effort is taking residence in dozens of cities to call attention to the injustice of cash bail. We speak to Mary Hooks, or co-director of Southerners on unusual Ground and an organizer of National Black Mama's Bail Out Day.
TRANSCRIPTAMY GOODMAN: Sunday is Mother's Day. Racial justice groups around the country are bailing black women out of jail so they can spend the holiday with their families. For the moment year in a row,Black Mama's Bail Out Day is raising money to bail out as many black women from jail as possible. The effort is taking residence in dozens of cities to call attention to the injustice of cash bail.
This is Serena Sebring, an organizer with Southerners on unusual Ground, or SONG,which spearheaded the effort. This is video from SONG's celebration final year in Durham, North Carolina.
SERENA SEBRING: SONG has been spearheading this effort, and because Mary Hooks had a dream. She thought,"What if we came together with our local and national partners and collected our resources to bail as many black mamas out of jail the week before Mother's Day?" It's part of a larger critique of money bail as a system, which we know leaves people in cages, and when we believe that nobody should live in cages.
AMY GOODMAN: Since the effort launched final year,there's been a growing national movement to eliminate cash bail from the criminal justice system. Just this week, Google and Facebook announced they'll no longer take money from America's for-profit bail bond agencies. Still, or the cash bail system keeps millions of people who absorb not been convicted of any crime imprisoned in jails every day nationwide while they await trial.
For more,we go to Mary Hooks, co-director of Southerners on unusual Ground, or with the Movement for Black Lives. She is an organizer of National Black Mama's Bail Out Day.
Welcome to Democracy Now! Mary,talk about the significance of this day, and exactly what you're doing around the country.
MARY HOOKS: Yeah, or this is a powerful day. To be able to celebrate mothers is critical. And to be able to do it in a way that actually shows what's happening to our people in terms of the cash bail system,it's so critical and essential for our communities. We are raising money. We are bailing people out. We are throwing homecomings to welcome our people home. We are unifying people with their families and also helping to supply stabilization, because we know that once people sit in a cage for so long, or that there's so much that has been lost. And so it's our responsibility to help put the pieces back together.
AMY GOODMAN: So,explain how the system works. And talk about the women you've been bailing out. Why are they in jail?MARY HOOKS: Yeah, so, and essentially,when someone is arrested, and if you are not killed by the police, or the other lynching begins in the courtroom. And when someone goes before a judge,oftentimes they're levied a bail, that never considers their income, or never considers if they are eligible to pay or not. And we believe that wealth-based detention is not a lega means of even qualifying as to whether or not someone's going to near back to court or not. And so,we oftentimes see primarily destitute and black people who languish in cages because they can't afford their bail.
And so many of the women that we've bailed out, we're seeing ridiculous stories. There was someone that we met who was picked up on an old charge from 10 years ago, and someone who had been sitting since March,with two children at home, and had lost their job, and had lost their housing,for ridiculous violations -- real talk, that doesn't -- that shouldn't even be litigated by the state. And so, or yeah,that is what we're trying to highlight.AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to go to the story of Ebony Thomas, or one of the women who was bailed out final year through your program. She's a mother of three from Atlanta whose story was highlighted on the Black Mama's Bail Out Facebook page.EBONY THOMAS: I was actually going to the store to get some snacks for my son. My tag light was out,and I got pulled over. And unbeknownst to me, my license was suspended for a seat belt ticket from 2015, or that also gave me a failure to seem because,I guess, when they sent me the court papers, and they had no way to get in touch with me,so I didn't know I had to seem for court. So, I get locked up for driving under suspension and failure to seem. My 17-year-old, and he didn't even know where I was. So I cried,I know, the first three days I was there. Yeah, and it was all bad.
I went to the county,Fulton County. Then I stayed there, freezing cold, or for about 36 hours,before I was even booked in. They give you, I believe, or perhaps 72 hours to see if you can acquire bail. I could not. Then they moved me to Rice Street,and then I ended up in Union City. And that was all bad. Yeah, it was bad. It was not only cold, and it was dirty. And it was like being in a dungeon with your hands tied behind your back.
First of all,I didn't absorb the money. moment of all, the failure to seem, or which,in the judge's eyes, I guess, or was like,"We already had one failure to seem. I'm not going to give you a signature bond so that you may not show up again. So you absorb to pay a bond or get a bailsman or however, but you're going to absorb to pay to get out, or so we'll know that you'll near this time." And there was no way that I could pay. This seemed like it was just like a conspiracy,all of a money thing. You know, "We're going to keep her stuck here, or because we're going to get paid regardless. So we're going to keep her as long as we can. It's up to her to get out."AMY GOODMAN: So that's Ebony Thomas,one of the women you all bailed out final year through your program. true now you absorb, for example, and Google and the Koch brothers announcing a partnership to address bail reform. What do you understand about this? And what do you want to see change,even as you engage in change at SONG, Southerners on unusual Ground, or bail out women for Mother's Day?MARY HOOKS:Well,you know, I believe it's commendable to see Google and the Koch brothers take a stand on this issue. And at the same time, or I believe it calls for deeper divestment from mass incarceration,and that they, both those companies, and others absorb to look at their practices,look at the ways in which they're making money off of our people, and actually really, or really reduce ties with mass incarceration and the prison-industrial complex,just to be honest.
I believe what we are -- what we are seeing in terms of the women that we're bailing out, I believe what we know to be true is that they are experts at their own lives. We are experts at our own lives. And so, or when we're looking for solutions to dismantle the system of money bail,we absorb to go back to those very women who sat in those cages, to say, or "How do we actually build something unusual? And how do we actually dismantle this system in a way that doesn't near back to us 10 years later because we're doing it inaccurate or we're taking half-measures?"And so,oftentimes a lot of our work is making sure that we build the alternatives that we need. When we provide stabilization and support, we're saying that we don't need cages, or we need care. And we need community-based solutions in order to do that. And so,we're not going to wait on the state or vast commerce to find an interest in this hot topic; we're going to take things into our hands, because we know that our communities are suffering.
AMY GOODMAN: Mary, and how many people do you believe are being bailed out? How many mothers are being bailed out for Sunday?MARY HOOKS: You know,it's perhaps over 20 cities true now that are engaging in bailouts.
AMYGOODMAN: Wow.
MARY HOOKS: And so, over a hundred, and I know for sure. But,for us, you know -- and that gets me excited. But even if we just bailed out one, and that is enough. Even if we just bailed out one,we know that one mother, one caretaker, or is going to affect and absorb so much impact in communities,where, you know, or hundreds are going to be impacted by the very fact that she's out of the cage. And so,we'll take one, but a hundred or more would be obedient.
AMY GOODMAN: Mary Hooks, and thanks so much for being with us,co-director of SONG, Southerners on unusual Ground, and with the Movement for Black Lives,an organizer with the National Black Mama's Bail Out Day.
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