For Immediate Release As people of faith, we believe that peace can only be realized when the human dignity of every person is fully upheld and honored. For far too long, too many in our communities have been made to feel that their cries are falling on deaf ears. If we have ears to hear them, the uplifted voices, broken-out windows, and burnt buildings are merely tangible expressions of the palpable pain reverberating through our communities. It is critical in this moment that we listen to these cries of agony and outrage –– deep pain borne throughout generations –– from Black people and all those oppressed by the demonic system of white supremacy. We can no longer accept neutrality, passivity, or ambiguity. We must serve our community in this moment by heeding the call and making it irrefutably clear that we stand together. Peace can only be found when our community is made whole and all people are treated as the sacred beings we are. Under no circumstance does the violation of property equate to violations of human dignity and life. It is not our place or desire to dictate how people express their grief and pain but it is our duty to do our part to keep people out of cages. To this end, Faith in Texas is working to bail out activists jailed during recent protests in support of Black lives. We will not find peace by locking our brothers and sisters in cages that further dehumanize them and devalue their lives, especially in jails overrun with a deadly virus. Peace is inextricably linked to dignity and equity. If we truly seek peace for our nation, we must listen deeply to the cries of the oppressed, and tap into our prophetic imaginations to unleash a new system of justice – justice that ensures the hungry are fed, the vulnerable are cared for, that the sick are healed. Only when every person in our community is valued will we realize true peace. No matter our faith or religious creed, we are all believers in humanity. We are people of diverse races, socioeconomic backgrounds, and professions. We are family, friends, neighbors, and community. We must all use our voice, our vote, our power, and our privilege to create a new system that is truly good news to the poor, sight for the blind, and freedom for the oppressed. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” –– Luke 4:18-19
Tiara Cooper on Fox4 News: Officials release 1,000 inmates to ease crowding, slow spread of COVID-19 at Dallas County jail
Jails across the country are seeing more and more inmates and workers infected. In Dallas County, there is an effort to control the spread by releasing some inmates. The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed 42 positive cases of COVID-19 in inmates. That’s 30 more than were reported this past week. … Tiara Cooper, formerly incarcerated at Lew Sterrett, now advocates for inmates with Live Free Faith in Texas. She says they would still like to see more inmates released to allow for more distancing inside the jail. She also said there’s concern for newly released inmates and the communities they return to. She worries some inmates may have been exposed to the virus and of those released, she says many will end up homeless or return to communities with an already high number of COVID-19 cases. “My hope for the people that are being released is that they are tested as soon as possible and that they have those direct services that are needed and necessary in this hour,” Cooper said. Excerpted from Fox4 News. Read the full story here.
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Partners with Mano Amiga and Faith in Texas to Free People From Jail as Coronavirus Spreads
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights has expanded its #MassBailOut campaign, partnering with Mano Amiga and Faith in Texas to swiftly and responsibly release people from jails in Dallas and Hays County to help flatten the curve as the coronavirus threat intensifies. Not only are jails dangerously overcrowded—making social distancing impossible—and low on necessary hygiene resources as basic as soap, but because they are short-term facilities, more than 200,000 people flow in and out of them every week. This constant churn makes jails potent incubators for COVID-19, enabling the spread of the virus to everyone on-site, including guards and staff, as well as to the general public. Most people caged in our jails have not been convicted of a crime; they simply cannot afford to pay their bail. They are mothers, fathers, grandparents, neighbors. And they are trapped in jail as COVID-19 approaches because they don’t have the $1,000 or even $100 (and sometimes as little as $25) needed to buy their freedom—and with it, the safety of sheltering at home with family. “What’s happening on Rikers Island, and in New York overall, is a blaring wake-up call, showing us how much worse this crisis will get if we don’t immediately empty our jails,” said Wade McMullen, senior vice president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. “Unfortunately, state officials are dragging their feet, failing to take lifesaving action at the very moment when we can still make a difference. Their failure to free legally innocent people who are jailed pretrial on unaffordable money bail demonstrates the brokenness and inhumanity of our so-called ‘justice’ system.” With the expansion, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and its partners will have helped free more than 215 individuals across nine states, sparing them from having to endure the horrors of pretrial detention and needless exposure to the coronavirus simply because they didn’t have enough money to make bail. “The cash bail system unjustly punishes the poor, subjecting them to days, weeks, if not years behind bars on unproven charges purely because they can’t afford their freedom,” said Kerry Kennedy, president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. “COVID-19 urgently magnifies the steep price of pretrial detention and we, as a human rights organization, won’t stand idly by in the face of such abuse.”
