The first time I ever wrote a letter someone who was incarcerated, I was in Jamaica and in my late teens.
My correspondent, the son of a friend of my mother, still had a few more years to go before he was eligible for parole. I’m not sure of our mothers’ motivations for asking us to write to each other but we did a few times before we lost touch.
I hadn’t thought of that young man again until this month: being “free” makes it all too easy to forget people.
This month, though, I got another letter from someone who was incarcerated. It was a short note from a writer I didn’t know, someone who found my work address somehow and used precious paper to reach out.
Why I’m writing about it now: I wasn’t able to participate in Southerners on New Ground‘s Mama’s Day bail-out action this weekend.
The criminal legal system justifies money bail as a tool to hold individuals accountable. For our communities, money bail is yet another tool used to hold our people hostage simply because they cannot pay bail and inevitably pushing our people deeper into the criminal legal system.” —SONG
Mother’s Day is now past, but still there’s a world to change, and supporting the people made vulnerable by that world while we change it takes money.
Please give to push SONG’s work forward—especially if you, too, are a “Card-carrying trouble-maker.” Use your freedom to remember those who are much too easily disregarded.