Friend,

People who are incarcerated cannot practice social distancing inside a cage. But right now, thousands of people who haven’t even been charged with a crime are trapped behind bars, at higher risk of contracting the coronavirus. Why? Simply because they cannot afford to pay bail.

Punishing people just for being poor is already immoral and cruel, but it’s even worse in the midst of a pandemic where jails are among the most dangerous hotspots for the virus.

But you can do something about it right now, friend. This Mother’s Day, the Michigan Black Mama's Bailout Coalition is raising funds to pay bail for Black mothers so they can spend time with their families and stay safe this Mother’s Day.

Please chip in now to bail Black mamas out of jail. Together, we can free legally innocent people so they can be home with their families for Mother’s Day.

When mothers are locked in cages, entire families and communities suffer. Even a few days behind bars can result in irreparable physical, emotional, and financial harm: Parents may lose their jobs, housing, and even their children.

Last year for Mother’s Day, we helped raise funds for Michigan Black Mamas Bailout. In the process of coordinating bailouts in 2019, local groups found that posting bail was not enough to keep people free. People often have to pay pre-trial probation fees, sometimes to companies that monitor them electronically. If they miss one payment, they can be thrown back in jail.

Remember: These are people who have not been convicted of anything. Yet they’re still being punished and pushed further into poverty. This is especially outrageous during the pandemic, as more and more families are devastated by financial crises.

Please chip in now to bring our mothers home for Mother’s Day—and to fight the cruel money bail system, which punishes families for being poor.

We know that due to a long history of systemic racism, Black people are disproportionately impacted both by COVID-19 and by our country’s criminal legal system.

In my district, while Black people make up only 40% of the population in Michigan’s Wayne County, 70% of people in its jails are Black. Across the country, Black people are twice as likely to be held pretrial as white people. Again, people held pretrial haven’t even been found guilty of a crime: They’re awaiting trial in cages because they can’t afford to post bail.

Black people are much more likely to be targeted for arrests and even executions just for existing.

In Georgia, people shot and killed Ahmaud Arbery just for being a Black man out jogging. But these murderers, who are white, were not arrested until two-and-a-half months after Arbery’s murder.

Unarmed Black Lives Matter protesters regularly face armored vehicles, masses of police in riot gear, and pepper spray. Meanwhile, right now in Michigan’s capital, white people dressed like militia members, wearing Nazi symbols and carrying assault weapons, are threatening state legislators and staff in protests against the COVID-related shutdowns—without much police presence at all.

We have a lot of work to do to transform our broken systems. But the best action you can take right now, friend, is to help free people from jail. Any amount you can spare right now will truly make a difference.

This Mother’s Day, can you chip in $25 or more—or whatever you can—to bring our Black mamas home?

In jails and prisons, alcohol-based hand sanitizer is banned, social distancing is impossible, and people can’t access basic hygienic supplies like soap. No wonder the number of new coronavirus cases among incarcerated people is more than doubling each week.

Just this week came a horrific story from a Michigan prison. Susan Farrell’s bunkmate screamed for help for 45 minutes while Susan had seizures, eventually dying of COVID-19 before anyone came to help. Instead of providing support, prison staff cuffed and stripped Susan’s bunkmate, and then punished her—for calling for help for a dying woman—by putting her in severe solitary confinement for three days.

This story is heartbreaking and infuriating, but likely not unusual.

Since the coronavirus outbreak, I’ve joined congressional colleagues to demand the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices improve conditions inside confinement facilities and reduce the number of incarcerated people immediately, including people who are awaiting trial. Unfortunately, these agencies haven’t acted with urgency or transparency to address the scope of the problem.

Instead, the United States continues to incarcerate more people than anywhere else in the world—including a disproportionate number of people with chronic health conditions who are even more susceptible to contracting and dying from COVID-19.

But I learned from Detroit’s Grace Lee Boggs that transformative change doesn’t happen in the halls of Congress: It happens when the people demand it, at the grassroots level.

Incredible groups on the ground, like Mothering Justice, are fighting to ensure that incarcerated people are included and protected in the pandemic response.

One major demand for a just pandemic response is to release people from prisons and jails, especially people who haven’t even been charged or convicted. If you can afford to chip in, you can help with this urgent issue right now.

Can you donate now to bail out mothers in Michigan, so they can spend this Mother’s Day with their families and reduce their risk of contracting the coronavirus?

In solidarity,

Rashida