Hey John, I'm writing to see if you saw my message about our campaign to end electronic monitoring of innocent Black people in St. Louis.
Last week, I had the opportunity to go to St. Louis as our amazing organizers Dominique and Melanie trained a new cohort of court watchers. They learned how to observe courts and record information about how many people are assigned electronic monitors before their trials. This is crucial data that's not easily available, and as long as it's hidden, this system will continue targeting low-income Black people without oversight.
Unfortunately, after looking at the numbers, it looks like a lot of people I sent this email to missed it over the Labor Day weekend. We raised less than we hoped to keep this program going, but after meeting our hardworking members in person, I felt inspired to ask again: will you support them as they hold these courts accountable and train Black people to stand up for our own communities?
Until justice is real,
Arisha
P.S. Check out some photos of our members being trained that I took while I was there!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Arisha Michelle Hatch, Color Of Change
Date: August 30, 2019
Subject: Over 200 people in St. Louis are in electronic cages.
Dear John,
Imagine paying $10 a day to be monitored by the police.
Hundreds of people in St. Louis are forced to do this. For these innocent people awaiting trial, electronic monitoring bracelets cost them $300 up front, $10 per day, plus a $50 installation fee. People often have to start second jobs, sell TVs and laptops, or take kids out of childcare just to pay these fees.1
And all of this money goes to a private company Eastern Missouri Alternative Sentencing Services (EMASS). This company is profiting off of innocent, low-income Black people under the facade of offering “alternatives” to money bail.
The St. Louis court system's business partnership with EMASS is undermining our work to transform criminal justice, and we won’t stand for it. We’re training community members in St. Louis as Court Watchers so we can collect proof of the electronic monitoring crisis and force lawmakers to confront it. Our program is scheduled to run through November, but we already know it will take more time to win. Will you donate $5 so we can continue our Court Watch program to expose this blatant exploitation of innocent Black people?
Electronic monitoring puts people in an electronic cage. If you’re wearing an EMASS electronic ankle bracelet, you have to charge it for an hour and a half every day while it’s still on your leg, making it difficult to work full-time jobs or travel for extended amounts of time. In a 2011 survey, 22% of people reported being fired from a job because of their ankle bracelets.2 And that’s if they’ll even hire you in the first place with a bulky bracelet in plain view. Over 200 people in St. Louis were forced to wear these bracelets last year.1
To push back, we need the data to prove how this is impacting Black people in St. Louis. Since this information isn’t easily available to the public, we’re gathering it ourselves. So far, we’ve trained over 30 St. Louis community members in our Court Watch program: they attend hearings and take notes on every decisions judges make, including when people are put on electronic monitors.
In November, we’ll be releasing a public report of our findings, which will:
- Ensure activists and lawmakers in St. Louis have statistics about the courts to help them back up their campaigns to end electronic monitoring and other racist practices
- Give us the data we need to push Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to call on judges to reject electronic cages, holding him to his campaign promise of transforming criminal justice in St. Louis County
- Show judges in St. Louis County that the public is watching them, and that we will hold them accountable if they continue to target low-income Black communities
It's rapidly nearing time to launch the next phase of our campaign to end electronic monitoring in St. Louis. Will you chip in $5 to help us keep our Court Watch program going after our report releases?
Our work has already uncovered some alarming patterns. Different judges are inconsistent, some assigning electronic monitors all the time while others rarely do. Some waive the monitor fees, others don’t. Some issue arrest warrants if people don’t pay their debt to EMASS, others turn their head.1 These choices are all in the hands of individual judges who can only be held accountable if people know what they’re doing.
Our Court Watch program is the most powerful tool we have to expose electronic cages for the racist, profiteering scam they are. Your support will help us implement the findings from our November report, train more people in St. Louis to be Court Watchers, and hire more staff to run the program.
Until justice is real,
Arisha, Jenni, Charles, Daniel, Tammi, Scott and the Color Of Change team
Sources
- "Digital jail: How electronic monitoring drives defendants into debt", Pro Publica, 3 July 2019, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/178305?t=8&akid=35475%2E4731121%2EAu40Qx
- "Electronic Monitoring", National Institute of Justice, September 2011, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/178306?t=10&akid=35475%2E4731121%2EAu40Qx
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