Your Home Is Your Prison: How to Lock Down Your Neighborhood, Your Country, and You

[marmar]

from TomDispatch:


Your Home Is Your Prison
How to Lock Down Your Neighborhood, Your Country, and You

By Maya Schenwar


On January 27th, domestic violence survivor Marissa Alexander will walk out of Florida's Duval County jail -- but she won't be free.

Alexander, whose case has gained some notoriety, endured three years of jail time and a year of house arrest while fighting off a prison sentence that would have seen her incarcerated for the rest of her life -- all for firing a warning shot that injured no one to fend off her abusive husband. Like many black women before her, Alexander was framed as a perpetrator in a clear case of self-defense. In November, as her trial date drew close, Alexander accepted a plea deal that will likely give her credit for time served, requiring her to spend "just" 65 more days in jail. Media coverage of the development suggested that Alexander would soon have her "freedom," that she would be "coming home."

Many accounts of the plea deal, however, missed what Alexander will be coming home to: she'll return to "home detention" -- house arrest -- for two years.

In other words, an electronic monitor, secured around her ankle at all times, will track her every movement. Alexander will also be paying $105 per week to the state in monitoring fees, as is the custom in Florida and more than a dozen other states.

Such a situation is certainly preferable to being caged in a prison cell. However, does Alexander's release -- and that of others in her shoes -- mean freedom? In reality, an ever-growing number of cages are proliferating around us, even if they assume forms that look nothing like our standard idea of a cage. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175944/tomgram%3A_maya_schenwar%2C_prison_by_any_other_name/#more

[CrispyQ]

1. $105 per week?

Charging people to lock them up or contain them is fucking wrong!

[2naSalit]

2. Like the OP says...

it is what happens in a number of states. It's how they enslave you with monetary penalties, even in a case like this. How dare that woman of color act like she had rights! They have to show her that this release is truly a reluctant acquiescence to public demand for justice, which the authorities hate.

[CrispyQ]

3. And George Fucking Zimmerman walks free even though he's had several incidents since Treyvon.

[2naSalit]

4. Agreed.

[appalachiablue]

5. This is debt bondage.