Fiona Apple has dropped a music video titled “Pretrial (Let Her Go Home).” It rips open the horror of how this system has tens of thousands of women in prison who haven’t been convicted of anything. These women, most of whom are Black or Brown, and many of whom are mothers, are being held in pretrial detention.
In her video, Apple shares photos and videos of some of these women and their children and tells snippets of their stories. As a co-initiator (with Cornel West) of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, this video reached inside me and touched my heart. As I write this on Mother’s Day weekend, I’m feeling that everyone with a heart and a conscience needs to check this out; watch it and share it with others.
Fiona Apple, on her song:
Time and time again, I listened as people were taken away and put in jail, for no other reason than that they couldn’t afford to buy their way free. It was particularly hard to hear mothers and caretakers get taken away from the people who depend on them. For the past five years, I have been volunteering with the Free Black Mamas DMV bailout, and I have been lucky to be able to witness the stories of women who fought for and won their freedom with the tireless and loving support of the leadership. I hope that this song, and the images shared with me, can help to show what is at stake when someone is kept in pretrial detention. I give this song in friendship and respect to all who have experienced the pain of pretrial detention and to the women of the group’s leadership who have taught me so much and whom I truly love.