Black women bailed out of jail for Mother’s Day courtesy of FedFam4Life

Credit: The Palm Beach Post

By Wendy Rhodes | The Palm Beach Post
May 11, 2020

WEST PALM BEACH — Six incarcerated South Florida women were able to spend Mother’s Day with their families, thanks to a coordinated effort to free black women from jails led by the national organization Black Mama Bail Out.

Black Mama Bail Out, a collective of grassroots organizers, activists and formerly incarcerated women, posted bonds Sunday morning ranging from $600 to $14,000 for women who could not otherwise afford bail.

Five women in Miami were bailed out, as was one, Kenria Woodson, from the Palm Beach County Jail in West Palm Beach.

“I feel good, because I have help from somebody,” said Woodson, a soft-spoken 20-year-old who was jailed Wednesday on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia, trespassing and failure to comply with coronavirus ordinances.

The Palm Beach County public defender’s office worked with Black Mama Bail Out to identify Woodson as a good fit for the project.

“We’re so grateful that they’re doing this and are going to get some of these women home with their families,” said Jennifer Loyless, a project coordinator at the public defenders’ office. “The reality of this is that these women are among many in jail who are there simply because they cannot afford to post their bond.”

Working for the first time with Black Mama Bail Out, local activists Tray Johns and Foxxy Manning coordinated the release. The couple, veterans and co-founders of FedFam4Life, greeted Woodson with smiles and a “Happy Mother’s Day” sign as she walked out of jail into the Sunday morning rain.

“She was like a deer in the headlights,” Johns said of Woodson. “She’d never heard of people just helping. It was overwhelming to her.”

Johns and Manning drove Woodson to her friend’s house, where Woodson, who has no children, planned to clean up before visiting her mother in Belle Glade.

FedFam4Life, a non-profit charity working to fee black women from prison, provided Woodson, who was identified by the sheriff’s office as homeless, a $50 gift card, cell phone and a gift bag stuffed with toiletries and personal hygiene products. They plan to speak with Woodson again Monday to help coordinate a job and make sure she has a place to stay.

Johns and Manning said their goal in partnering with Black Mama Bail Out is to take the program one step further by making sure women who are released from jail have the resources to obtain jobs and housing. It is one of many issues the couple, active with numerous charities that advocate for women and minorities, said they dedicate their lives to.

Johns counts among her greatest achievements helping to obtain freedom for Tynice Hall, a black 22-year-old jailed in 2009 in Texas on drug charges. Hall, a new mother, was sentenced to 35 years in prison, but insisted the drugs belonged to her 44-year-old dealer boyfriend.

Johns saw the sentence as a travesty — and so did President Donald Trump. On Feb. 18, Trump granted clemency for Hall and six others, including former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who received the lion’s share of the press.

Like Hall, black women are often jailed for drug-related crimes having to do with “falling for the wrong guy,” Johns said. She also said that when women can’t afford bail, they are unable to take an active role in their own defenses, which can lead to harsher sentences.

“Starting at a young age, black women are disproportionately incarcerated,” said Manning. “Young, black women are seen as adults far earlier than their counterparts. Even in school they suffer harsher disciplinary actions and it continues on clear through adulthood.”

Johns, now a 44-year-old grandmother, knows from personal experience how one moment can change the course of a woman’s entire life. Five days after earning her bachelor’s degree in pre-law from Southern Illinois University, the Chicago native was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

“I’d never been in trouble in my life,” she said. “I was in federal prison for $450 worth of drugs, and now I’m a convicted felon.”

At the time, Johns, then 25, was the sole caretaker of her six year-old son, as well as seven of her brother’s and sister’s children, all under the age of 12.

During the eight years she served in prison, Johns continued to study law. While she never took the bar, she said she became a darn good “jailhouse lawyer,” committed to helping other black women navigate a legal system too often stacked against them.

Today, in addition to her work with FedFam4Life, Johns is also a South Florida Criminal Justice Organizer with New Florida Majority. With the help of law students from The City University of New York (CUNY), she and Manning work alongside others to help black women avoid pretrial detention, and, ultimately, mass incarceration.

“They are forced to languish in jail, causing their families and communities to suffer,” New Florida Majority Campaign Director Valencia Gunder said about the result of not being able to afford bail. “We are bailing out black mamas because they are caregivers, nurturers, and the backbone of our families. They deserve to be praised, loved, and uplifted — not locked in cages.”

Tynice Hall joins Kim Kardashian at White House with other women Kim helped free

Credit: Getty Images

BBC.com
March 4, 2020

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian tweeted pictures of her visit to the White House on Wednesday with Tynice and two other women recently freed from prison.

US President Donald Trump cut short the jail sentences of Crystal Munoz, Judith Negron and Tynice Hall in February.

The women were jailed for drug-related and white collar crimes, and all had young children when imprisoned.

In 2018 Kardashian West lobbied the White House on behalf of a grandmother jailed for life.

Mr Trump is believed to have met the three women who visited on Wednesday, according to the New York Post.

"President Trump commuted the sentences of three really deserving women. I didn't hear much about it in the news so I wanted to share with you their stores!" Kardashian West tweeted.

"I have the pleasure of spending the day with these women today along with @AliceMarieFree [Alice Johnson] who helped to pick these women."

The women's names were suggested by Alice Johnson, a 63-year-old grandmother who was granted clemency in a high-profile decision by Mr Trump in 2018. Kardashian West had lobbied the White House for her release.

Ms Johnson was given a life sentence for a non-violent drugs conviction in 1996, and became a symbol for many of harsh sentencing in the US.

It was Kardashian West who called Ms Johnson to say she was free, her lawyers said.

US presidents have the power to cut short sentences of criminals or even pardon them.

In February Mr Trump granted clemency to eleven people in total, including former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.

The women had also appealed to President Barack Obama for their sentences to be commuted before he left office, but the requests were denied.

Kardashian West, who announced last year that she was training to be a lawyer, is campaigning for changes to the US justice system. She shares concerns about long sentences handed down to first-time offenders and the disproportionate effect on ethnic minority communities.

The US leads the world in the number of jailed citizens.

Crystal Munoz was pregnant when she was jailed. She gave birth in shackles.

Her experience was highlighted in the 2018 bill the First Step Act, championed by Mr Trump, that banned shackling of female prisoners in labour.

Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka also tweeted a picture of the group of women in the West Wing.

Who are the freed women?

• Crystal Munoz was found guilty of drug conspiracy in 2008 and given an 18-year sentence. She drew a map for friends that was used in trafficking drugs from the to Mexico, but she says she was unaware of its purpose, according to Rolling Stone. She left a five-month-old baby at home and gave birth in jail.

• Judith Negron was sentenced to 35 years for conspiracy to commit health care fraud in 2011. She was found guilty of orchestrating a $205 million Medicare fraud scheme. It was her first offence. She left two sons at home.

• Tynice Hall was convicted on drug charges in 2006 when she was 22. Her boyfriend was the main target of the investigation, and large amounts of drugs were found in their homes. She left her three-year-old son at home.

Tynice Hall granted clemency by President Donald Trump

Credit: Change.org

By Samantha Jarpe | Everything Lubbock
February 19th, 2020

WASHINGTON D.C. — A Lubbock woman was granted clemency by President Donald Trump Tuesday after serving nearly 14 years in prison.

Tynice Nichole Hall, 36, was convicted on various drug charges in July 2006 and initially sentenced to 35 years in prison without parole.

According to a Change.org petition started on her behalf, the sentence was amended and reduced to 18 years with 5 years of supervised release in 2016 due to changes in two federal drug sentencing laws.

The website for the Clemency for All Non-violent Drug Offenders Foundation, a non-profit that advocated for her clemency, said Hall’s petition was initially filed in 2014 but denied by President Obama in 2016.

According to a release by the White House, Hall allowed her apartment to be used to distribute drugs.

The release also said Hall, “has accepted responsibility for her past behavior and has worked hard to rehabilitate herself.” She taught educational programs to other inmates, according to the release.

Hall was imprisoned at the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas and released Tuesday. According to the official clemency document, her 5-year supervised release will remain intact.

Hall’s case was supported by Alice Johnson, who was granted clemency by President Trump in 2018 after Kim Kardashian West met with Trump to urge him to pardon her.

The Change.org petition was first posted 4 years ago and gained over 70,000 signatures.

FedFam4Life seeks clemency for incarcerated women & families

blacknews.com
Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Boston, MA — According to a 2017 report, by the Prison Policy Initiative, there are over 219,000 incarcerated women in the United States. 1:5 incarcerated people are locked up are for a drug offense. Sadly, the majority of women arrested are in for low-level, non-violent charges. “I know the plight too well as a former convict, college graduate, disabled Veteran, and mom. I am advocating for the abolition of prison for women and girls. My organization knows first-hand that these women in prison are nurturing, loving and caring, despite what you see in the media. We are our sister’s keeper,” says Arlinda ‘Tray’ Johns, Co-Founder and Executive Director of FedFam4Life (www.FedFam4Life.org) and a top jailhouse lawyer.

Arlinda ‘Tray’ Johns is a woman with many lives. She spent eight years, seven months and 19 days in federal prison for possession of less than $500 worth of drugs and was arrested five days after her graduation from Southern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Arts. Johns enlisted in The United States Navy and was discharged for being a homosexual and reporting an assault. At the age of 21, she was raising five children, all under eight years old.

While incarcerated, she became a skilled “Jailhouse Lawyer” and since being released, a prominent and fearless social justice activist and sought-after public speaker at venues such as The Women’s Marches in Hawaii and Boston, Vanderbilt University, Simmons College, City University of New York, New York University and Boston Public Schools. “My life would be a great book and movie. I worked with the Cando Foundation during President Obama Clemency Project in 2014. Life is about second and third chances when you do the work. I am grateful. From being reunited with my son, raising my siblings’ children, to winning a six-figure settlement against a publicly traded company, (where I represented self) for racism and homophobia. My mission is restoration for families upended by mass incarceration,” cries Johns.

FedFam4Life is a non-profit Sisterhood co-founded by Tray Johns, Executive Director and Foxxy Johns, President, both formerly incarcerated Black and Gay women. The couple, who married in 2017, started FedFam4Life to address the urgent need for Black female leadership in the social justice movement. Johns states, “FedFam4Life is not about raising a million dollars, it’s about freeing a million women from the prison industrial complex and the 1.2 million under the de facto imprisonment of parole or probation.”

#MySistersKeeper is FedFam4Life primary advocacy initiative, created to provide support for direct court actions brought by jailhouse lawyers and incarcerated women who are eligible for clemency, sentence reduction, compassionate release and other considerations. The critical case response team include law students, paralegals, and attorneys, as well as communications students and professionals to help raise public awareness. #MySistersKeeper is grounded in the principle that incarceration directly impacts women, families, mental health, jobs/careers and neighborhoods at-large. They rally for justice reform, collectively restoring the lives of our sisters. FedFam4Life also acts as a connector to re-entry resources and opportunities provides a lasting circle of support for women survivors of the system. Initial funding provided by the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation, volunteers, lawyers and advocacy groups for their belief and working to change and restore mind, body, soul, and lives because of incarceration.

“The mission at FedFam4Life is to free women from the prison industrial complex while restoring and healing families. Everyone needs support. Thankfully, our relationship with the Harlem Business Alliance, has provided enormous marketing support with their pilot program, The Lillian Project,” states Arlinda.

To learn more about FedFam4Life and Arlinda ‘Tray’ Johns, visit their website, www.FedFam4Life.org. To schedule an interview, contact Karen Taylor Bass, TaylorMade Media, 917-509-3061.