Black Mama's Bail Out Day Miami

*Florida's incarceration rate ranks higher than every nation on the planet. 

*Everyday an average of 700,000 people are condemned to cages in local jails.

*Black women are the fastest growing incarcerated population, and more than two thirds of incarcerated women are mothers.

This mother’s day, (F)empower is tearing down walls and building love bridges towards liberation. We are working in coalition with nearly two dozen groups across the country to bail out Black mamas so they can spend Mother’s Day with their families, and supporting Black birth mothers, trans mothers, and other women who mother and are entangled in the criminal legal system and sitting in a cell because they are unable to afford bail.

Originally conceived by Mary Hooks, director of Southerners on New Ground, the National Bail Out Day will raise awareness of the human and financial costs of money bail and emphasize its impact on Black folks. Black people are over two times more likely to be arrested and once arrested are twice as likely to be caged before trial. These hundreds of thousands of people, who have not been convicted of any crime, are locked in cages because our country has a system of money bail, in which the constitutional principle of innocent until proven guilty only applies to those with money. 

When Black mothers languish in jail because of money bail, our families and communities suffer. The costs are devastating - to the spirit, to their bodies, to their families, and to the communities they hold. People often face huge collateral consequences such as the loss of jobs, housing and even children, only to be found innocent. Some women, like Sandra Bland, have lost their lives. 

It is time we end the suffering of our sisters. We are taking a stand against a money bail system that tears up families and punishes Black mothers for being poor by coming together and leveraging our collective power to set our mamas free.

(F)empower is an artist collective and community raising queer feminist consciousness in South Florida. We use art, earth healing, collective study spaces and the digital realm to inspire revolutionary sisterhood. In this time of heightened threat and increased criminalization, we understand that our survival depends on us coming together and seeing our liberation as deeply interconnected and interdependent. As Audre Lorde says, “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”

"The only way through is together" means: sister, I see you, I feel you and know my freedom is inextricably tied to yours. 

Join Miami's Bail Out Day and help bring our sisters home!

All contributions will be used to bail out Black mothers and caregivers, and to support them when they return to their communities. 

For more information check out the website: http://nomoremoneybail.org