Jesse Williams stepped up. After a federal judge dismissed dozens of sworn declarations from inside jail as “unhelpful” & only “marginally relevant.” So he read their words. “My mom is elderly & out in the world by herself. I didn’t come here to die. More:

Why Jesse Williams read a sworn declaration from a person jailed in PG County, MD: “We do not have cell phone footage of abuses inside prisons and jails. I am reading the following sworn testimony to lift this veil of secrecy and hold our justice system accountable.”

"I am currently incarcerated in the Prince George’s County Jail. I have diagnoses of depression, bipolar, and post-traumatic stress disorder."

"We’ve been on lockdown for months. It’s 23-&-1 lockdown, where they only let 10 guys out of their cells at a time, & each inmate only gets 1 hour of rec per day. Sometimes you won’t get your rec until the middle of the night. They take people out for their rec up until 3am."

"I’m not getting any mental health resources besides my medication. Not getting my regular prescription either. I’m getting some generic that doesn’t work as well. Since the jail started doing social distancing, I have only seen the psychiatrist come to our housing unit once."

"When I saw the psychiatrist outside, I wrote a note saying that I really needed to see her. I gave the note to another inmate, who was out on rec, and he gave it to her. I watched her read it and then just ignore it."

"I have not seen any mental health professionals on our unit since then. And really, I’ve given up on trying to get any sort of mental health treatment or counseling. It’s just not worth making myself upset and frustrated trying to get help. So I deal with it on my own."

"I really miss my psychiatrist and my case manager on the outside. They know me and they know how to help me. They actually take the time to help me and support me. But the people here just don’t care."

"The lockdown has negatively impacted my mental health. I have major depression. I’m thinking about my family. My father passed away in December, my uncle on April 29, and my Aunt on May 6. My mom is elderly & out in the world by herself. I want to be there for my mom."

"But I’m in jail, on lockdown."

"I have no one to talk to, no psychiatrist or case manager or therapist. It takes a lot of strength to make it through. It is really hard to be experiencing symptoms w/o knowing what’s going on w/ your body. It weighs on me. Especially w/ Coronavirus. People just dropping dead."

"There are a lot of people in here afraid they might not make it back home, & I’m one of them. I didn’t come here to die."

Jesse Williams is one of 60+ advocates, artists, actors, academics trying to get the courageous words of dozens suffering in PG County jail to be heard.

Imagine reading the words Jesse Williams read & not using your power to act. Self-styled “progressive” prosecutor Aisha Braveboy ( @SABraveboy) won’t advocate for release of hundreds caged in these conditions. Remains unmoved. Let her know what you think. She loves social media.

We worked with Color of Change ( @ColorOfChange) to set up a petition to demand that the top prosecutor in PG County ( @SABraveboy) live up to her favorite hashtag — #bravejustice — and do something, anything, to free people now: https://act.colorofchange.org/sign/braveboy-covid19-petition/

It’s not just top prosecutor Aisha Braveboy ( @SABraveboy) whos allowing this happen. The PG County, MD judges care so little, that they are now issuing boilerplate denials of release. This is a copy of one of them. Just fill in a date. Cross out “granted.” Scrawl “DENIED.”

Outraged and want to take other direct action: Please give to the bail fund run by local organizers at Life After Release. $19,000 of the way toward our $25000 goal. https://www.gofundme.com/f/dmv-bailout 

60+declarations like this. All submitted to Obama-nominated Paula Xinis. On June 22, she expressed her frustration. Called them "unhelpful." Potentially "isolated" incidents. Only "marginally relevant." Complained it hard to "cull the chaff from the wheat." Yet credited the jail.

Public defenders from PG County reached out. We read the declarations. And knew we needed to do something. http://GaspingForJustice.org  is the product. An attempt to try to make it harder for people to ignore human suffering. We translated the lawsuit into video declarations. Explore: