Unapologetic in Our Visions for Liberation: A Conversation with Arissa Hall
by MediaJustice
Our MediaJustice team had the chance to speak with Arissa Hall, Director of National Bail Out, to discuss how electronic monitors impact her work and the lives of the Black mothers her organization regularly bail out of jail. As a Black woman and abolitionist working in this space, particularly during the COVID-19 epidemic, she offered us important and unique perspectives on the context of our struggles.
MediaJustice (MJ): Could you briefly describe the work you do and how it connects to the issue of electronic monitoring?
Arissa Hall (AH): I direct and manage National Bail Out, the collective of Black abolitionist organizers, lawyers, and cultural workers that is building a movement committed to ending pre-trial detention and mass criminalization. We are most known for our tactic, Black Mama’s Bail Out, which is an annual campaign to #FreeBlackMamas and caregivers from jails and immigrant detention centers every year in time for Mother’s Day and has resulted in the release of over 500 people since its creation in 2017. This work connects to the issue of electronic monitoring (EM) as EM is another tool used to criminalize our people. We are increasingly seeing this as a condition of release for those that we are getting out. And as a collective of Black abolitionists, we are not for making cages out of our people’s homes and communities.
MJ: How has e-carceration/EM impacted your working in bailing out Black mothers during COVID-19?
AH: We’ve seen an uptick in EM being a condition of release generally in the past few years amidst a more popular bail reform movement. Now, during COVID-19, we’ve been able to witness more of the absurdity and injustices associated with EM. For example, this past Mama’s Day, organizers from Michigan Liberation posted bail for a mama who had to have a monitor, but because of COVID, the monitoring company was short staffed and couldn’t provide the monitor in a timely fashion. As a result, the mama had to languish in a cage for longer, because the monitoring company could not provide them with a monitor. These kinds of additional barriers to an already impossible and repressive system has been what we’ve been witnessing and learning about during this year’s bail out.
MJ: Do you think there are particular ways e-carceration impacts Black mothers and their families that are often neglected or not mentioned in discussions about e-carceration?
AH: Yes. We know when a Black mother is in a cage, so is their whole family and community. Black mothers and caregivers are usually the primary caretakers within our communities. So when a Black mama is on a monitor and has her movements restricted and a possible curfew, it will restrict her ability to be physically present at school and child-related events. It will limit her opportunities to generate income, putting undue burden on other family and community members to fill in the gaps while also supporting her through the process of fighting or dealing with the aftermath of her own criminal punishment process. And this is specific to Black mamas and caregivers as we understand that [we] are already uniquely marginalized and criminalized, and an ankle shackle becomes another visible representation and conduit to that.
MJ: Across the country, the mass uprising, led by Black people has put the issues of defunding/dismantling/abolishing the police on the table. Do you have any concerns that authorities will use e-carceration to undermine this agenda? How do you think we can resist any those efforts?
AH: I definitely have concerns as our movements and demands are often co-opted and watered down by the state and “allies” in the name of reform. We’re already witnessing narrative threads that lift up reformist reforms that don’t seek to transform systems of harm and punishment, but rather seek to re-entrench them with fancy new surveillance tools including EM. To some, it isn’t as harmful as being in a cage within a jail, so there will be those positioning it as the better option when it shouldn’t be an option at all. I think we can resist these efforts by truly following the leadership of Black people and continuing to be bold and unapologetic in our visions for liberation.
Arissa Hall (she/hers) is a born and raised New Yorker, mama, wife and sister-friend who is passionate about about realizing collective freedom dreams and base building. These passions and commitments have been inspired by both her personal and professional experiences, while guided through an Black queer feminist lens. Currently, she directs the work of National Bail Out- a collective of Black organizers, communicators and culture workers, committed to ending cash bail and pre-trial detention through the use of tactical bail outs and other strategic interventions. Her leadership in this collective helped birth the National Black Mama’s Bail Out which resulted in the release of over 240 Black mothers and caregivers in addition to over 100 more Black folks in subsequent bail outs and campaigns. Arissa is your around the way freedom fighter who is committed to resisting, intervening and creating until liberation. Arissa is also a founding member of the Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100), NYC chapter where she played an integral part in building the chapter as a founding Membership Co-Chair and Social Chair.
This is part of a series titled #NoDigitalPrisons. Learn more about the issue here.
