CCBF advocate Lavette Mayes has just published her first piece of writing with the wonderful Truthout! In it, Lavette details her experience in Cook County Jail and at home on electronic monitoring. As a mother, Lavette emphasizes the ways that her pretrial punishment impacted her two children and her stability:

“When you incarcerate a mom, you incarcerate the whole family. It’s not just you, it’s your kids, too. They’re in jail as well with being on electronic monitoring. When it was nice outside, I couldn’t go out with them or sit outside and watch the fireworks. I was unable to do normal things families do, like go to the park, barbecue, or visit my mother’s grave.
…
After [five months on electronic monitoring], I decided I couldn’t keep fighting the case. If I could take a plea deal and make it all end, things would be better. I’d be at home and we could go on with our lives. As long as I was on house arrest, I couldn’t have full custody of my kids. So, I decided to plead out.”

Read the full article by clicking here!