“So, this morning my young friend finds herself in jail 200 miles from her mother and father and family. She is scared. She is alone. I pray she is not in danger.”
These are the Sunday prayers of President and CEO for Central Dallas Ministries, Larry James.
Is he talking about 23-year-old Mirvat Hazahza who has been at Rolling Plains prison since early November, 2006?
Is he talking about Mirvat’s 20-year-old sister Suzi who spent time with her sister on the concrete floor of a drunk tank only because Haskell is overcrowded?
Is he talking about 19-year-old Samantha Windschitt, the Tarrant County College honor student who was abducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on January 10, 2007?
No, he’s talking about an 18-year-old high school honor student named Monica who on Friday was busted by Greenville Police at a “Senior Skip Day” party and turned over to ICE.
“A sweet, smart, naive, model high school student being held in a West Texas jail for being ‘undocumented’,” writes James. “Even though she has been here for over a decade, and even though she, nor any other member of her family, has ever had issues with any authority in Dallas, she is now in jail.”
As James searched the internet for answers, he landed here at the pages of the Texas Civil Rights Review, where the news these days is not good for young women at Haskell.
Yes, we have word that because of a few voices of conscience, the guards are acting nicer, toilet paper is now available upon request, and that a kind of curtain has been put up between male prisoners and women on their way to recreation, but the dirty deal remains. The women should not be there. Not Suzi, not Mirvat, not Samantha, and not Monica. Set them free. Today.
See the rest of the story–and the long trail of comments–at Larry James’ Urban Daily.
Texas Civil Rights Review 