Social Distancing and Wrongful Convictions
The vast majority of our country has never experienced being quarantined before now. The terms “social distancing” and “sheltering in place” feel peculiar and disorienting to most people, who have not known forced loss of freedom and separation from friends and family. They take for granted stopping by neighborhood shops, running errands, and planning a weekend dinner with friends, a movie with a spouse, or a trip to the museum with the kids. They are used to life as normal: predictable, safe, and within one’s own control.
The outbreak and increasing menace of Covid-19 has made most of the public rethink their everyday lives and - hopefully - take a closer look at the freedoms and choices that they always enjoyed without restraint in the past. But for the men and women who have been directly harmed by criminal justice system failures that result in wrongful convictions, all of this feels eerily familiar. As one female exoneree shared:
“It occurred to me that some of the ‘distancing’ we are now having to do, between families, brings back the memories of not being able to see or touch or hug our children and other loved ones while wrongfully incarcerated. I've had those awful flashbacks and associated feelings again. At least we do have telephones and other ways to communicate, but it’s still wrenching for those of us who were prevented before from holding our children or were separated for years without being able to share in our family's lives. It must be a similar memory for family members who lost their loved one permanently, and then even much harder to bear.”
Social distancing is an immense trigger for those of us who experienced loss of control, fear, and separation from loved ones as the result of violence against our bodies, violence against our families, or robbery of our freedom. Sheltering in place is a misery already suffered for years, even decades, by men and women who were taken from their families and wrongfully imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. Parents, children, and siblings of the innocent locked away behind brick walls and barbed wire know far too well the pain of being told not to touch one another and to keep six feet apart. Crime victims, survivors, and their families are similarly impacted. Just ask rape survivors who lost their agency and voice when control of their bodies was stripped from them, and when they were alienated by family and friends who stopped talking to them and a justice system that forgot about them. Talk to the family of a murdered loved one, who had that loved one stolen from them forever and who were then forsaken by the justice system and will never have their questions answered or needs met.
In cases of wrongful conviction, we all share this in common: A force of nature came out of nowhere and upended our lives, stole our power, separated us from our families, and left us isolated, vulnerable, fearful, and heartbroken. All of this makes today’s scary times feel even scarier, sending many if not all of us back to dark places we hoped never to experience again.
During these times, please remember that Healing Justice is here for you. Five years ago we gave birth to an organization dedicated to creating opportunities to heal from both individually and together. We offer a place to lean in, support and understand one another, and keep each other safe. Please call on us, and we will do everything we can to help.
