RFK Human Rights Bails Out 16-Year-Old Rosalyn “Bird” Holmes From Adult Prison
Jailing people pretrial increases the likelihood that they will plead guilty and face both higher and longer prison terms. No one deserves such injustice, especially a child.
After spending weeks in an adult prison in Tennessee, Rosalyn “Bird” Holmes, 16, was released on bail, provided in part by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.
In an interview with Teen Vogue, Bird (whose nickname came from her father) explained how she had been kept in near solitary confinement at Tennessee State Penitentiary under the state’s “safekeeping” laws, on a $60,000 bond in a case with no indictment.
“There is no need for a cash bail to incarcerate a 16-year-old girl pre-trial,” said Wade McMullen, SVP of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. “The prosecutor has yet to even indict her, but yet they were willing to keep her in a cage in an adult prison 50 miles from home.” McMullen said Bird’s case is part of a larger effort RFK Human Rights is making to fight the money-bail system in the U.S.
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