when you tape a man’s mouth in court, you know your inhumane system is beyond repair

One thing we all have to get clear is that, in this time of hashtag activism (which can be successful if used right) there are declarations and movements that genuinely need the full and active support of the people – one of these movements is the abolition of the current prison system in the United States. We’ve discussed the history of black criminalization in relation to Ava DuVernay’s 13th and how it’s roots in slavery still manage to devalue and target black bodies. The latest case of this systemic trend is that of 32-year-old Franklyn Williams, who had a judge order that a piece of red tape be put over his mouth at his trial Cuyohanga County, Ohio.

Williams had originally pleaded guilty to “robbery charges in 2016 in the case and was sentenced to 14 years in prison,” according to Cleveland.com. “He appealed his sentence and argued that, because his attorney wrongly told him at the time that he would be eligible for early release after he served just seven years when he actually had to serve his entire sentence, he did not fully understand what he was pleading to.” Williams was trying to make this known, engaging in a back and forth that resulted in the judge ordering that he be silenced with tape. In cases of a defendant not keeping quiet when the judge asks, the procedure would have Williams escorted out of the room so why was it necessary for this man to be silenced in an inhumane manner?

The judicial system is so comfortable mistreating the Black body that it forgets that Black people still have rights even when in the process of incarceration – even then, it doesn’t stop there. It’s instances like New Jersey banning ‘The New Jim Crow’ because it hit too close to home. It’s the fact that 33 percent of American prisoners are black, also taking into account that America houses 25 percent of the world’s jailed population. It is the blatant disregard of Black people in a system that monetizes their incarceration, depicting the glaring truth that slavery never truly ended, but evolved. At the end of the day, all of it is deliberate.

Imprisonment for profit is the foundation of this prison system and it cannot stand if it seeks to maintain a modern-day form of slavery. Imprisonment is meant to be a form of rehabilitation and the treatment of men like Williams – who speak out because they know the difference between consequences and undue punishment – that clearly displays a judicial and prison system that doesn’t care about due process when the black body is involved.

Read up on more of our takes on prison abolition here and here.