Speaking of writing letters (see previous post), sending letters can be one way to work towards supporting political and other prisoners. Unchained Books offers a post office box return address for people wishing to not use their home address when writing to imprisoned people. Please contact us at unchainedbooks@riseup.net if you are interested in utilizing our address for receiving mail from people in prison.
We occasionally highlight particular political prisoners on this blog, and include address information, so that interested folks can send them a note, letter, or card.
Today, we mention two of the New Jersey Four: Patreese Johnson and Renata Hill, both currently imprisoned in New York prisons. Their mailing addresses are as follows:
Renata Hill #07-G-0636
Albion Correctional Facility
3595 State Road
Albion, NY 14411-9399
Patreese Johnson #07-G-0635
Bedford Hills Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 1000
Bedford Hills, NY 10507
If you’d like to write to Renata or Patreese but don’t know what to say, consider the following thoughts from Free the New Jersey 4: “Please send her thoughts, letters, art, poetry, and anything else that might help keep her spirit strong.”
Here is some background about the New Jersey 4 from Justice 4 New Jersey 4:
In the summer of 2006, seven young Black lesbians from New Jersey—Patreese Johnson, Renata Hill, Venice Brown, Terrain Dandridge, Chenese Loyal, Lania Daniels, and Khamysha Coates—were hanging out on the pier in New York City’s West Village when Dwayne Buckle, a man selling DVDs on the street, sexually propositioned Patreese. Refusing to take no for an answer, he followed them down the street, insulting and threatening them: “I’ll **** you straight, sweetheart!”
It is important to understand that all seven women knew of another young woman named Sakia Gunn, who had been stabbed to death under very similar circumstances—by a pair of highly aggressive, verbally abusive male strangers. At least some of the seven had known Sakia personally.
During the resulting confrontation, Buckle first spat in Renata’s face and threw his lit cigarette at her, then he yanked another’s hair, pulling her towards him, and then began strangling Renata. A fight broke out, during which Patreese Johnson, 4 feet 11 inches tall and 95 pounds, produced a small knife from her bag to stop Buckle from choking her friend—a knife she carried to protect herself when she came home alone from her late-night job.
Two male onlookers, one of whom had a knife, ran over to physically deal with Buckle in order to help the women. Buckle, who ended up hospitalized for five days with stomach and liver lacerations, initially reported on at least two occasions that the men—not the women—had attacked him. What’s more, Patreese’s knife was never tested for DNA, the men who beat Buckle were never questioned by police, and the whole incident was captured on surveillance video. Yet the women ended up on trial for attempted murder. Dwayne Buckle testified against them.
The media coverage was savage, calling the women such things as a “wolf pack of lesbians.” The pro bono lawyers for the young lesbians would later have to buy the public record of the case since the judge, Edward J. McLaughlin (who openly taunted and expressed contempt for the women in front of the jury all throughout the trial), would not release it. As of late August 2007, the defense team still didn’t have a copy of the security camera video footage. And after the better part of one year spent sitting in jail, four of the seven women were sentenced in June 2007—reportedly by an all-white jury of mostly women—to jail terms ranging from 3 1/2 to 11 years. The oldest of the women was 24, and two of them are mothers of small children.
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