Blog Entry #4: Argument - Just Mercy

Hello readers and welcome back to my blog regarding the novel Just Mercy written by Bryan Stevenson. I have progressed more than 3/4th of the way through the book, and these past few chapters have been interesting, to say the least. In my last post, I discussed the problem of innocent child prosecution and current events relating to that issue. If you are interested in learning more about that, feel free to check out last week's post! :)

In this week's blog post I will begin with a brief summary of the main events and conflict that has occurred in the newest chapters, and then discuss the main arguments Stevenson made in those events. 

In Chapter 11, the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), which is the program created by Stevenson which works on providing free legal aid for condemned individuals on death row, still continued to receive bomb threats. Stevenson also started getting death threats as well. Everyone soon realized the threats were related to the latest news of Walter McMillian's case. Judge Norton officially signed off that Ralph Myer was lying when he being testified, and Walter was falsely accused of Ronda Morrison's murder. Walter finally had his freedom. When I read this part of the novel, I beamed with joy knowing he was not going to get executed as an innocent man. He wasted six years locked up in prison, and although he is free with no charges, he has a poor reputation and a bad public image. The media contributes to this, as they scapegoat and discriminate against him. I honestly don't think he will ever recover from the false accusation put against him mentally, although he is free physically.

In Chapter 12, Stevenson takes a different approach and spends time focusing on a few specific women who have been incarcerated and placed in prisons that lack safe and proper living conditions. He makes many arguments that I will be diving into later on. He begins by writing about a poor white woman named Marsha Colbey who gave birth to a stillborn baby in her bathtub at home. They decided to bury the baby in their backyard, and named him Timothy. Not long after Timothy's death, a neighbor called the police to investigate the situation and the "missing baby". An autotopsy was done and the results declared the baby was murdered, therefore Colbey was charged with capital murder. Because of Colbey's shady past (drug use, avoiding prenatal doctor visits, etc) this case looked like a form of parent neglect. She was then placed at Tutwiler Women's Prison. 

The conditions at Tutwiler Women's Prison were terrible. It was overcrowded, filthy, and many women were treated poorly and sexually abused. The prison is located in Wetumpka, Alabama, and "In the United States, the number of women sent to prison increased 646 percent between 1980 and 2010, a rate increase 1.5 times higher than the rate for men" (Stevenson). This large increase in incarcerated women are for non violent, low-level drug crimes or property crimes. A lot of women in this prison, Stevenson argues, do not deserve to be punished this severely. He then goes into detail that "approximately 75 to 80 percent of incarcerated women are mothers with minor children" (Stevenson). 

Tutwiler Women's Prison

Life in Tutwiler

In addition, he expresses the large problem of how women in these prisons are treated everyday. Reading this made me feel sick to my stomach. 

"Women were being sexually exploited, abused, and assaulted by male officers in countless ways. The male warden allowed the male guards entry into the showers during prison counts. Officers leered at the naked women and made cruel comments and suggestive threats. Women had no privacy in the bathrooms, where male officer could watch them use the toilet. There were dark corners and hallways - terrifying spaces at Tutwiler where women could be beaten or sexually assaulted" (Stevenson). 

Stevenson clearly makes the argument that this prison lacks proper living conditions and feels unsafe to the women living there. Nobody should be placed in a facility of these standards. The EJI even asked the Department of Corrections to install security cameras in the dorms for better safety reasons, but they refused. Throughout the rest of this chapter, we hear other stories of women who have been incarcerated at Tutwiler, and have been affected by harrassement of some sort. 

In all, I think I learned a lot this week. I will never understand the trauma or what its like to be imprisoned in a terrible facility, or be subjected to the kind of harassment many women face there. The saddest thing is that most of these women have young children. Steps should be made to take action and make these facilities better and safer for everyone. I also want to make the point that I am eager to hear what happens to Walter next once he has gained his freedom.

-Cailey :)

Works Cited

Alabama Prison Was House of Horrors for Female Inmates. ABC News, Jack Cloherty, 22 Jan. 2014, abcnews.go.com/US/women-universally-fear-safety-alabama-prison-feds/story?id=21627510. Accessed 25 Mar. 2021.

Stevenson, Bryan. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. 2019 ed., New York, Spiegel & Grau, 2019.

Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama. Equal Justice Initiative, eji.org/cases/tutwiler/. Accessed 25 Mar. 2021.