Tomiekia Johnson's case and several other incarcerated survivors of color were covered in a recent article in The Guardian! The article highlights the call for Gov. Gavin Newsom to grant incarcerated survivors emergency commutations and release them from a racist criminal legal system that is particularly dangerous during a pandemic.
The article includes a recording of Tomiekia speaking about the criminalization of survivors of domestic violence and the systemic racism of criminalization. Please circulate the article and continue to share this petition!
Here's a quote from Tomiekia in the article:
“Being a victim and survivor of domestic violence means that you need an intervention. You need help, you need healing,” said Tomiekia Johnson, 41, in a call last month from the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) near Fresno. “Sending them to prison, to places where anti-rehabilitation is the model, realistically it makes people worse.”
"While white male officers get away with violence, as a black woman, she was not believed, she said: “The system, they look at us differently, they look at us like we’re not victims."
“I can’t help but notice that a lot of people that are getting second opportunities are not black and brown people”, she added.