Photo courtesy of the Free Siwatu campaign
On November 14, Detroit environmental justice organizer Siwatu-Salama Ra was released from prison pending appeal after being incarcerated for 258 days. Co-director of the East Michigan Environmental Action Council, Ra was sentenced to two years in prison following an incident in which she defended herself, her 2-year-old daughter, and her mother, longtime Sierra Club environmental justice organizer Rhonda Anderson, from an assailant by drawing a registered, unloaded gun. That's Ra, above right with Anderson, outside the correctional facility where Ra had been imprisoned.
In a reversal of his original -- and controversial -- decision, Wayne County (Detroit) Circuit Court Judge Donald Knapp ruled that Ra was not a danger to others, and should be released to be at home with her family while the appeals process plays out. Ra was the mother of a three-year-old and seven months pregnant when she was jailed last spring; she gave birth to a son while in prison, under the watch of prison guards. At the time of her jailing, Ra was taking on polluters like the Detroit Renewable Power trash incinerator and Southwest Detroit's Marathon Oilf refinery, where tar sands crude oil is processed.
“Siwatu-Salama Ra is a powerful and inspiring leader in the Michigan environmental justice community, and a member of the Sierra Club family," Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune said at the time of Ra's sentencing. "[She] has spent her life fighting environmental injustice and pushing back against the big polluters who are violating the law and poisoning her community. Her story underscores the reality that our struggles are all deeply connected -- from environmental justice to the fight against racialized oppression in the criminal justice system.”
Read more, and find out what you can do to help support Ra's appeal.