From Truthout:
Bridgette Simpson said she was a bright-eyed and bushy tailed 23-year-old college graduate when she suddenly found herself living a nightmare. A judge had just ruled on her traffic ticket in New Jersey, when she was suddenly surrounded by a sea of cops. Her ex-fiancé had used her car for robberies in Georgia, and she was being arrested and extradited for accessory to armed robbery. “I thought my life was going to be one way and it did not turn out that way,” Simpson told Truthout. “My district attorney, Paul Howard, knew I didn’t commit the crimes. He didn’t care. They were very adamant about getting me locked up.”
It was Simpson’s first time being charged with any crimes and she was petrified. After her mom bonded her out of jail with funds she scraped together from selling her home, Simpson was forced to wear an ankle monitor that cost $600 a month. Fired from her job, emotionally exhausted and without competent counsel, she decided to take a plea deal for what she thought was a two-year stint in Georgia’s state prison system. It turned out to be 10.
Fast forward to her release in 2018, and Simpson was jolted with another surprise: Her formerly incarcerated status barred her from accessing the basic things she needed for survival, like employment and housing. “I wasn’t able to get a place to live, I applied to like, 40 plus places. ‘No, no, no, no, no, no, no,’” she said. “I applied for 40 plus jobs. ‘No, no, no, no, no.’ I considered just driving off the road, because I just didn’t understand the purpose for my life. Is it just to constantly suffer and just go through this cycle?” Continue reading >>>
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