Every Thanksgiving, Americans gather with their loved ones. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for the 512 people who are being held in Hays County Jail pretrial, some of whom have been there for years. I know because I was one of them.
I spent 30 months in jail for a crime I didn’t commit, missing three Thanksgivings with my family. Before I was arrested, I would always go to Mississippi to my mom’s house for Thanksgiving. We’d cook, laugh, and play family games. In 2019, 2020, and 2021, I sat in a cell, eating what I could off of a tray. I wish I could have at least spent those Thanksgivings with my friends in Hays County, but I was constantly transferred from jail to jail, in what seemed like an effort to try to break me. It’s a terrible feeling when you’ve been in jail so long that all you want to do is to go back to “your county”: the one where the family you’ve created is. But Hays County finds ways to make sure you know you have no control of your life.
I remember sitting in segregation for almost 60 days while I was in the Atascosa County Jail, thinking “should I just sign and get out of here?” In October 2021, I was offered two years, which would have equated to time served, meaning I’d be going home. I refused. I couldn’t give this unjust system a win.
