Fiona Apple's first new music in five years is "Pretrial (Let Her Go Home)", with lyrics drawn from interactions with women encountered through Life After Release's bond-hearing observation work. Apple monitored thousands of hearings remotely and observed many women, including mothers, being sent to jail because they could not afford bail. Life After Release was founded by Qiana Johnson after her 2017 release and seeks to document racial inequity in the local justice system. CourtWatch PG comprises about 40 volunteers who observe public bond hearings, document proceedings, send letters about unfairness, and fundraise to help people who cannot post bail.
Singer-songwriter Fiona Apple's first new music in five years is a song called " Pretrial (Let Her Go Home)," and the lyrics are based on the experiences of women she encountered while working with an activist group that observes bond hearings for people who have been accused of crimes. Apple lives in California, but the group, Life After Release, operates in Prince George's County; she got connected to it through another activist organization she was working with.
Life After Release is run by Qiana Johnson, who founded the program shortly after she was released from incarceration in Prince George's County in 2017. (She'd been convicted of participating in a real-estate scheme.) Johnson's broader goal for the court-watching initiative is to document racial inequity in the local justice system. "People outside of Maryland think Maryland is so progressive," she says. "We're still incarcerating hella Black people in this state."
CourtWatch PG now has about 40 volunteers: lawyers, academics, students, and others with an interest in pushing for more fairness in the routine workings of the judicial system. Most court proceedings are required to be open to the public, but as CourtWatch PG points out, what good does that do if nobody is actually watching? Its mission is to be those observers. Volunteers document what happens at the bond hearings and sometimes send letters to officials when they see things that seem unfair.
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