Evizda

Marissa Alexander, a domestic violence survivor and mother of three, was released from prison in Jacksonville, Florida on Wednesday after serving three years for firing a warning shot at her abusive husband. She will serve another two years under house arrest.

“Today, after the sentence given by Judge [James] Daniel, my family and I can move on with our lives,” Alexander said in a statement following the hearing.

Initially facing 20 years in prison under Florida’s “10-20-life” rule, Alexander’s case focused national attention on the treatment of domestic abuse survivors by the justice system, particularly women of color, as well as Florida’s mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

On Wednesday, her supporters and civil rights advocates—many of whom created the Free Marissa Campaign during her incarceration—said Alexander’s release from prison, while welcome, is not justice.

“One of the biggest issues and injustices Marissa’s prosecution and incarceration illuminates is the criminalization of women who defend themselves,” Ayanna Harris, co-organizer of the Chicago Alliance to Free Marissa Alexander, told Common Dreams. “Marissa Alexander was bound at an intersection that illuminated many ills in our justice system, including mandatory minimum sentencing, the criminalizing of those who defend themselves, [and] inconsistent application of Stand Your Ground laws, just to name a few.”

“Marissa will be forced to be on strict home detention while being under surveillance for two years,” said Sumayya Coleman, co-leader of the Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign. “This is by no means freedom in the sense we feel she deserves.”

While Alexander’s release from prison is a step in the right direction, Coleman said, what is needed next is “a systemic transformation that prevents black women and all survivors of domestic violence from experiencing the hostile and brutal treatment from policing, prosecution, and prison systems that Marissa has endured.”

Under house arrest, Alexander will have to wear an ankle bracelet that monitors her location through GPS tracking. She will be responsible for the $105 weekly cost of using the ankle bracelet, a total of $10,920 over the two years, and will be forbidden from leaving her house except for attending work, church, her children’s

“One of the biggest issues and injustices Marissa’s prosecution and incarceration illuminates is the criminalization of women who defend themselves.”
—Ayanna Harris, Chicago Alliance to Free Marissa Nowschool, or legal or medical appointments. Though supporters have collected funds to offset some of the collective costs of Alexander’s house arrest, journalist Maya Schenwar recently explained how these electronic restrictions serve to “prisonize” her home.

“Instead, the ‘guards’ are satellites, their gaze always present, and they don’t even blink,” Schenwar said.

Two other factors in Alexander’s case that cannot be disassociated from her punishment, observers say, are her race and gender. As Nita Chaudhary, co-founder of women’s rights group UltraViolet, and Rashad Robinson, executive director of Color of Change, wrote for MSNBC:

“It is egregious that many states have adopted Stand Your Ground legislation that is not protecting victims of domestic abuse,” Harris told Common Dreams. “We must examine why states were comfortable with adopting legislation that would protect those who killed others in the name of self-defense, but not those who in protecting their own lives valued the life of those inflicting harm.”