“My brother was all good until my mother died. She had been sick a long time and had prepared us so much, when I was 9 she told us she had 2 years but she didn’t die till I was 13 so I was ready…I was fine but everybody else, not so much. As soon as my brother got to the house and we told him she passed, he stole my dad’s car and got in a high speed chase with the police. He was in and out of jail after that and he’s in prison now. He was actually gonna go to Oregon to play football. From that day on he was hanging out with the wrong people, people he met in jail.

When I went to visit my brother in jail for the first time I was so scared I was just sitting in my car waiting outside. The guard at the prison wasn’t going to let me in because I didn’t know his number. A lady helped me look up his number on her phone and helped calm me down. She was how I got connected with Essie.”

If you want to support the Essie Justice Group help Verleah and other women with incarcerated loved ones check out this campaign: http://bit.ly/1CpSOBJ
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