“Pretrial (Let Her Go Home)” is available now
Fiona Apple releases “Pretrial (Let Her Go Home),” an intensely moving new song that plainly and powerfully illustrates the horrifying effects of our cash-bail system on women, girls, and — especially — black mothers. Created in support of the Free Black Mamas DMV initiative, the release comes with a video incorporating photos and footage shared by women who have survived pretrial detention.
“Pretrial (Let Her Go Home)” grew out of Apple’s recent years court-watching for CourtWatch PG. Through that work, she witnessed the all-too-common practice of mothers being separated from those who need them — thrown in jail despite a presumption of innocence simply because they couldn’t afford bail. Verse by verse, the song lays out a deepening devastation summed up by the heartbreaking lyric, “They wouldn’t let her go home and now there’s no more home.”
“I was a court watcher for over two years,” Apple says. “In that time, I took notes on thousands of bond hearings. Time and time again, I listened as people were taken away and put in jail, for no other reason than that they couldn’t afford to buy their way free. It was particularly hard to hear mothers and caretakers get taken away from the people who depend on them. For the past five years, I have been volunteering with the Free Black Mamas DMV bailout, and I have been lucky to be able to witness the stories of women who fought for and won their freedom with the tireless and loving support of the leadership. I hope that this song, and the images shared with me, can help to show what is at stake when someone is kept in pretrial detention. I give this song in friendship and respect to all who have experienced the pain of pretrial detention and to the women of the group’s leadership who have taught me so much and whom I truly love.”
The “Pretrial (Let Her Go Home)” video, produced by Zealous and Special Operations Studios, underscores the cold realities of the song, while showing thousands of images of everyday hope and freedom – warm photos and videos provided by women who’ve lived through pretrial detention, capturing family moments, personal accomplishments, and community bonding. But as Apple sings on — detailing a downward spiral of lost wages, unpaid rent, custody loss, and crushing shame — people and places begin glitching out and disappearing from the frame. The loss is visceral.
