Justin Rodwell speaks to activists rallying for his release
Artwork by artist Xplorefreedom.
NEWARK, NJ—It was emotionally climatic for the small caravan of activists chanting "Justice for Justin" to hear the voice many have not heard for over a year. “I thank y'all for y'all support,” said Justin Rodwell over the phone. “Thank you a hundred percent.”
Organized by the People's Organization for Progress (P.O.P), the 3.8-mile march and motorcade began at the Essex County Justice Complex and ended outside the Essex County jail, where Justin Rodwell awaits trial .
“[This was] our first march in the 40-year history [of the organization that] we marched to the Essex County jail,” said P.O.P chairman Lawrence Hamm in a WBAI radio interview. “We marched to demand the freedom for Justin Rodwell, one of the four Rodwell/Spivey brothers who we believe was unjustly accosted and arrested and racially profiled by the police.”
Jaykill Rodwell, one of the brothers, led the march and rally on Saturday, June 11, calling for justice for himself and his brothers, including Justin, who has sat in the Essex County jail for over a year without a trial. Brandon Rodwell, Jaykill Rodwell, and their mother, Ms. Monique Rodwell, marched shoulder to shoulder with a small group of citizen activists.
“I never had anyone stand up for something I stood for,” Ms. Rodwell said. “Thank you to everyone for the support and how they were standing by my side throughout this whole incident.”
More than anything, Ms. Rodwell is concerned about her son’s well-being. According to a recent study by the Prison Policy Initiative, death rates in prisons are up and we must not ignore it.
A graph from the Prison Policy Institute reveals that between 2001 and 2018, state and federal prisons became increasingly dangerous as a growing number of deaths were linked to unnatural causes like suicide, homicide, and drug and alcohol intoxication.
“I’m more so worried about, you know, how he’s doing in there and how he’s going to survive in there,” she added.
The marchers and motorcade took to downtown Newark, on several of the central and east wards' main streets, where onlookers on the sidewalks amidst their daily shopping raised fists, pressed horns, and chanted their support for the small caravan of social justice activists.
New Jersey’s criminal justice reformer, New Jersey Prison Watch representative and activist Cuqui Rivera, has been dedicating herself to the cause of criminal justice reform since the early 2000s. When Rivera started, there were around “30,000 prisoners in state custody. Right now, there’s around 10,000, maybe 12,000,” she said. Her work not only extended to prison reform. In the early 1990s, Rivera began working in the juvenile justice system, adult mass incarceration advocacy, and addressed issues from minority disproportionality in the juvenile system to adult mass incarceration.
People of all ethnicities and racial backgrounds joined together for one common cause, protecting victims of mass incarceration. “The adult mass incarceration subject in New Jersey had never been looked at. In the arena of mass incarceration, we were unified in methods, we were unified in advocacy, we were unified and we built very historic fringes,” Rivera said.
Rivera represented the Prison Justice Watch at the rally but she said her words spoke to the systemic issues involved. “The rally for Justin and his brothers is a microcosm of the issues that exist in incarceration, in issues of conditions, and issues of fairness,” said Rivera.
Within the judicial system, there is a shortage of judges which does not allow for a quick and speedy trial, in which people of color are disproportionately affected. “This is specific to Justin’s case, where they are part of a system that has him still sitting there a year later with no trial,” Rivera said. “The system that Justin is swimming in, it’s like the nightmare from Elm Street.”
Citizen activists, reformers and organizers, such as Cuqui Rivera and Lawrence Hamm, stand in solidarity with Brandon Rodwell, Jaykill Rodwell, and Ms. Monique Rodwell at the Rodwell/Spivey march on June 11, 2022. (Photo courtesy of Ingrid Hill)
Several members of P.OP, citizen activists and other groups whose families have been impacted by police brutality spoke at the rally outside the jail. It’s a difficult time for Valerie Cobbertt and her family, who lost a beloved brother, Gulia Dale III, at the hands of two Newton police officers on July 4, 2021.
With the anniversary of his death fast approaching, Cobbertt tries to attend most police brutality marches to remember his name and others who have died at the hands of police. “In regards to me coming to the march on Saturday, we’re tired and exhausted from just Black and Brown people being treated like we don’t matter. Cops just don’t care for us, particularly our race for some reason,” she said. “I have a 23-year-old Black son. I fear for him every day.”
As Cobbertt spoke about attending the Rodwell/Spivey march, she recalled the moment in which the public heard Justin Rodwell’s voice. Rodwell was reached from prison through a phone call placed by his cousin. Cobbertt recalled the emotional effect Rodwells voice had on her. “You feel like you were standing for him and with him,” she added. “It just broke my heart that he was in there when he should be home with his family.”
Rodwell’s voice invigorated the small group when he spoke through the phone as they continued to chant and belt out their support. “All praises to the Most High, God bless everyone that’s out there,” he said.
“I love y’all too,” he added, responding to his cousin’s public declaration of love for him.
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, the incarceration rate across New Jersey is 341 per 100,000 people and the organization wrote that “39,000 of New Jersey’s residents are locked up in various kinds of facilities.”
On July 12, 2022 at 1:30 p.m. the Rodwell/Spivey brothers will go back to court to fight for a dismissal and for Justin's release.
*Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled Justin Rodwell’s surname. It has been updated.
