Release from prison does not erase the injury of condemnation or presumptive guilt.

Evidence

It is powerful to see individuals I met when they were condemned behind bars living unchained lives that carry the hope and possibility of restoration. But it is also clear to me that for Matthew and others, being outside Angola’s haunted plantation gates doesn’t mean total freedom. Condemnation frequently leaves a mark, an injury, a trauma that weighs on you. And the conditions that gave rise to unjust condemnation for the people I represent still exist. Black people still bear the burden of presumptive guilt. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 856

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that freedom from incarceration is not the same as release from the legacy of presumptive guilt — a persistence-of-harm mechanism.