DURHAM, N.C. _ Two leaders of the group Southerners on New Ground, who chained themselves to a jail gate to protest the cash bail system, now face misdemeanor charges, according to the Durham County Sheriff's Office.
Serena Sebring, 41, and Kyla Hartsfield, 25, both of Durham, turned themselves in at the jail on Friday after the Sheriff's Office issued warrants charging them with public disturbance, second-degree trespassing and failure to disperse. They were processed and released on $2,000 unsecured bonds around 1:30 p.m., according to Sheriff's Office spokesman David Bowser.
"The Durham County Sheriff's Office respects every citizen's right to free speech provided by the first amendment," Sheriff Clarence Birkhead said in a statement. "While we honor this fundamental constitutional right, in this specific incident laws were broken; leading to charges being filed."
The women are organizers for advocacy group Southerners on New Ground. They spent about seven hours Thursday chained to the jail's sally port, a gate that law enforcement officials use to bring people to the jail after they are arrested.
The women chained themselves to the jail to protest Durham County's cash bail and pretrial detention policies, a member of the organization said.
The Sheriff's Office closed off Pettigrew Street between South Mangum and South Roxboro streets and locked down the jail during the protest.
Later in the evening, protesters blocked traffic near the intersection of Mangum and Pettigrew streets, according to posts on Facebook.
On Friday, members of the group returned to the jail and continued their protest, calling for others to come down to object to the Sheriff's Office warrants.
For the past three years, Southerners on New Ground has bailed out African American mothers from jail around Mother's Day. Organizers have said they are opposed to the cash bail system that they contend penalizes people _ most of which haven't been convicted of a crime _for being poor.
