WEBVTT

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When I heard those bars

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slam hard,

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I knew it was for real.

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I feel confused.

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I feel betrayed.

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I feel overwhelmed.

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I feel silenced.

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What just happened?

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How could they send me here?

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I don't belong here.

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How could they make such a huge mistake

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without any repercussions
whatsoever to their actions?

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I see large groups of women

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in tattered uniforms

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surrounded by huge walls and gates,

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enclosed by iron barbed wires,

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and I get hit by an awful stench,

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and I ask myself,

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how did I move

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from working in the respected
financial banking sector,

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having worked so hard in school,

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to now being locked up

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in the largest correctional facility

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for women in Kenya?

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My first night

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at Langata Women Maximum Security Prison

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was the toughest.

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In January of 2009,

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I was informed that I had handled
a fraudulent transaction unknowingly

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at the bank where I worked.

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I was shocked, scared and terrified.

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I would lose a career
that I loved passionately.

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But that was not the worst.

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It got even worse
than I could have ever imagined.

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I got arrested,

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maliciously charged

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and prosecuted.

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The absurdity of it all
was the arresting officer

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asking me to pay him 10,000 US dollars

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and the case would disappear.

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I refused.

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Two and a half years on,

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in and out of courts,

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fighting to prove my innocence.

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It was all over the media,

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in the newspapers, TV, radio.

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They came to me again.

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This time around, said to me,

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"If you give us 50,000 US dollars,

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the judgement will be in your favor,"

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irrespective of the fact
that there was no evidence whatsoever

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that I had any wrongdoing

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on the charges that I was up against.

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I remember the events

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of my conviction

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six years ago

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as if it were yesterday.

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The cold, hard face of the judge

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as she pronounced my sentence

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on a cold Thursday morning

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for a crime that I hadn't committed.

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I remember holding

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my three-month-old beautiful daughter

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whom I had just named Oma,

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which in my dialect
means "truth and justice,"

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as that was what I had longed so much for

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all this time.

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I dressed her in her
favorite purple dress,

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and here she was, about to accompany me

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to serve this one-year sentence

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behind bars.

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The guards did not seem
sensitive to the trauma

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that this experience was causing me.

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My dignity and humanity disappeared

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with the admission process.

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It involved me being
searched for contrabands,

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changed from my ordinary clothes

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to the prison uniform,

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forced to squat on the ground,

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a posture that I soon came to learn

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would form the routine

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of the thousands of searches,

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number counts,

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that lay ahead of me.

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The women told me,

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"You'll adjust to this place.

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You'll fit right in."

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I was no longer referred to
as Teresa Njoroge.

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The number 415/11 was my new identity,

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and I soon learned that was
the case with the other women

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who we were sharing this space with.

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And adjust I did to life on the inside:

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the prison food,

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the prison language,

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the prison life.

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Prison is certainly no fairytale world.

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What I didn't see come my way

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was the women and children

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whom we served time and shared space with,

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women who had been imprisoned

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for crimes of the system,

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the corruption that requires a fall guy,

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a scapegoat,

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so that the person who is responsible

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could go free,

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a broken system that routinely
vilifies the vulnerable,

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the poorest amongst us,

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people who cannot afford to pay bail

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or bribes.

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And so we moved on.

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As I listened to story after story

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of these close to 700 women

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during that one year in prison,

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I soon realized that crime

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was not what had brought
these women to prison,

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most of them,

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far from it.

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It had started with the education system,

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whose supply and quality
is not equal for all;

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lack of economic opportunities

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that pushes these women
to petty survival crimes;

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the health system,

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social justice system,

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the criminal justice system.

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If any of these women,

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who were mostly from poor backgrounds,

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fall through the cracks

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in the already broken system,

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the bottom of that chasm is a prison,

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period.

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By the time I completed
my one-year sentence

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at Langata Women Maximum Prison,

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I had a burning conviction

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to be part of the transformation

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to resolve the injustices

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that I had witnessed

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of women and girls

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who were caught up in a revolving door

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of a life in and out of prison

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due to poverty.

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After my release,

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I set up Clean Start.

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Clean Start is a social enterprise

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that seeks to give these women and girls

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a second chance.

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What we do is we build bridges for them.

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We go into the prisons, train them,

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give them skills, tools and support

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to enable them to be able
to change their mindsets,

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their behaviors and their attitudes.

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We also build bridges into the prisons

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from the corporate sector --

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individuals, organizations

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that will partner with Clean Start

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to enable us to provide employment,

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places to call home,

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jobs, vocational training,

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for these women, girls,

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boys and men,

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upon transition back into society.

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I never thought

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that one day

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I would be giving stories

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of the injustices that are so common

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within the criminal justice system,

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but here I am.

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Every time I go back to prison,

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I feel a little at home,

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but it is the daunting work

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to achieve the vision

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that keeps me awake at night,

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connecting the miles to Louisiana,

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which is deemed as the incarceration
capital of the world,

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carrying with me stories

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of hundreds of women

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whom I have met within the prisons,

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some of whom are now
embracing their second chances,

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and others who are still
on that bridge of life's journey.

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I embody a line

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from the great Maya Angelou.

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"I come as one,

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but I stand as 10,000."

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(Applause)

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For my story is singular,

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but imagine with me

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the millions of people

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in prisons today,

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yearning for freedom.

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Three years post my conviction

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and two years post my release,

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I got cleared by the courts of appeal

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of any wrongdoing.

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(Applause)

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Around the same time,

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I got blessed with my son,

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whom I named Uhuru,

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which in my dialect means "freedom."

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(Applause)

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Because I had finally gotten the freedom

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that I so longed for.

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I come as one,

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but I stand as 10,000,

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encouraged by the hard-edged hope

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that thousands of us have come together

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to reform and transform
the criminal justice system,

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encouraged that we are doing our jobs

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as we are meant to do them.

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And let us keep doing them

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with no apology.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)