Pretrial Detention

Yolanda Johnson’s nightmare began in the summer of 2021. As she recalls, a former boyfriend pushed her around, hitting an area on her body where there were previous burns. She threw hot water at him and brandished a knife to get him to back away. “He was much bigger than I was, and I was trying to defend myself,” Johnson said in a recent interview. “I wasn’t really trying to stab him, but I poked him enough to back off of me.” No one called the police, and Johnson left. A few days later, she returned. “When I did come back, I guess the neighbor or somebody must have called and said that I was there, and they came and wrote my name, and took me in,” Johnson said.