After Ransom and her mugs were featured in the Orlando Sentinel on Nov. 28, other media outlets, including ABCnews.com and Essence.com, as well as various blogs, picked up her story.
Jail officials say they treated Ransom like any other inmate booked into the Lake County Jail’s general population.
She was allowed to keep her weave while spending weekends in jail because she was housed in a special area, segregated from the jail’s general population.
That’s how she was photographed when she was arrested Dec. 3.
Then, jail officials said, she was asked to take a second photo without her weave, which is the policy for every inmate who gets put into the jail’s general population, where she was scheduled to go because of her probation-violation arrest.
She refused to be photographed for a second picture without her weave for several hours.
“Once they [inmates] are inspected, then they are asked to take the weave out,” said Capt. Mike Fayette, who supervises support services at the jail.
Ransom was placed in a holding cell for more than seven hours until she agreed to be photographed without her weave.
“We decided she can sit in a cell until she complies with the rules and removes the hair,” Fayette said.
Gretl Plessinger, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Corrections, which oversees probation officers, says Ransom’s arrest Dec. 3 had nothing to do with her media attention.
“The bottom line is offender Ransom deviated from her community-control schedule, which is a violation of probation,” Plessinger said. “We provide that information to the court, and the offender will have her day in court.”
Ransom’s hearing on the violation of probation charge is Dec. 23. In the meantime, she is stuck in a place where she says she is being mistreated.
“These people,” she said, “just have to respect my pretty.”
That’s right girl! Keep defending your Pretty Girl Swag. SMH.
