If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, we say it is a duck. The steel bars were just the finishing touches on making Ruth & Emily's imprisonment complete.

It was never really their home, but when the bars were installed, they were reduced to living in 20' x 40' cells. Ruth & Emily are over 10' long so that's the equivalent space  of 2 steps by 4 steps for at least 16 hours each day.

Friends' founder Joyce Rowley filed a Petition for issuance of the writ of habeas corpus with the New Bedford Superior Court.

Read the original habeas petition to the court here.

The court declined to issue the writ, and Rowley appealed. Read the legal argument supporting personhood for Ruth & Emily.