In the passages, tweeted by Black Lives Matter activist and Sen. Bernie Sanders supporter @JeanetteJing, Clinton recalled the African-American inmates who worked in the Arkansas governor’s mansion she shared with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who led the Little Rock State from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992. For Hillary Clinton, the aspect of getting to know the inmates who worked around the house and in the yard was a bit "unusual" at first.
"When we moved in, I was told that using prison labor at the governor’s mansion was a longstanding tradition, which kept down costs," Clinton wrote. "I had defended several clients in criminal cases, but visiting them in jail or sitting next to them in court was not the same as encountering a convicted murderer in the kitchen every morning."
The former First Lady stuck to tradition, however, and eventually warmed up to the idea of having prison laborers in her home. In fact, Clinton wrote that she and her family became friends with "a few of them, African-American men in their 30s who had already served 12 to 18 years of their sentences."
"I saw and learned a lot as I got to know them better," she continued.
Despite these alleged friendships, Clinton stressed that, "We enforced rules strictly and sent back to prison any inmate who broke a rule."