Music
JAY-Z pens Op-Ed condemning Meek Mill’s Incarceration & the Criminal Justice System
JAY-Z
JAY-Z, in an op-ed for the New York Times, has once again criticized the incarceration of rapper Meek Mill.
In the opinion piece, JAY-Z condemned the judge’s decision, and described it as how “criminal justice system entraps and harasses hundreds of thousands of black people every day.”
Meek Mill, he said, was convicted at the age of 19 on drug and gun possession relating charges, and served an 8-month sentence. He added that at 30, Meek Mill has been on probation for almost entirely his adult life and will now be going to jail for 2-4 years for offences whose charges were either already dropped or dismissed.
Despite recommendations by a prosecutor and Meek Mill’s probation officer that he doesn’t deserve more jail time, the judge sent him to jail anyway, JAY-Z said, describing the sentence as one of the examples of how “the system treats [black people] as a danger to society, consistently monitors and follows them for any minor infraction — with the goal of putting them back in prison.”
He described probation as a trap, saying jails could be shut down if “people on parole or probation [are treated] more fairly.”
“We must fight for Meek and everyone else unjustly sent to prison,” he wrote.
Read the full op-ed HERE.
