In defending his friend and fellow rapper Meek Mill, Jay-Z has taken things to a new level by writing an op-ed piece calling slamming the criminal justice system.
The Philadelphia native was sentenced by Common Pleas Court Judge Genece Brinkley earlier this month to serve between two to four years in prison for a probation violation stemming from a 2008 gun case.
But now a new judge has agreed to hold a bail hearing for the 30-year-old rapper, named Robert Rahmeek Williams, on November 27th, after his lawyers filed a motion to get him out of jail pending an appeal of his prison term for that probation violation.
According to Philly.com, Brinkley will be present at the upcoming hearing.
The news of the hearing comes the same day Jay-Z wrote an op-ed piece for The New York Times claiming Mill’s jailing comes from a racist criminal justice system.
‘For about a decade, (Mill’s) been stalked by a system that considers the slightest infraction a justification for locking him back inside,’ the 21-time Grammy winner wrote in his piece, titled ‘The Criminal Justice System Stalks Black People Like Meek Mill’.
‘What’s happening to Meek Mill is just one example of how our criminal justice system entraps and harasses hundreds of thousands of black people every day.’
In defending his friend and fellow rapper Meek Mill (left), Jay-Z (right) has taken things to a new level by writing an op-ed piece calling slamming the criminal justice system
The Philadelphia native was sentenced by Common Pleas Court Judge Genece Brinkley (right) earlier this month to serve between two to four years in prison for a probation violation stemming from a 2008 gun case.
The Brooklyn, New York native noted how Mill, who is currently signed to his management company Roc Nation, was convicted for drug and gun possession when he was 19 years old and served an eight-month prison sentence for the crime.
‘Now he’s 30, so he has been on probation for basically his entire adult life,’ Jay-Z wrote.
‘For about a decade, he’s been stalked by a system that considers the slightest infraction a justification for locking him back inside.’
The father-of-three rapper then took special aim at the probation system.
‘Probation is a trap and we must fight for Meek and everyone else unjustly sent to prison,’ Jay-Z wrote.
‘It’s time we highlight the random ways people trapped in the criminal justice system are punished every day.
‘The system treats them as a danger to society, consistently monitors and follows them for any minor infraction — with the goal of putting them back in prison.’
But now a new judge has agreed to hold a bail hearing for the 30-year-old rapper (above) on November 27th, after his lawyers filed a motion to get him out of jail pending an appeal of his prison term for that probation violation. Brinkley will be present at the upcoming hearing
He added, ‘Instead of a second chance, probation ends up being a land mine, with a random misstep bringing consequences great than the crime.
‘A person on probation can end up in jail over a technical violation like missing a curfew.’
The 47-year-old also asserted that Mill’s prison sentence is going to cost taxpayers in the City of Brotherly Love without providing them a service.
‘I bet none of them would tell you his imprisonment is helping to keep them safer,’ Jay-Z wrote.
Hundreds of protesters gathered earlier this week outside of Philadelphia’s Criminal Justice Center to call for Mill’s sentence to be overturned.
Fellow rapper Rick Ross and Philadelphia 76ers legend Julius Erving both were in attendance for the protest.
In the op-ed piece Jay-Z (left) wrote for The New York Times about Mill (right), he said: ‘For about a decade, he’s been stalked by a system that considers the slightest infraction a justification for locking him back inside.’
Mill said he was badly beaten by police when they arrested him in 2008 and used a bloodied mugshot of himself as the cover of his “DC4” mixtape.
His most recent album, “Wins and Losses,” went to number three on the US chart earlier this year.
Probation, which dates from English common law, was initially seen as a compassionate way for courts to grant freedom to people who pose little risk.
But a recent survey by The Marshall Project, a non-profit news organization that covers the US judicial system, found that at least 61,250 people and probably far more are in prison across the United States for minor parole violations such as missing appointments, failing drug tests or staying out past curfew.
“The system treats them as a danger to society, consistently monitors and follows them for any minor infraction — with the goal of putting them back in prison,” Jay-Z wrote.
Of the 4.65 million people on probation, parole or supervised release across the United States in 2015, 30 percent were African American, according to Justice Department figures.