Two legendary rappers Jay Z and Meek Mill recently launched a criminal justice reform organisation named Reform Alliance aimed at reducing the number of people in American jails. They set to put up $50m (£38m) toward “disabling the revolving door of probation and parole”.
At the launch, Jay said: “We want to be very clear – if someone commits a crime they should go to jail but these things are just disproportionate and the whole world knows it.” and Meek Mill who was recently released from prison for parole violation stemming from drug and possession charges in 2008 said “I’m here to speak for all the people who don’t have a voice, being from the environment I’m from, I don’t even think it’s possible for you to be an angel. You grow up around murder on a daily basis, you grow up in drug-infested neighbourhood on a daily basis. I got caught up in the system. The Alliance’s goal is to free one million people from the system in the next five years, focusing on on parole and probation. America still has the distinction of having the highest incarceration rate in the world.