Meek Mill speaks out about racial bias in the criminal justice system

On November 27, 2018, rapper Meek Mill has spoke out in The New York Times op-ed about how he thinks the criminal justice system is broken and deals with people of color differently and unjustly.

Recently Meek Mill served 5 months in prison after violating probation for popping a wheelie on a motorcycle.

After a judge sentenced him 2-4 years, he was released in April, after his 5 months finished.

As further evidence of the overwhelming bias in our criminal justice system, also in June of 2017, Dayonn Davis, a 18 year old man of color, was sentenced to 5 years, despite having no criminal record, for stealing a pair of shoes.

Would he have received a different sentence had he been white?

“It’s clearer than ever that a disproportionate number of men and women of color are treated unfairly by a broken criminal justice system.” Mill stated about his case.

During another interview with Mill, he spoke about how children grow up with their parent (parents) in and out of jail which most likely puts them in the cycle as well, placing an unreasonable number of people of color in the criminal justice system.

Mill called for legislation shortening probation periods for people showing good behavior, “so that entire swaths of people aren’t spending the majority of their adult lives on probation as I did.”

Mill plans on creating a foundation devoted to this issue, and he is choosing to see his situation as a light and that he is extremely fortunate. Mill includes that he wants to clean up this “stain” in our society.