Rapper Meek Mill continued his push for criminal justice reform on Tuesday, holding a news conference to introduce a new bill in the Pennsylvania legislature. The bill would prevent consecutive probation sentences in the state courts and would also end the extension of probation sentences due to unpaid fees.
"I’ve lost too much time away from my son, family, friends, and fans in Philly because of outdated probation laws,” Mill said to TMZ. "I want to make sure people don’t have to go through what I did.”
Mill still remains on probation.
House Bill 1925 has received bipartisan support and is expected to pass, affecting county and state probation and parole. House Democratic Whip Jordan Harris, representing the Philadelphia district, says he will soon introduce the bill and looks forward to the reentry process for those incarcerated.
“What we need is a way to reintegrate them back into our society, take them from being tax burdens to taxpayers. That’s what we need in Pennsylvania,” Harris said, according to The Philadelphia Tribune. "We need to incentivize people who are doing the right thing. And when we know they're doing the right thing, we need to shorten their time."
Mill became a face in criminal justice after his two to four years sentencing in 2017 for violating probation, stemming from decade-old drug and weapons charges.
"There's a lot of things in the system that clearly don't make sense," Mill said months after his release in 2018, in an interview with CNN. "It's keeping many young black men caught up in the system without even committing crimes."
Mill went on to form the REFORM alliance, to keep black men from incarceration.
"The mission of the REFORM Alliance is to dramatically reduce the number of people who are unjustly under the control of the criminal justice system, starting with probation and parole. To win we will leverage our considerable resources to change laws, policies, hearts, and minds," reads the mission statement for REFORM.
The House bill is expected to be written and published within the next week.
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