Meek Mill got choked up when addressing the media after while celebrating the passing of his Pennsylvania probation bill was signed into law.
Meek, JAY-Z, Michael Rubin, and their REFORM Alliance helped push the new legislation, which will send fewer people back to jail on technical probation violations for the foreseeable future in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro made it official on Thursday (December 14) after the House passed the legislation, at which point he signed the bill which marks the 18th such victory by the REFORM Alliance in its 11th state. To put it plainly, Senate Bill 838 will provide necessary reforms to Pennsylvania’s probation rules, making it easier for the formerly incarcerated to abide by them, and to prevent further recidivism.
The cause hits home for Meek Mill as someone who has been caught up battling the legal system since his 2008 gun case. In 2017, he was sentenced to 2-4 years behind bars after being caught on a technical probation violation.
“I thought it’s either I’ma go to jail or I’ma take my son to school,” he said before getting teary-eyed. “I don’t want to get emotional because it takes a lot. You don’t got to clap. I’m at a point in my life we all grew up in the streets and we try to be better but they label us felons and send us back to jail.
“I had to fight against that the whole time to gain my respect and be who I am today and I’m proud of that. People know I don’t really drop tears but I want to say this because there’s a lot of young men who follow me in the street and they don’t really know what I go through.”
I don’t know how I cried on the news I ain’t even cry in my cell! I needed that!
— MeekMill (@MeekMill) December 15, 2023
Even in the hours after gathering himself following the news conference, Meek Mill was surprised that the emotions took over him.
“I don’t know how I cried on the news I ain’t even cry in my cell! I needed that,” he wrote.
Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin added of the bill’s passing: “FINALLY!!!! 5 years later and we got this done – incredibly exciting! Sitting in that courtroom with Meek in 2017 watching a judge sentence him to 2-4 years for NOT committing a crime was the most out of body experience I had in my life and from that moment on I truly understood how broken the criminal justice system is!
“And Pennsylvania was as bad as it gets. We started @reform with one goal – fix the broken probation and parole laws and get 1 million people of out the system who shouldn’t be there while keeping communities safe.
Back in 2020, REFORM scored its first legal victory in similar fashion in California, when Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1950 into action, limiting probation periods for criminals.