Earlier this week, Meek Mill teamed up with Kevin Hart and Michael Rubin to donate $7 million to aid Philadelphia private schools through their non-profit organization Reform Alliance. This followed Mill posting bail for incarcerated women in the same Pennsylvania city so they could spend the holidays with their families.
via: Rolling Stone
Meek Mill had a lot to celebrate after Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf pardoned him for drug and weapon possession charges from 15 years ago. On Thursday, Mill shared a photo of Wolf’s official pardon, which expunges the charges from his criminal record.
“Thankyall. I’m only gone do more for my community on God!” Meek wrote on Instagram, sharing a photo of the gubernatorial pardon. The official document — which Mill slightly redacted — states that he’s “fully pardoned” for the crimes.
“I got pardoned today …, I’m taking things really far from being a trench baby!” Mill added on Twitter.
I got pardoned today …, I’m taking things really far from being a trench baby!
— MeekMill (@MeekMill) January 13, 2023
Mill first served eight months in prison in 2008 after being convicted on drugs and weapons charges.
Later in 2012, Mill was detained again for suspected marijuana use. The arrest allegedly caused him to miss out on tens of thousands of dollars he would have earned from the Atlanta gig and cost him a significant amount of money in an endorsement deal with Puma, which reduced the amount it wanted to pay him from $2 million to $650,000, according to The Inquirer.
He was put on house arrest in 2016 for violating his probation and was arrested again in 2017 after he was caught popping wheelies without wearing a helmet on Instagram Live. He was charged with a felony count of reckless endangerment, though the charge was later reduced to a misdemeanor. He then went to prison later that year for violating his probation.
In 2019, Mill had his 2008 conviction overturned and faced a new trial by a different judge.
Also in 2019, Mill launched a non-profit organization, Reform Alliance, to help “transform probation and parole by changing laws, systems, and culture to create real pathways to work and wellbeing.” The organization takes aim at the effect of probation laws, which often become a pipeline to returning former inmates to prison.
“The shocking two-to-four year sentence he received for popping a wheelie spurred the international #FreeMeek movement, which led to release on bail and eventually his freedom,” Reform’s website reads. “Although Meek had the resources and public platform to fight his case, his case is only one of millions.”
