Rapper, criminal justice reform advocate, and co-chair of REFORM Alliance, Meek Mill has sparked a national debate. Dr. Oz shares his story and the grim cycle of arrest, incarceration, and probation he’s battled. Listen to what Meek Mill has to say.
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00:00 From an artist to an activist, hip-hop star Meek Mill has been on probation nearly his entire adult life.
00:07 Arrested at 19 on drug and gun charges that he claims were false,
00:12 Mill has been subjected to over 10 years of probation that continues to be extended.
00:17 After being sent back to prison in 2017, the hashtag #FreeMeekMill gained national attention.
00:24 Now nearly a year has passed since his release and he's here today.
00:29 His story has sparked an important national debate bringing many criminal justice issues front and center.
00:34 And today I challenge you, all of us, to open yourselves up to an unsettling reality that has driven a wedge into our country.
00:42 Take a look at Meek Mill's story.
00:44 Meek Mill, the American rapper, songwriter, and activist, is as known for his legal issues as he is for his musical success.
00:54 Born Robert Reneek Williams in Philadelphia, Mill is no stranger to hardship or injustice.
01:01 His father was shot and killed in a botched robbery when Mill was just five years old.
01:06 And his single mother worked multiple jobs, struggling to provide for her two children.
01:12 As a teenager, his musical interests and talents grew.
01:16 So did his run-ins with the law.
01:19 By 2008, at age 21, Mill was convicted of drug and weapons charges stemming from a 2007 arrest.
01:27 He was sentenced to 11 to 23 months in prison and five years probation by Judge Janice Brinkley,
01:34 trapping Mill in a relentless cycle of arrest, incarceration, and probation
01:39 due to a variety of charges and technical probation violations that went on for a decade.
01:45 But despite legal setbacks, Mill ascended to the top of the charts.
01:49 Building a critically acclaimed, lucrative recording career.
01:52 Then, in 2017, Judge Brinkley again sentenced Mill.
01:58 This time, for up to four years in state prison over a minor traffic violation.
02:04 Against the recommendations of prosecutors and parole officers.
02:08 Sparking an outcry of protest.
02:11 Judge Janice Brinkley has been the target of media criticism for the handling of Mill's case.
02:17 In addition to having spent an estimated $30 million on his own legal defense,
02:22 Mill has become an activist, hoping to help others who feel bathed in and trapped and harassed
02:27 by the criminal justice system and bring about prison and parole reform.
02:31 Join me now as hip-hop star and criminal justice reform advocate Meek Mill.
02:38 Thanks for having me, man.
02:40 There's a lot to talk about. You've been very brave to help lead this charge.
02:46 So, let's go back to that mugshot I just saw.
02:49 Your legal troubles stem from an arrest that happened when you were 19 years old.
02:53 Yeah.
02:54 That story's not that uncommon in itself, but this appearance in your mugshot really caught me off guard.
02:59 What happened that day?
03:00 I think the world pretty much knows how that goes.
03:04 I'm a young black kid and I grew up in a neighborhood where it's not a good neighborhood.
03:09 I got handcuffed. I got put on the ground.
03:12 I got knocked out a few times, as you can see.
03:14 I got stitches in my face, both sides of my face, hair ripped out.
03:19 I was waking up kind of at the hospital at that point.
03:22 What was your life like before this all started?
03:25 My father got killed when I was five years old.
03:27 My mother working eight hours a day.
03:29 So, basically, people selling drugs on your doorstep.
03:32 You come outside, you coming straight out as a kid into a ruthless environment.
03:37 And coming from this side, it's almost like hard to show sympathy towards someone who comes from an area
03:43 like that because sometimes people look at everything in that area as bad.
03:47 But, you know, it's just, unfortunately, some kids grow up in that area without a fair shot.
03:53 And that's why I use my voice to speak out nowadays.
03:56 If I asked a teenage Meek Mill, how long he thought he would live, what would he say?
04:04 The average, probably like 24, you know, 400 people dying in Philadelphia by murder a year.
04:11 And 99% of them are black, look just like me.
04:15 Let's talk about probation.
04:16 Yeah.
04:16 You spent almost your entire adult life on probation.
04:20 Yeah.
04:21 How has this altered your view of the criminal justice system?
04:25 Me, I'm a strong individual and I got a drive and determination to make all bad situations turn out to be good.
04:33 But I don't believe I was given a fair shot on probation where, like, you could get a traffic ticket.
04:38 I could get a traffic ticket and go to jail.
04:40 I get a police contact is a technical violation.
04:43 A technical violation is the smallest violation you get on probation.
04:47 But actual police contact, like getting pulled over, getting stopped by the police is a police contact.
04:52 And if you get police contact, a judge actually has the right to sentence you to jail time.
04:57 Just to be clear, you've spent, if I did the math right, about two years in jail primarily for these technical violations.
05:05 Yeah, I probably spent almost three years in prison in the last 11 years for not even committing crime.
05:13 Thank you for watching.
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