Pennsylvania Passes Laws to Overhaul Probation System, Meek Mill Cries – Billboard

More felony data in Pennsylvania may be sealed from public view and fewer folks could be stored on probation or in county jails, underneath laws signed by Gov. Josh Shapiro on Thursday (Dec. 14).

Both payments handed the House and Senate with giant majorities Wednesday amid a flurry of end-of-year motion.

The new probation regulation goals to restrict the size of probation and forestall folks from being despatched again to jail for minor violations in a state with one of many highest charges of residents who’re incarcerated or underneath supervision.

However, it drew criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union, which says the regulation doesn’t repair the issues that plague Pennsylvania’s probation system and can do little to scale back the variety of folks underneath supervision.

The different invoice permits courts to seal data of non-violent drug felonies with a minimal sentence of underneath 2 1/2 years in jail and/or a most sentence of underneath 5 years.

Under the state’s current Clean Slate regulation, it additionally permits the sealing of sure nonviolent felonies for many who are conviction-free for 10 years and reduces the ready interval for automated sealing of misdemeanors to seven years, fairly than 10 years.

Both payments emerged as a part of a nationwide reconsideration of the felony justice system, to assist folks leaving incarceration resume their lives and discover jobs extra simply.

The case of rapper Meek Mill helped shine a light-weight on Pennsylvania’s probation system after he spent most of his grownup life on probation — together with stints in jail for technical violations — earlier than a courtroom overturned his conviction in a drug and gun case in Philadelphia.

The invoice will restrict the circumstances underneath which a non-violent offender on probation may be despatched to jail. It doesn’t, nonetheless, put a cap on the size of a probation sentence.

Judges can proceed to “stack” probation sentences and impose probation after incarceration, the ACLU mentioned. The invoice additionally fails to present an automated or environment friendly approach to finish probation early, it mentioned.

Under it, a choose can order an finish to probation, no matter any settlement on a sentence between a prosecutor and the defendant. But judges not have vast latitude to prolong probation.

Probation is required to finish until the defendant commits against the law that demonstrates that they’re a menace to public security, has not accomplished sure remedy or has not paid restitution underneath some circumstances.

The invoice additionally prohibits courts from extending somebody’s probation for not paying fines or courtroom prices if they’re discovered to be unable to afford it.

At Friday’s ceremonial invoice signing of the bipartisan Comprehensive Probation Reform laws, previously SB 838, Mill took the rostrum.

Mill was convicted on drug and weapons expenses in 2008, when he was 18 years previous. Mill confronted a years-long collection of authorized entanglements that helped rework the rapper into an advocate for felony justice reform and launch the non-profit REFORM Alliance, whose mission is to “transform probation and parole by changing laws, systems and culture to create real pathways to work and wellbeing.” On Jan. 12, 2023, it was introduced that Gov. Tom Wolf granted Mill a pardon on the 15-year-old drug and gun expenses, which means his offenses will probably be completely expunged from his felony document.

The rapper described how every time he crossed the Benjamin Franklin Bridge to choose his son up in school in New Jersey, he was crossing state strains and “actually committing crime the whole time for technical violations.”

“I didn’t have any way to get around that because I already was in jail my whole 20s. My son seen me in prison. I wanted to take my son to school,” he mentioned earlier than tearing up.

“I don’t want to get emotional,” mentioned Mill. “It’s a lot.”

“I’m at a point in my life — we all grew up in the streets,” he mentioned. “We tried to be better, but they labeled us felons … 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 even 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 even know what I go through to even be in these places with government officials, to change my life, to get on the stage, to be able to speak for a lot of people.”

“It’s not for clout,” Mill mentioned. “It’s something that I stand for. It’s something that I live.”

“I don’t know how I cried on the news I ain’t even cry in my cell! I needed that!” Meek wrote on X, previously Twitter, Friday evening (Dec. 15).

“Changed a law in pa for my people …. Shit made me cryyy,” he mentioned on Instagram, the place he shared a photograph from that day. “Thank you @joshshapiropa and everyone who worked on this bill @michaelrubin.”

“Thanks for sharing your voice and your story, Meek. You’re making an impact for millions of people. Proud that we got this done,” Shapiro commented on the put up.