Meek Mill joins Gov. Shapiro as he signs criminal justice reform bills in Philly

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro appeared in Philadelphia Friday to sign two bills that focus on reforming the state’s probation system and Clean Slate Laws.

Philadelphia native and rapper Meek Mill appeared with Shapiro at the National Constitution Center to discuss the legislation, which the governor called a “commonsense step to remove unnecessary barriers for Pennsylvanians who want to rebuild their lives.”

“More parents will get the jobs they wanted. More people will get back up on their feet,” Shapiro said.

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Introduced in its current form in June, Senate Bill 838 changes a number of elements in Pennsylvania’s probation laws. Supporters say it makes the probation system less severe and counterproductive. The changes will take place over the next five years, impacting an estimated 300,000 people.

Among the changes are:

The legislation will shorten Pennsylvania’s probation lengths, and get more people off probation earlier, Shapiro said.

“[It] is a bill to reform our probation system to ensure that it serves its real purpose as a tool to help Pennsylvanians who have been incarcerated successfully reintegrate into our communities,” Shapiro said.

Mill discussed how Pennsylvania’s probation system has impacted his life, saying that he was sent to prison multiple times over technical violations. For years, he said, he had to break probation laws to visit his mother in New Jersey, and take his son to school.

“I was actually committing crime the whole time from technical violations,” Mill said. “And I didn’t have any way to get around that.”

Changing the laws around the probation system, he added, will “really help a lot of young men.”

The bill’s main advocate has been the Reform Alliance, a criminal justice reform-focused group for which Mill serves as cochair. It was formed after Mill’s 2017 sentencing to two to four years in prison after he was arrested for doing wheelies on a dirt bike, which violated his parole in a 2008 drug and gun case.

The decision by Common Pleas Court Judge Genece Brinkley caused an outcry. In 2019, a group of high-profile names, such as rapper Jay-Z and Fanatics founder Michael Rubin, created the Reform Alliance to address issues with the criminal justice system. The group has since advocated for the passage of 17 criminal justice reform-oriented bills in 11 states.

Mill was ultimately freed in April 2018 after five months in prison when questions emerged about the decade-old arrest that was at the root of his legal situation.

In 2019, a Pennsylvania appeals court overturned the initial charges against him, and in January, Mill was pardoned by Gov. Tom Wolf in his final days in office.

The reform in probation, however, is “not just about Meek,” said Rep. Jordan Harris, a Democrat from Philadelphia.

“Meek was the catalyst to get people to pay attention to the fact that there are other Black and brown and white and Asian and poor folks across Pennsylvania who are trapped in a system that continued to send them back to prison for things that were minor,” Harris said.

The legislation has faced significant opposition. The ACLU of Pennsylvania issued a memo in June arguing that it “not only fails to meaningfully reform our broken probation system, it threatens to make probation worse,” Spotlight PA reported.

The group circulated a similar memo this week. The group said the bill created “administrative probation” for people who still have to pay restitution, but have otherwise fulfilled their probation terms.

But that could raise constitutional issues because the U.S. Constitution prevents punishment based only on the inability to pay fines or restitution, ACLU legislative director Liz Randol told Spotlight PA earlier this year. Additionally, groups including the ACLU and Abolitionist Law Center have criticized the bill for containing a number of exceptions that would allow a judge to resentence someone to prison.

On Friday, Sen. Lisa Baker (R., Luzerne), the bill’s prime sponsor, addressed critics briefly, saying that “good policy can continue to evolve and improve.”

In addition to the probation reform bill, Shapiro signed legislation that expands Pennsylvania’s Clean Slate Law. That law automatically seals certain criminal charges and convictions on a person’s record from public view after a certain number of years, as long as no additional offenses occur during that time.

Known as House Bill 689, it adds to the types of criminal records covered by Pennsylvania’s Clean Slate provisions. Now, some nonviolent felony drug crimes are covered, whereas the law previously only applied to misdemeanor and summary offenses.

Additionally, it decreases the amount of time for automatic sealing to take effect. Automatic sealing for misdemeanors will now happen after seven years, and after five years for summary offenses. The felonies now covered by law will be sealed after 10 years, the previous length for all crimes covered under the law to be sealed.

“We’re showing that we believe in second chances here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said of the legislation. “And when someone gets a second chance, that should be a real opportunity to start over and succeed.”