J. Cole enjoys uplifting people in his music and in real life, often taking time out of his busy schedule to interact with people who have been dealt a bad hand in this game of life. Three years ago, he took a trip to one of San Francisco's most famous prisons and one of the inmates is shining a light on how life-changing his visit was.
"We got the opportunity to spend the day at San Quentin State Prison talking and meeting inmates who will never see the outside again," wrote Cole's manager, Ibrahim "Ib" Hamad at the time. It turns out that Cole did more than just talk -- he actually spit some bars for about forty inmates facing life in prison.
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Replying to a post asking about experiences seeing big artists perform in small rooms, former incarcerated lifer Adnan Khan spoke about his experience hearing the rapper spit bars during his visit to San Quentin.
According to the formerly incarcerated man, Cole's visit didn't include a performance of sorts. However, he did sit down in a circle before spitting some bars without instrumental backing.
According to Khan, Cole's visit was deep. "He knew how fucked up the system is & wanted to learn more from us living in the fire-to use his platform to educate fans & bring actual change," he writes.
Take a look at some pictures below.
T.I., E-40 Call Out Treatment Of Inmates During COVID-19 Pandemic
T.I. and E-40 call out the prison industry for the treatment of inmates in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The only way to be safe from coronavirus these days is to be far away from people. Inmates do not have that luxury. Though we’ve seen many individuals who were incarcerated get released from correctional facilities, there are still many that are locked up as the virus spreads. Jay-Z and Meek Mill‘s REFORM organization recently donated 100K masks to prisons to prevent the spreading among workers and officers.
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Despite this, there’s still more that needs to be done to protect those locked up. Both T.I. and E-40 took to Instagram to spread awareness about the way inmates are being impacted by the coronavirus right now.
“#Covid19 is lingering in the prisons. Inmates did not bring the covid19 on themselves, it’s being brought in by others coming in, NOT from visitors because visitation had been shut down. INMATES need to be protected with masks, hand sanitizers, and gloves, and antibody tests, and the prisons should protect and provide necessities for the inmates,” E-40 wrote on his Instagram page. He continued to explain how social distancing doesn’t exist, nor is there a proper way of separating the immune and the vulnerable.
T.I. reposted E-40’s original post, adding, “THIS SHIT IS UNACCEPTABLE FOR ANY HUMAN BEING,Let alone OUR PEOPLE‼️ Salute to da legend @e40 for putting this information out there.”
Check out both of their posts below.
California To Release Thousands Of Inmates Due To Coronavirus
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) will be ramping up their efforts to flatten the Coronavirus curve.
The California prison system is making changes to help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations announced that they plan to release thousands of prisoners to help relieve the spread of the coronavirus. Up to 3,500 nonviolent inmates will be moved to parole. Those who are eligible for the early release must have less than 60 days remaining in their sentence and those who have less than 30 days are given priority.
California prisons have already taken numerous proceedings to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Prisons have suspended visitations, ceased intake from county jails, and enforced temperature screenings among staff. The CDCR reported 22 of its employees and four inmates tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.
Officials state that this decision increases space within the facilities and helps practice better social distancing for both the prison staff and the inmates.
“We do not take these new measures lightly. Our first commitment at CDCR is ensuring safety — of our staff, of the incarcerated population, of others inside our institutions, and of the community at large,” CDCR Secretary Ralph Diaz said in a press release. “However, in the face of a global pandemic, we must consider the risk of COVID-19 infection as a grave threat to safety, too.”
New York state has taken similar precautions. As coronavirus cases in jails and prisons rose, Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered the release of more than 1,000 parole violators.
12 Prisoners Escape Washington State Jail, 6 Remain On The Loose
Twelve prisoners were able to break out of jail Washington State and half of them have already been captured.
We are living in some wild times right now and people are beginning to freak out. So much so, that even prisoners are scared of what is to come. We have already seen the Coronavirus make its way into the prison system and some inmates are worried that they could become infected as well. With this in mind, it shouldn't be surprising that some prisoners are taking matters into their own hands. Last night in a Yakima County Jail, twelve prisoners escaped after breaking through the exterior fire exit with a table.
Six of the inmates were captured while another six are still on the loose. A spokesperson for the police is worried that the prisoners won't listen to the stay at home order and will be roaming the streets where they could be vulnerable.
"Despite the governor's shelter in place, or the stay at home warning, probably they didn't want to do that so they are out and about," a spokesperson explained. "And we need your help to get these guys back in custody. Because we don't know what they're going to be doing when we haven't got eyes on them. ... Help us get these back in the Yakima County Jail, where they'll be safe."
It is believed that the inmates will be wearing green shirts and green pants.
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Harvey Weinstein Tests Positive For Coronavirus: Report
Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein has reportedly tested positive for COVID-19, according to a local newspaper.
Harvey Weinstein has reportedly tested positive for the Coronavirus and is currently in isolation, according to the Niagara-Gazette, a local newspaper near Weinstein’s current location at the Wende Correctional Facility outside Buffalo, NY.
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A New York State Department of Corrections spokesperson confirmed to The Daily Beast that two inmates at Wende Correctional Facility have tested positive for COVID-19, but the source did not disclose their identities.
Juda Engelmayer, Weinstein’s spokesperson, told The Daily Beast on Sunday, “our team… has not heard anything like that yet,” and did not confirm whether Weinstein was in isolation.
A law enforcement official confirmed to Deadline that Weinstein is in isolation, but said they “cannot comment on an individual’s medical record.”
Apoxomently 40 inmates at Rikers Island have tested positive for the virus. The disgraced film mogul transferred from Rikers to Wende Correctional Facility on Wednesday.
New York has grown into the most dangerous state in the country regarding the spread of the Coronavirus. As of Sunday morning, New York City had 9,654 confirmed cases of the virus. Even while most businesses are closed, restaurants are take-out only, and people are encouraged to stay inside, many New Yorkers are still ignoring the city’s pleas.
Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison on March 11.
38 People Test Positive For Coronavirus At Rikers Island: Report
21 inmates and 17 workers have reportedly contracted covid-19.
It looks like the coronavirus has infiltrated itself into the Rikers Island prison system in New York City. According to multiple reports, 38 people have tested positive for covid-19, including 21 inmates and 17 employees.
The Board of Correction, which provides independent oversight of the city's jails, sent a letter to New York officials over the weekend with two principle recommendations: to "immediately remove from jail all people at high risk of dying" and "rapidly decrease the jail population."
According to Sherman, 12 of the employees work for the Department of Correction and the other five work under Correctional Health Services. In addition to that, at least another 58 people were being monitored in the prison’s contagious disease and quarantine units, she said.
“It is likely these people have been in hundreds of housing areas and common areas over recent weeks and have been in close contact with many other people in custody and staff,” said Sherman, warning that cases could skyrocket. “The best path forward to protecting the community of people housed and working in the jails is to rapidly decrease the number of people housed and working in them.”
This report comes just only a few days after Mayor de Blasio confirmed the first person who tested positive at Rikers on Wednesday, and now there’s 37 more.
Over 1000 Inmates Escape Brazilian Prisons Amid Coronavirus Outbreak: Report
Check out this wild footage of hundreds of inmates running through the streets of Mongaguá, Brazil.
According to reports, over a thousand inmates escaped from at least four different prisons in the state of Sao Paulo in Brazil this week after local officials canceled their temporary exits because of fears they could bring the new coronavirus back with them. Inmates were reportedly enraged over the restrictions imposed on them, which resulted in them to riot and escape in masses.
Brazil media said over 1,000 inmates initially escaped, but roughly 174 of them have been recaptured. Footage surfaced online showing hundreds of men running out of a prison in the city of Mongaguá, which you can see for yourself (below).
The Sao Paulo state prison authority said “acts of insubordination” had taken place at the jails after it postponed the Easter prison break, which is one of the five annual breaks for prisoners in semi-open regimes who work in the day because of coronavirus. “The measure was necessary because the benefit would include more than 34,000 convicts of the semi-open regime who, returning to prison, would have high potential to install and spread the coronavirus in a vulnerable population, generating health risks to servers and custodians,” the prison department said.
For what its worth, semi-open prisons in the state have no armed guards, São Paulo’s state penitentiary administration department said, adding that it is “taking all the due measures to remedy the problem.” So it shouldn't come as a surprise to see the inmates try and escape at a time like this.
Jay-Z & Yo Gotti File Lawsuits For 152 Inmates Against Mississippi DOC
Jay-Z and Yo Gotti filed a second civil lawsuit their Team ROC prison reform initiative against the Mississippi Department of Corrections on behalf of 152 inmates.
Just last month we saw Team ROC, the prison reform initiative backed by JAY-Z and Yo Gotti, share a video of the insanely gruesome conditions happening within the Mississippi prison system. It looks like they aren’t backing down anytime soon either, as the Roc Nation entity has filed a second civil lawsuit against the Mississippi Department of Corrections on behalf of 152 inmates.
Lisa Lake/Getty Images for Roc Nation
Team ROC’s fight for change within the prison system isn’t a new one at all, with Yo Gotti seen in the photo above showing love for the “Free Meek Mill” movement back in 2017 at Jay-Z’s 4:44 Tour stop in Philadelphia. Given the serious conditions that prisoners are going through at Mississippi State Penitentiary, also sometimes referred to as Parchman Farm, it makes perfect sense why they’re doubling down on the suit. 18 inmates have already reportedly died throughout Mississippi’s correctional system, mainly due to food contaminated with rat feces and cockroaches or not getting the proper medical care for health issues like cancer and serious heart defects, according to an official Team ROC press release.
Jay-Z originally filed the first suit back in January according to BBC News, with efforts to bring awareness to 29 prisoners forced to “live in squalor” and other life-threatening conditions. In this most recent follow-up, Hov, Gotti and Team ROC are requesting on behalf of a total of now 152 inmates to get the court to maintain jurisdiction of Parchman until the DOC can assure the environment is safe and stable overall.
Watch the new PSA that Team ROC released below, but we warn you that some images in the video may be hard to view:
Jay-Z Files Lawsuit Against Mississippi For Neglect Resulting In Inmate Deaths
This legal action was forewarned in a recent letter filed by Jay-Z and Yo Gotti.
Jay-Z has filed a lawsuit against the head of the Mississippi Department of Corrections and the warden of the state penitentiary for failing to take any action to put a stop to the excessive violence endured by inmates, five of each have died in the past two weeks. The lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday by Jay-Z’s lawyer Alex Spiro on behalf of 29 inmates, states that “these deaths are a direct result of Mississippi’s utter disregard for the people it has incarcerated and their constitutional rights.” In a statement to NBC News, Spiro expressed that “we cannot treat people this way and it’s time to do something about it.” DOC Commissioner Pelicia Hall and Mississippi State Penitentiary Superintendent Marshall Turner have been named as defendants in the case.
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This lawsuit comes in the wake of a letter sent by Spiro on behalf of Jay-Z and his Roc Nation signee, Yo Gotti, to Mississippi’s Governor Phil Bryant. The letter outlined the “inhumane conditions in prisons operated by the Mississippi Department of Corrections,” including inmates being “forced to live in squalor, with rats that crawl over them as they sleep on the floor, having been denied even a mattress for a cot.” “This unthinkable spate of deaths is the culmination of years of severe understaffing and neglect at Mississippi’s prisons,” the letter reads. “As Mississippi has incarcerated increasing numbers of people, it has dramatically reduced its funding of prisons. As a result, prison conditions fail to meet even the most basic human rights.” Spiro essentially threatened that they would take legal action if the proper precautions to ensure safety were not taken, as they were “prepared to pursue all potential avenues to obtain relief for the people living in Mississippi’s prisons and their families.”