Jay-Z, one of the most celebrated rappers of our time, has never been shy about his social justice opinions. Continuing his justice work on projects like Rest in Power, a Trayvon Martin documentary, and Time, a Kalief Browder documentary, Jay-Z has teamed up with rapper Meek Mill—along with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin, Brooklyn Nets co-owner Clara Wu Tsai, Third Point CEO and founder Daniel Loeb, Galaxy Digital CEO and founder Michael E. Novogratz, Vista Equity Partners CEO and founder Robert F. Smith, and news commentator Van Jones—to establish REFORM Alliance, a criminal justice reform organization. Fittingly, on January 23, the group chose John Jay College of Criminal Justice as the location to announce the launch of REFORM Alliance.
“We want to be very clear, if someone commits a crime, they should go to jail. But these things are disproportionate and the whole world knows it.” —Jay-Z
Mill stood on stage at the Gerald W. Lynch theater and stated, “The system is basically targeted at people that look like me.” Jay-Z added, “We don’t want people that are in charge of policing the areas to be in danger either. We want to be very clear, if someone commits a crime, they should go to jail,” he said. “But these things are disproportionate and the whole world knows it.”
To create a more equitable society, REFORM Alliance hopes to remove one million people from the criminal justice system within five years, and cut in half the number of people on probation. Jay-Z went on to say that Mill’s experience with the criminal justice system is what motivated him to be more involved in criminal justice reform. “This is a humane issue. When you break the family structure, it affects everyone. Education is the key.”
“Meek taught me so much about a world that I didn’t understand at all, about the great injustices that are going on.” —Michael Rubin, Philadelphia 76ers co-owner
The wheels for creating REFORM Alliance started turning when close friends Mill and Rubin started talking about inequalities in America. Mill, an African-American man, tried to explain to Rubin, a white man, that there were “two Americas.” Rubin told the audience at John Jay that at first he was skeptical about his friend’s analysis. Then, when Mill was sentenced to two to four years in prison for doing wheelies on a dirt bike, a controversial parole violation, Rubin’s mind was changed. “He called me after the sentencing to say ‘I told you so. Two Americas.’ He was right and I was dead wrong,” said Rubin. “Meek taught me so much about a world that I didn’t understand at all, about the great injustices that are going on.” Hoping to create strong partnerships leading to an organization that would move the needle forward on criminal justice reform, Rubin set up a meeting with Mill and Kraft while Mill was still incarcerated.
When Kraft took to the stage at John Jay, he talked about that initial meeting. There was an instant connection, respect, and friendship, followed by a sleepless night for Kraft. “Here you have someone who’s creative, who’s innovative, who’s inspiring young people. And for riding a motorcycle and doing a wheelie, he’s put in jail where tax payers are paying to keep him going? He’s not employing all the people he could be employing, and not generating all the tax dollars he could be generating,” Kraft explained, clearly perplexed. “It’s just a cuckoo system, forgetting the social impact of that.”
“The system is basically targeted at people that look like me.” —Meek Mill
Mill went on to tell the audience that his goal was to be a voice for the voiceless, understanding that in some ways—even with his encounter with the criminal justice system—he was “lucky” because he had a voice and a platform to speak out. “I didn’t ask to be the face of reform. I don’t want to be the face of reform. I just want to bridge gaps and bring people together and make the world a better place—especially for people from my culture and the environment that I grew up in,” said Mill.
The group announced that Van Jones, news commentator and social activist, will be the CEO of REFORM Alliance. “In the criminal justice field, we see so much dedication but not enough amplification,” said Jones. “We’re going to fight different.” All of the REFORM Alliance co-founders shared that same passion for the organization’s mission to engender criminal justice reform. “We incarcerate five times more people than the entire rest of the world,” said Novogratz. “There are clearly two Americas in our criminal justice system.” Together all of the founders raised $50 million to form REFORM Alliance. As a community dedicated to exploring justice and creating just societies, Jay-Z’s final words at the event spoke directly to John Jay’s mission as an institution. “We’re all prisoners to this,” he said. “Because until everyone is free, no one is free.”
