Jay-Z and Meek Mill Donate Masks to Correctional Facilities for Pandemic

Rappers Jay-Z and Meek Mill are helping protect inmates and prison staff members from the coronavirus by donating masks to all in correctional facilities.

Through their REFORM Alliance Foundation, a generous donation of 100,000 surgical masks we given to correctional officers, health-care workers, and inmates located in the Tennessee Department of Corrections, Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, and New York’s Rikers Island (one of the country’s largest prisons).

WE JUST DONATED 100k MASKS TO PEOPLE BEHIND BARS 🙌🏾 that includes 50k to #Rikers, 40k to @TNTDOC1, and 5k to #ParchmanPrison.

THANK YOU to our friend @ShakaSenghor for leading this charge. We need to protect vulnerable people behind bars & GET THEM OUT! https://t.co/xSutAIlnRD pic.twitter.com/FhyMfDfrXk

— REFORM Alliance (@REFORM) April 3, 2020

As stated on their website, the mission of the REFORM Alliance is “to dramatically reduce the number of people who are unjustly under the control of the criminal justice system – starting with probation and parole. To win, we will leverage our considerable resources to change laws, policies, hearts and minds”. Therefore, it was a no brainer that the efforts of the organization to donate masks did not end with the initial donation.

After the foundations announcement of 100,000 mask donations, later they found 36,000 more masks, and upon discovery, they immediately sent them out to facilities in South Carolina. See REFORM Alliance’s tweet below.

WE FOUND 36k MASKS FOR PEOPLE BEHIND BARS IN SOUTH CAROLINA 🙌🏾 @BryanStirling, director of @scdcnews, requested our help after he saw what we could do in #Rikers, #ParchmanPrison, and @TNTDOC1. We located the masks last night and they’re on their way to the state now! pic.twitter.com/S2ErYJYQf2

— REFORM Alliance (@REFORM) April 5, 2020

According to REFORM Alliance, government officials does not have a plan of action to help correctional facilities with the equipment needed to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

The foundation currently has a petition in motion in hopes of gaining the attention of public officials to assist with this issue.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Thank you to @meekmill, @shakasenghor, & everyone who helped us get 100k masks into prisons 🙌🏾 These masks will help protect incarcerated people & correctional staff in #Rikers, the Tennessee DOC, and #ParchmanPrison from #COVID19. This is a team effort. If you can help us get more personal protective equipment into prisons, comment below or DM us. You can also take action by clicking the link in our bio ⬆️ Let’s save lives today #noprisonpandemic

A post shared by REFORM Alliance (@reform) on Apr 3, 2020 at 1:33pm PDT

If you are interested in signing your name to the petition, it is available here.