STRIVE, an international non-profit employment, training and job placement organization has teamed with Russell Simmons’ Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation to create a scholarship for anyone who has been incarcerated under New York’s Rockefeller Drug Laws.The Simmons Brothers Art Scholarship, which honors Simmons’ older brother Danny, will be available to any person incarcerated under the law that is interested in the arts.Danny Simmons was convicted under the laws, which his younger brother Russell, along with other organizations is attempting to change.The scholarship will allow the recipient to attend City College of New York and will be awarded through competition.STRIVE’s challenge of finding jobs for ex-offenders who are required by the courts to utilize the organizations program and Danny’s conviction under the laws prompted the two organizations to team up.”It is a proven fact that education, or lack thereof, can be the deciding factor in whether or not an individual succeeds outside of the prison system,” STRIVE’s CEO told AllHipHop.com in a statement. “The Simmons Brothers Art Scholarship will offer this unique set of ex-offenders the opportunity to make their second chance in life a genuine success.”Carmona is currently fighting to reinstate higher education in the New York State prison system, which was abolished in 1995.”This scholarship ensures that at least one person every year will have the opportunity to shed this same stigma that I have had to endure [as a result of the laws],” Danny Simmons added.
