(AllHipHop News) Pusha T has been fighting to bring awareness to prison reform in America.
The G.O.O.D. Music president teamed with the Entertainment Consortium Collaborative Outreach Program (ECCO) for a new #MySentence public service announcement.
In the PSA, Pusha T shares the story of Norman Brown, a former inmate from a middle-class family who was punished with a mandatory minimum sentence for dealing drugs when he was in his early 20s.
Brown used his prison time to learn about the importance of self-empowerment and inspiring others as well as the impact minimum sentencing was having on a generation of African-American men.
“There’s a time when fruit is ripe and at its best,” says Brown. “But we all know the next stage is the fruit getting rotten. And what happens is that if you leave people for too long, they can become rotten. When you let us rot away, society loses out on the gifts we have to give the community and the world.”
Besides Pusha T, other artists that have participated in the #MySentence campaign include Ludacris, Monica, Tim Robbins, and Gabourey Sibide.
Celebrities were asked to read first-person testimonials from former inmates about their struggles and accomplishments in order to inspire criminal justice reform regarding mandatory minimum sentencing,
The #MySentence video series was created to raise the discussion about former inmates whose unjust sentences have been commuted by President Barack Obama.
Brown’s sentence was commuted by Obama in 2015 after he spent over 24 years behind bars.