The reason why Meek Mill was sentenced to up to four years in Philadelphia prison
When Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill was sentenced to two to four years imprisonment in 2017, the verdict reverberated far and wide. This wasn’t just a bleak outcome for Meek personally, as it took on a far deeper cultural significance, too.
As chronicled by Pitchfork, Meek’s troubles began in 2007, when, as a 19-year-old kid still going by his birth name of Robert Williams, he was arrested and convicted of gun and drug-related offences. He was sentenced by Judge Genece Brinkley to 11 to 23 months in prison, with seven years of probation on top of that. This Judge Brinkley character would remain a troublesome presence over his life in the decade that followed.
Meek was released from jail after six months, entering a period of house arrest instead. When this ended in December 2009, he was still on probation, and, in the years that followed, he was deemed to have broken it when he tested positive for opiate use. Meek was due to appear in court several times over the year that followed, but his hearing was repeatedly postponed.
In November 2012 Judge Brinkley finally ordered him to again be tested for drugs, but he didn’t comply and was ordered back to court two weeks later. She then banned him from leaving Philadelphia County between that point and his next day in court, scheduled two months later. When that day came, she extended his travel ban for a further four months.
A couple of months into his travel ban, Meek was found to have left Philadelphia County. The measure Judge Brinkley then responded with was very unusual, ordering him to undertake an “etiquette course” designed to “address his inappropriate social media use and crude language in the courtroom.” This was widely considered by legal experts to be unorthodox, but Meek was forced to comply and show up for court hearings every three months for the following year.
Meek was eventually found to have again left Philadelphia County without permission, thus breaking the terms of his probation and drawing further punishment. Judge Brinkley handed him three to six months in jail, with five years’ probation on top. He spent five months behind bars before being released again.
In December 2015 Meek was found to have broken parole for a fourth time, this time for failing to meet with his parole officer as planned, for leaving Philadelphia without obtaining permission, and for handing a water sample over to authorities during a drug test. Judge Brinkley gave him six months to a year of house arrest, plus six years’ probation. Unable to travel during this period of house arrest, Meek unsuccessfully appealed the decision.
In November ’17 Meek was deemed to have broken parole again, this being his fifth time to do so. This is when Judge Brinkley handed him his two- to four-year sentence, citing a failed drug test, a violation of his travel restrictions, and two misdemeanor arrests for reckless driving and an alleged altercation. The prosecutor and probation officer involved in Meek’s case reportedly recommended a less harsh sentence, but, still, Meek was forced to enter prison on November 8.
The following week, Meek’s legal team filed a motion for Judge Brinkley to remove herself from the rapper’s case, citing what they characterised as inappropriate conduct throughout her involvement in Meek’s legal affairs. They soon filed another motion calling on Judge Brinkley to overturn Meek’s sentence and to bring his long period of probation to an end.
Meek’s harsh sentence was widely reported at the time, and it came to represent the wider problems of the criminal justice system throughout the United States. According to federal data, roughly 3.8 million American people were on probation in 2015, with Black people making up an unusually high proportion. Meek’s case, then, came to be seen by many as exemplifying a deeper situation in America in which people, especially Black men, are forced into the limbo of a semi-perpetual state of probation.
#FreeMeek became a rallying cry in the wake of the rapper’s sentence, with calls sounding for a wider reform of the justice system. The saga was later depicted in the Roc Nation-produced Amazon Prime docuseries Free Meek, and, eventually in 2023, Meek was pardoned by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf.