A host of celebrities speak out on criminal justice reform

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A host of celebrities speak out on criminal justice reform

2019-05-24 00:09 Last Updated At：00:10

Kim Kardashian West isn't the only celebrity speaking out for prison reform. It's a topic that was also very important to slain rapper Nipsey Hussle, and to Common, Kevin Hart and a host of others who consider the criminal justice system often unfair and dehumanizing.

Hussle served time before he was shot to death on March 31 and was raising awareness for changes. Last October, he headlined a free #TimeDone campaign concert to bring awareness to the 70 million Americans living with a past conviction.

In February, while attending the Grammy Awards, Hussle explained why the topic of prison reform was among his priorities.

"I grew up in South Central Los Angeles. You know we come from gang culture so we dealt with the system a lot," he told The Associated Press. "We saw firsthand over-sentencing, unfair probation, the policies and stuff, so to see people putting energy into reforming that and just making it a little closer to what's fair, you know what I mean? I think that it's an important subject. It's an important movement that we should all support."

Hussle was on the advisory board of WordsUncaged, a nonprofit where prisoners serving life sentences learn to reclaim their voices and reflect upon the harm they have caused through narrative therapy and creative writing workshops.

Producer and rapper DJ Mustard, who is a Grammy winner and has collaborated with Hussle, has a cousin, Theodore, who is currently incarcerated. Mustard said prison reform is "super important" to him because often, people are "accused of something they didn't even do."

"They take the time for it not knowing, not having any lawyers, not even being in the right state of mind to even fight the case or even have enough money to get a lawyer to fight the case," he said.

His cousin was sentenced to 80 years to life as a teenager.

"At that time, we didn't have money to go for a good lawyer and now we're fighting and fighting and fighting to get him out. That's a lot of people's cases throughout the world," Mustard said.

Common, a Grammy, Oscar and Emmy winner, was touched in particular by the cause through his work on the 2014 film "Selma," the story of the 1965 voting rights marches in Alabama. The "Glory" rapper has performed at numerous concerts inside California prisons and is a frequent visitor to the men of one in Los Angeles County where all are serving life sentences.

"I think one of the things that I've experienced from meeting men and women who were incarcerated was that they wanted to feel humanized. They wanted people to know that they were human beings," Common said.

"The places that I've been, I've met some of the best human beings I've ever met in my life in prison that were doing life without parole that had actually committed violent crimes and had committed murders, but then were able to acknowledge that and try to move past it and do the work."

Hart also has spoken out about the need for criminal justice reform because of what has happened with his friend, rapper Meek Mill.

Mill has become a symbol for reform after a judge in Pennsylvania sentenced him to two to four years in prison for minor violations of his probation in a decade-old gun and drug possession case. He spent months in prison before a court ordered him released.

"He had to go back, and they put them in for this crazy amount of time. So, seeing that, going and visiting firsthand, we realize that there is a large portion of people that have been convicted that are set up to get convicted again regardless of their good behavior," Hart said.

According to the Prison Policy Initiative , a nonprofit that documents the effects of mass incarceration, the criminal justice system holds almost 2.3 million people in state and federal prisons, juvenile correctional facilities and local jails. More than 540,000 of those haven't been convicted.

The NAACP said that between 1980 and 2015, the number of people incarcerated in the United States increased from roughly 500,000 to over 2.3 million. African Americans and Hispanics comprised 56 percent in 2015.

"We just have to, in society," Common said, "not just look out for the people that can do for us but look out for those who are overlooked."

Storms battering the Midwest bring tornadoes, hail and strong winds

2024-05-08 13:32 Last Updated At：13:52

DETROIT (AP) — Severe storms continued to barrel through the Midwest early Wednesday, unleashing a curtain of heavy rain, gusty winds and tornadoes that forecasters warned could spill out of the region.

The tornadoes were first spotted after dark Tuesday in parts of Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, while portions of Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri were also under a tornado watch, according to the National Weather Service.

As the storms raged on in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday, the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh warned that a tornado in northeastern Ohio could cross into Pennsylvania. Parts of West Virginia were also under a tornado warning.

Hours earlier in southwestern Michigan, two tornadoes blitzed the city of Portage near Kalamazoo on Tuesday night, destroying homes and commercial buildings, including a FedEx facility that was ripped apart.

There were no serious injuries immediately reported, but city officials said in a news release that the twisters knocked out power to more than 20,000 people. Most of them would be without power until late Wednesday, city officials said.

At one point, about 50 people were trapped inside the FedEx facility because of downed power lines. But company spokesperson Shannon Davis said late Tuesday that “all team members are safe and accounted for.”

Tuesday's storms came a day after parts of the central United States were battered by heavy rain, strong winds, hail and twisters. Both the Plains and Midwest have been hammered by tornadoes this spring.

On Monday night, a deadly twister in Oklahoma tore through the small 1,000-person town of Barnsdall. At least one person was killed and another was missing. Dozens of homes were destroyed.

Aerial videos showed homes reduced to piles of rubble and others with roofs torn off. The twister tossed vehicles, downed power lines and stripped limbs and bark from trees across the town. A 160-acre (65-hectare) wax manufacturing facility in the community also sustained heavy damage.

It was the second tornado to hit Barnsdall in five weeks — a twister on April 1 with maximum wind speeds of 90 to 100 mph (145 to 161 kph) damaged homes and blew down trees and power poles.

Before Monday night's powerful tornado touched down, the National Weather Service had warned that “a large and life-threatening tornado” north of Tulsa was headed toward Barnsdall and the nearby town of Bartlesville.

At the Hampton Inn in Bartlesville, several splintered 2x4s were driven into the south side of the building. Chunks of insulation, twisted metal and other debris were scattered over the hotel’s lawn, and vehicles in the parking lot were heavily damaged with blown-out windows.

Hotel guest Matthew Macedo said he was ushered into a laundry room to wait out the storm.

“When the impact occurred, it was incredibly sudden,” he said.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, who toured the twister's damage on Tuesday, said it was rated by weather researchers as a violent tornado with winds reaching up to 200 mph (322 kph). Stitt said he and legislative leaders have agreed to set aside $45 million in this year’s budget to help storm-damaged communities.

“Oklahomans are resilient,” Stitt said, “and we’re going to rebuild.”

Areas in Oklahoma, including Sulphur and Holdenville, are still recovering from a tornado that killed four and left thousands without power late last month.

The powerful storms come amid a wild swing in severe weather across the globe that includes some of the worst-ever flooding in Brazil and a brutal Asian heat wave.

Across the U.S., the entire week is looking stormy. The eastern U.S. and the South are expected to get the brunt of the bad weather through the rest of the week, including in Indianapolis, Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis and Cincinnati — cities where more than 21 million people live. It should be clear over the weekend.

Murphy reported from Oklahoma City. Associated Press journalists around the country contributed to this report, including Rio Yamat, Heather Hollingsworth, Colleen Slevin, Jim Salter, Kathy McCormack, Sarah Brumfield and Beatrice Dupuy.

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