Editing Meek Mill (section)

== Legal Struggles ==

Meek Mill's arrest in 2008 on gun and drug charges led to a probation sentence that would entangle him with the criminal justice system for more than a decade. Repeated probation violations—some for minor infractions, others for incidents disputed as to their nature—resulted in imprisonment that critics argued demonstrated a system designed to trap rather than rehabilitate. His 2017 imprisonment for probation violation related to arrests in St. Louis and New York sparked widespread protests and celebrity advocacy, transforming him into a symbol of criminal justice reform.<ref name="dyson"/>

The case attracted attention from figures including Jay-Z, whose op-ed in the New York Times criticized a system that kept Meek Mill under court supervision for years beyond any reasonable purpose. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's 2019 decision granting him a new trial, following revelations about the arresting officer's credibility, vindicated arguments that his prosecution had been compromised from the beginning. The extended legal battle demonstrated issues—judicial bias, prosecutorial overreach, probation conditions designed to ensure failure—that advocates argued affected countless individuals without celebrity platforms.<ref name="bradley"/>

Meek Mill's response to his experiences included co-founding the REFORM Alliance in 2019 with Jay-Z, Robert Kraft, Michael Rubin, and others dedicated to changing criminal justice policies. The organization has successfully advocated for legislative changes in multiple states, using Meek Mill's case as a catalyst for broader reform efforts. His personal experience with a system he considers unjust has given him credibility in advocacy that celebrity alone would not provide, his years under court supervision lending authority to arguments about how the system fails those it claims to serve.<ref name="dyson"/>