*Rapper/reality TV star T.I. partnered Pastor Jamal Bryant of the New Birth Missionary Baptist over the weekend to bail out 23 nonviolent offenders for the Easter holiday.
“Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” star Scrapp DeLeon also jumped on board the second chance initiative, “which raised $120,000 to provide bail for first-time, nonviolent offenders in four Georgia counties, including DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett and Rockdale,” The YBF writes.
The church’s “Bail Out” program started as a grassroots effort where a $40,000 local challenge quickly grew to $120,000, the AJC reports.
“I looked at what was happening in the prison pipeline and realized that the church voice had been muted on the issue of prison reform,” Bryant told the AJC. “I realized that we needed to be part of what was taking place.”
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According to the report, individuals who benefited from the program will also be provided with access to job training resources. They will also be required to meet with mentors every week to confirm that they are staying on the track. Some of the funds will be used to cover college education costs of the children whose parents were bailed out.
Those impacted by the initiative say they are thankful to have a fresh start.
“For people to just reach out, willing to help out of the blue, them not knowing you from nobody…that’s a blessing,” Tyron Pollard, who participated in the program, said in a statement. “I was doing drugs before I got locked up … but I don’t want to do nothing but do right and strive to be a model citizen for my kids.”
11Alive spoke with a woman named Sylvia who said the church came through for her nephew after he was pulled over in Atlanta and arrested.
“We didn’t make a whole lot of progress before we got the phone call from my nephew saying that a church was going to bail him out,” she said. “And we were overjoyed when we got that news. It was unbelievable for us.”
The ‘Bail Out” program is the latest platform that influencers are using to spread awareness about criminal justice reform. As we previously reported, rapper Meek Mill recently teamed with lawmakers in his hometown of Philadelphia to propose a probation and parole reform bill.
