11.9.17: Philadelphia – (Politics): The Reverend Damone B. Jones, Sr., who pastors a West Philadelphia church, isn’t really a fan of Meek Mill, the famed hip-hop artist whose mastery of mixtapes over the years has contributed to his now undeniable superstardom. But mention Mr. Robert Williams, the 30-year-old avid reader who this week was sentenced to serve 2-4 years in prison for violating his probation, and the reverend will have an opinion.
“He’s a brilliant guy,” he said.
Rev. Jones is the spiritual advisor to Mr. Williams, who has performed around the world under the stage name ‘Meek Mill,’ and he’s careful to separate the man from his public persona. Engaged in prison work since he was 19 years of age, Rev. Jones first met the rapper in 2014 at the urging of his star-struck children, who read in a newspaper that the Philly-born rapper was behind bars.
“I walked right passed him,” the reverend admitted when recalling his first meeting with Mr. Williams, whose initial entrance into the criminal justice system stemmed from a 2008 conviction on gun and drug charges.
When Rev. Jones tells the story, he plays the role of the quintessential, not-quite-hip parent who finds foreign the tunes enjoyed by his off-springs. But rather than give a listen to the artist and familiarize himself with Meek Mill’s catalog – as the story would typically go – the father and pastor, who in 2015 was appointed as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Philadelphia Prison System, pursued communications with the man behind the music.
The first conversation, according to Rev. Jones, was extensive.
“I got an incredibly different view,” the reverend said of knowing Mr. Williams, who was then in his mid-to-late 20s.
Their relationship grew magnanimously over time. At one point, Mr. Williams performed community service at Bible Way Baptist Church, home to the reverend’s flock, and Rev. Jones even accompanied the now Graterford inmate to court, where he often anticipated being sternly lectured by Judge Genece E. Brinkley.
“He’s visibly shaken when he goes in her courtroom… She puts the fear of god in him,” the reverend, who has a passion for assisting at-risk youth, disclosed during a Thursday morning interview on Philadelphia’s WURD Radio 96.1FM/900AM.
Judge Brinkley of the PA Court of Common Pleas has, in a way, become the story. She’s been widely denounced by celebrities and laypeople as being too-heavy handed in her sentencing (his arrests, despite the charges being dropped, were a violation of probation, the judge declared). Even Rev. Jones called it “kinda harsh” and said, as did the Chief Philadelphia Public Defender, that the judge should have sought alternatives.
Mr. Williams on Wednesday began serving his sentence at Graterford, Pennsylvania’s largest maximum-security prison.
“It’s difficult to watch this happen,” Rev. Jones said.
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