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‘The Redemption Project’ will change our perspectives of inmates in society

bernie sanders April 23, 2019
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Van Jones shared the first look to his new series ‘The Redemption Project’ today. A project he says has changed his life.

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CNN will premier The Redemption Project Set this upcoming Sunday at 9 pm ET.  Offering a different perspective other than the one that’s long been accepted of convicted felons, the show looks to change the conversation. Van Jones said in the show’s promo,

“The redemption project is an attempt to see what happens when people who have done really bad things, but want to make amends, sit down with the people whose lives they’ve ruined.”

“I got a chance to see just Olympic levels of moral courage on both sides of those conversations. Parents who have lost kids walk into a prison and sit down and talk to the person who took their kids’ life. Who can do that? I am a different person having been a part of it,” Van continued.

Prison reform is a hot button issue in America. Still, it hasn’t received nationwide support in mass abundance until recent and one could say Meek Mill getting locked up for riding a dirt bike back in 2017 was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Two years ago police hauled the Philly rapper off to prison after the citation violated his parole. Unfortunately, it’s hung over his head since he was a teenager. In response, the hip-hop community, including the likes of Jay Z, came together to fight the case.

Additionally, the teamwork brought awareness to the hundreds of thousands who are in prison due to petty charges like the one Meek was caught up with.

Meek even teamed up with billionaires, like Robert Kraft and the Sixers co-owner Michael Rubin, to form a coalition called the Reform Alliance. The initiative’s objective is to break cycles of probation. Similarly like the case of Meek Mill, the Reform Alliance wants to put a stop to the parole violations that plague this country (Van Jones is apart of this as well).

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Even Kim Kardashian got into prison reform. She successfully lobbied President Donald Trump to commute the life sentence of Alice Marie Johnson. She was serving a life sentence on a nonviolent drug charge committed in 1996. Now she’s studying for the bar to do much of the same work.

Now, prison reform is arguably the number one issue for Americans and a point Presidential hopefuls are making a stand on as they make their case for 46.

Last night, during CNN’s town hall, Senator Bernie Sanders was not shy about hopping on the bandwagon of prison reform. He controversially stated that we should give Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev the right to vote. Although he is in federal prison.

“I think the right to vote is inherent to our democracy. Yes, even for terrible people, because once you start chipping away and you say, ‘That guy committed a terrible crime, not gonna let him vote. Well, that person did that. Not gonna let that person vote,’ you’re running down a slippery slope,” he said.

Conversely, Indiana presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg’s answer temporarily went viral. He articulated that incarcerated felons should not have voting priveledges.

Either way, to say our prison system needs revisiting is an understatement. It’s just a matter of changing public reception, which is what Van Jones hopes to do.

Catch The Redemption Project this Sunday 9 pm ET on CNN to change the way you view inmates. FYI: You can catch an early glimpse of the CNN show if you are pulling up to the Something in the Water Festival at VA beach.

Pharrell knows what’s good!

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