A new movement called The Prison Reform Project has officially launched to help publicize and bring national attention to the thousands of innocent Black prisoners who have been wrongfully convicted.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Black men account for about 34% of the total male prison population, and many of them are in prison for petty crimes such as possession of marijuana which is now legal in most states.
Research also reveals that there is a 52 percent chance that a low-income Black man has been behind bars at one point during his life. Even worse, both Black men and women are more likely to be convicted for a crime that they didn’t commit, serve more time in prison, and have a much harder time getting back on their feet when and if they are released back into society.