Jay-Z and Meek Mill donate 100,000 masks to prisons amid coronavirus outbreak

Jay-Z and Meek Mill are jumping into action on behalf of prisoners in the wake of the unyielding Covid-19 pandemic.

Doing their part in the midst of the global health crisis, the “What’s Free” rappers—alongside their REFORM Alliance co-founders Robert Kraft and Michael Rubin, and advocate Shaka Senghor—announced Friday plans to send nearly 100,000 surgical masks to correctional facilities across the country in effort to protect inmates from exposure to the coronavirus.

Rikers Island in New York City, with 231 detainees and 223 staff members testing positive as of this week, is reportedly set to receive 50,000 masks and an additional 2,500 will be sent to Rikers’ medical facility.

HOV and Meek’s criminal justice reform organization also plans to issue 40,000 masks to the Tennessee Department of Corrections where the protective medical gear will be distributed to various facilities throughout the state. Likewise, the Mississippi State Penitentiary is set to receive 5,000 masks.

“Though we exists in moments of uncertainty, the one thing I am certain of, is that we can share resources with the less fortunate,” said Shaka Senghor, The New York Times bestselling author of Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison, in an Instagram post. “These are mothers, fathers, sons and daughters behind bars. They are as much a part of the human family as we are.”

Jay-Z and Meek’s efforts to provide relief to those in need during the Covid-19 pandemic join the many altruistic gestures made by a number of Hip-Hop heavyweights including Future, Rhianna, Cardi B and Lizzo.