The Grammy and Oscar-winning actor, rapper and activists continues commitment to criminal justice reform.
As Common walked into a large dorm-style room at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco, where men sleep on metal bunk beds with razor-thin mattresses, the Grammy Award-winning rapper and activist stopped for a moment to talk with one of the young inmates.
Pierce still didn’t smile. Afterward, the men shook hands, and then the rapper left to meet other men at the facility. On Friday, Common performed a concert for the inmates at the center. It was the ninth prison concert in the last two years for the Academy Award-winning rapper, who has championed social justice causes throughout his career. The concert was timed in part to coincide with the soon to be released movie “Just Mercy,” about a black death row inmate in Alabama who was wrongly convicted of killing a white woman.
Common, 47, whose real name is Lonnie Corant Jaman Shuka Rashid Lynn, grew up in Chicago and said witnessing his uncles go through the criminal justice system is what sparked his interest in social justice. Reading the book “The New Jim Crow” heightened his awareness for criminal justice reform, he said.
Soon afterward, Common called film producer Scott Budnick, who founded Anti-Recidivism Coalition , a criminal justice reform organization. The duo embarked on prison tours in 2017, talking to inmates and hearing testimonies of how they had changed while serving their sentences, but felt that aspect wasn’t being recognized on the outside.After those visits, Common and Budnick decided to host prison concerts across the state while promoting success stories and lobbying for policy change.
Mario Contreras-Navarro, 32, who has served 13 years for attempted murder, talked about how he recognized Matthew Conant, 47, an ARC employee who was released from prison on parole two years ago. In a powder blue prison uniform, Contreras-Navarro noted how he and Conant once served time in the same facility. Now, he was wearing a black ARC sweatshirt.
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