Justice reform groups partner with Vic Mensa’s pot company to provide care packages to people released from jail

A network of community groups involved in advocating for historic reforms that abolished cash bail in Illinois this year have partnered with a cannabis company to provide care packages to people being released from Cook County Jail this week.

The Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice said it raised thousands of dollars from individual donations and apparel sales to create the care packages for people as they are released from the jail while their criminal cases are pending. 

Members of the network include prominent groups that advocated for the end of cash bail, including Restore Justice, TASC, chapters of the League of Women Voters and YWCA, and several drug policy reform organizations, including Clergy for a New Drug Policy and Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

The care packages contain toiletries, gift cards to a grocery store and information about the rights of criminal defendants, including those under the Pretrial Fairness Act, which went into effect in September and established new processes for determining if a person should be detained or released with conditions ahead of trial. 

They are packed into duffle bags that are co-branded with the network’s logo and Chicago rapper Vic Mensa’s cannabis company, 93 Boyz, whose products are sold at state-licensed dispensaries. 

93 Boyz is also donating 100 American Express $50 gift cards in the care packages, the company’s brand manager, Ari Wade, told the Sun-Times.

Wade said supporting the network’s efforts to spread information about the Pretrial Fairness Act and give people being released from jail access to some everyday necessities was part of the company’s efforts to give back to the community. 

“Yes, it’s a cannabis company … but our big thing is to help the community in any way we can,” Wade said. 

Wade said other co-branded projects with the network were being planned to teach people about the Pretrial Fairness Act. She said she didn’t consider the giveaway to be a form of advertising for the company.

“We don’t give product out. We don’t put any product in the bags,” she said. 

The company’s logo and branding features gas station imagery, a nod to “gas” as slang for particularly potent-smelling marijuana that some associate with the scent of gasoline.

Tanya Watkins, executive director of Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation, a member organization in the network, said she supported the decision to partner with a cannabis company. 

“For them to use their resources to pour back into the community, to pour back into community members, I personally will always appreciate that,” Watkins said. 

Matthew McLoughlin, a spokesman for the network, couldn’t say whether distributors would avoid giving out bags to people under 21, or to people who have been ordered to refrain from intoxicating substances as a condition of their pretrial release.

McLoughlin said the network has partnered with other for-profit companies in the past, pointing to a recent Instagram post by Ben and Jerry’s ice cream that advocates for other states to abolish cash bail. 

“Any of us who have enjoyed a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream — maybe it’s not the healthiest — but fine if used in moderation,” he said. 

Asked if the network would consider partnering with an alcohol or tobacco company, McLoughlin said he saw a significant difference between the two. 

“I don’t think you can compare the two as the same thing,” he said, noting that marijuana can be used medicinally. 

“It’s not like anyone is out in front of the jail handing out information about the company, there’s not a coupon in there or anything directing people to go rush over to the dispensary,” he said. 

McLoughlin said the decision to partner with 93 Boyz and place their logos side by side was made by select groups in a committee and was not approved by all members of the network.