Why This Country Star Loves on Kids Behind Bars — It’s Personal
By Movieguide® Contributor
Country singer and rapper Jelly Roll is giving back to a community he was once part of.
“On Tuesday, Aug. 8, the CMT Music Award winner, 39, helped break ground on Nashville’s new Youth Campus for Empowerment. Jelly Roll — whose was born as Jason Bradley DeFord — is from nearby Antioch, Tenn., and was incarcerated in the city’s old facility, Davidson County Juvenile Justice Center, several times during his youth,” PEOPLE reported.
“I was in and out of there for about three, three and a half years. I spent a lot of time there and eventually got charged as an adult for a crime I committed as a juvenile,” Jelly Roll said of the youth center. “And I just realized that was the most impactful thing that ever happened in my life, and the darkest moments of my life still were being that 15-year-old scared kid spending Thanksgiving away from his family.”
“Get rid of stuff that makes you feel like a caged animal,” he added. “Make these kids feel loved and give them a chance in life. A lot of these kids are victims of their circumstances. This is a really great chance to change things.”
According to Nashville’s Juvenile Court Clerk, “The Nashville Youth Campus for Empowerment (‘NYCE Campus’) will be a family-oriented, trauma-informed campus designed to support the intrinsic value of all members of our community. In addition to serving as the home of the Davidson County Juvenile Court and a pre-trial housing facility for justice-involved youth, the NYCE Campus will house resources and agencies that can provide immediate service delivery to families in need.”
“It was a vision that we needed,” juvenile court judge Sheila Calloway said.
She hopes that the new facility will serve as a place for kids and families to come and feel safe.
“If people understand how adverse childhood experiences operate and how they change a child’s brain development, we have to hit the parents first,” Calloway added.
Jelly Roll also launched a music studio for kids detained at the Davidson County Juvenile Justice Center. Movieguide® reported:
Jelly Roll is giving kids behind bars an incredible opportunity by opening a music studio inside the Davidson County Juvenile Detention Center in Nashville, where he was once incarcerated.
“This collaboration, featuring music luminaries Jeffrey Steele and ERNEST, alongside 35 pro-hit songwriters who helped kick off the program launch, embodies the belief in music’s role in personal growth and redemption, showcasing the journey from juvenile detention to success,” a press release about the launch of the studio said.
This project has been a long time coming for Jelly Roll, who has been looking to give back ever since he broke onto the music scene in 2021 after going unnoticed for 18 years.
“It’s important, man. I think it’s important that we give back, especially [to] our kids,” Jelly Roll told PEOPLE in 2022. “Man, our youth is so impressionable and the old quote goes, ‘None of them asked to be here.’”
