Corrections_Today_Winter_2024-2025_Vol.86_No.4

General Session

Hall described his long relationship with Jelly Roll, how he was in a Davidson County facility when he found out about the birth of his daugh ter and how Jelly Roll had returned to the facility to meet with current offenders. “Considering his past, the message he conveys of hope, forgiveness, and redemption is incredibly powerful,” noted Sheriff Hall. A thunderous standing ovation greeted Jelly Roll as he took the stage accompanied by ACA President Denise Robinson. ‘Wow you could never have told me that my sheriff was going to make me cry for that reason. He’s made me cry before, but it was for a different reason,” Jelly Roll began. Asked by President Robinson what he thought people would want to know about him, Jelly Roll responded “I want you all to know I’m really here from a place of love and I am also one of the peo ple that is a product of this system not a victim.” Learning what inspired him personally and professionally, he told the crowd “In music, I’m inspired by life. By people. Stories. Years of being incarcerated. I’ve heard some of the craziest, fun niest, saddest and wildest stories I’ve ever heard when I was inside those buildings. And I just remember thinking, man I know there’s a group

of people who are not spoken for and musically that’s what I try to do. I try to be that voice for those people.” Jelly Roll then told of his journey, from be ing a troubled youth through learning about his daughter and deciding to take a different course. He related how difficult it is due to social pres sure to opt in to programming and how he feared his short time left would leave him unable to continue. Sheriff Hall “didn’t know me from a can of paint at the time and he said if the guy wants to try to do better let him.” He described how the Tennessee system helped him to change his perspective and “all of a sudden, I quit caring what the 200 people in this unit thought about me. I cared about what my one daughter was gonna think about me and that perspective shift took a lot of time for me to get.” President Robinson asked him what he would say to encourage us and the people we serve. “I want to encourage you to keep throwing those Hail Mary’s, keep shooting those baskets man I promise you. You know it’s funny if you think about it; Daron Hall’s facility directly impacted and changed my life and he didn’t know about it until 14 years after it happened.” The allotted time having passed, Jelly Roll asked if anyone had a guitar. A guitar appeared and he said “I

154 TH CONGRESS OF CORRECTION

was joking thinking there was no way there was a guitar in here. I’ve done nothing to prepare and this isn’t part of the program,” he explained. Accompanied by the guitar, he performed his hit song “Need a Favor” as the crowd rose and cheered him on as one. CT

— BY KIRK RAYMOND

“Daron Hall’s facility directly impacted and changed my life and he didn’t know about it until 14 years after it happened.” — Jelly Roll

Corrections Today | Winter 2024-2025

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