Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Jared’s Prison Reform Efforts Have An Unlikely Fan — Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian West, who has lobbied White House senior advisor/son-in-law Jared Kushner to pardon a great-grandmother who is serving a life sentence, praised Kushner’s prison reform efforts, Newsweek reported.

“I’ve been in communication with the White House and trying to bring her case to the president’s desk and figure out how we can get her out. Jared Kushner, who I have spoken to, has been really working on criminal justice reform bills,” the reality star told Mic on Wednesday.

Alice Marie Johnson, a 62-year-old black woman from Mississippi, was sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for her a first-time, non-violent drug conviction. Her only possibility of release would be a presidential pardon.

Kardashian West has publicly advocated for Johnson and brought on her personal attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, to help with the case. Chapman Holley worked alongside Kardashian West’s father Robert Kardashian as the attorneys represented O.J. Simpson in his 1995 murder case.

Kushner, who has advocated for prison sentencing reform since moving to Washington, also has familial ties with the cause. His father served 14 months in federal prison for illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering. Kushner has reportedly been working to pass a bipartisan bill reforming prison sentencing and training programs.

Contact Haley Cohen at [email protected]

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.