NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – A New York Assembly member hopes to introduce a bill in honor of late “The Wire” actor Michael K. Williams that would aim to reduce the state’s prison population.
Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, who represents parts of Brooklyn—including East Flatbush, where Williams was raised—told TMZ on Wednesday that she was working with the ACLU on the bill.
Williams, who was found dead in his Williamsburg apartment on Monday, was an ACLU ambassador for ending mass incarceration. The 54-year-old actor had also been working with a New Jersey charity to smooth the journey for former prison inmates seeking to reenter society, and was working on a documentary on the subject.
Bichotte Hermelyn said her bill would focus on youth as well as Black and Latino inmates who make up a disproportionate amount of the prison population.
Williams was known for his community advocacy, and Bichotte Hermelyn told TMZ that he’d recently been working with her husband, Edu, and “The Wire” actor Jamie Hector on a Sept. 12 event to give out school supplies to Brooklyn children—an event that will now be held annually as a tribute.
On Tuesday, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea revealed that Williams had met with the department earlier this year to team up on community work.
Police are investigating Williams’ death as a possible drug overdose.
Williams spoke in an Associated Press story in 2020 of his rough time growing up, and said he had struggled with drug addiction, which he had spoken frankly about in interviews in recent years.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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