PHILADELPHIA -- The Rev. Al Sharpton says a broken criminal justice system is responsible for Meek Mill's imprisonment.

Sharpton visited the 30-year-old rapper in a Pennsylvania prison Monday and told reporters that Mill has become a symbol for the thousands of people who have been "victimized by abusive probationary and parole systems."

Mill was sentenced this month to two to four years in prison for violating probation on a roughly decade-old gun and drug case.

The sentence has been criticized as extreme, but the judge who ruled in the case has said Mill ignored the rules of his probation and just "does what he wants."

Mill's legal team has asked for his release and for the judge who sentenced him to be recused from the case.