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ABC/Randy HolmesJohn Legend is not allowing his duties as a new father to slow down his Free America campaign to end mass incarceration.
The ten-time Grammy Award winner writes in a new essay on Vox, “#FREEAMERICA is committed to joining others who are on the ground, doing the work to fix our broken criminal justice system. We are committed to standing with workers who are already in our schools standing between young people and the criminal justice system. We are committed to standing with workers who are serving a kind of sentence, locked in systems they know don’t work.”
Legend launched his Free America campaign in 2015 after criticizing the criminal justice system during his acceptance speech at the Academy Awards. His goal is to increase employment and reduce the number of people incarcerated. In April, Legend visited the Washington Correction Center for Women in Gig Harbor, Washington with leaders from the AFL-CIO to witness the issues facing inmates and prison workers.
“At its very core, the system of mass incarceration has dehumanized us all,” he says, “not least of all the workers who spend their days inside, who may get to go home after their shifts but are trapped in a failed system that makes us all less safe.”
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