John Legend Launches 'FREE AMERICA' Campaign To End Mass Incarceration In United States! [Pics]

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The ever-philanthropic John Legend is putting his 

celebrity to good use yet again. The Grammy and 

Oscar award-winning singer has launched a campaign 

to end mass incarceration. Dubbed FREE AMERICA, 

the multi-year initiative will find Legend performing at a 

correctional facility in Texas and participating in a 

press conference with state legislators this week (Apr. 

16).

“We have a serious problem with incarceration in this 

country,” Legend told the Huffington Post. “It’s 

destroying families, it’s destroying communities and 

we’re the most incarcerated country in the world, and 

when you look deeper and look at the reasons we got 

to this place, we as a society made some choices 

politically and legislatively, culturally to deal with 

poverty, deal with mental illness in a certain way and 

that way usually involves using incarceration.”

Legend is also slated to visit a California state prison, 

as well as co-host a criminal justice event in 

Washington, D.C. According to the singer, FREE 

AMERICA has seen early success with the passing of 

Proposition 47 in California, which lessens sentences 

for crimes such as forgery, fraud, petty theft and 

possession of small amounts of drugs by classifying 

them as misdemeanors instead of felonies. Other 

artists are slated to join John Legend in the FREE 

AMERICA campaign, and will be announced at a later 

date.