John Legend Launches Campaign To End Mass Incarceration

Legend says FREE AMERICA is a multiyear initiative. He will visit and perform at a correctional facility Thursday in Austin, Texas, where he will also participate in a press conference with state legislators to discuss Texas’ criminal justice system.

The Grammy-winning singer says he’s launching the campaign “because it is unacceptable that there are more jails in our country than colleges and universities.”

He will also visit a California state prison and co-host a criminal justice event with Politico in Washington, D.C., later this month.

Says Legend: “I don’t want to live in a nation that criminalizes addiction and poverty.”