Episode 4: A conversation with John Legend

Justice In America

The Appeal

News, Politics, Prison, Law, Criminal, Justice, Jail, History, Education, Incarceration, America

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2018

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

John Legend isn’t just one of the most talented musicians of our time—he’s also a leading activist on criminal justice reform. On this episode, Justice in America talks to Legend, singer, songwriter, actor, producer, founder of #FREEAMERICA. #FREEAMERICA is a campaign designed to change the national conversation of our country's misguided criminal justice policies.

John sat down with Josie in Los Angeles, where they talked about prosecutors, bail, immigration, and more.

To learn more about #FREEAMERICA, check out their website.

Earlier this week, John wrote a great op-ed for The Washington Post on the racist origins of Louisiana’s non-unanimous jury system.

In June, he co-wrote this piece for CNN with Color of Change Executive Director Rashad Robinson on the need to end cash bail.

Here’s another op-ed he wrote on police brutality in 2014, after the deaths of Mike Brown and Eric Garner

And yet another piece by John on ending juvenile life without parole in his home state of Ohio.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I think we've come to believe as a society that prison is pretty much the only way we deal with crime,
0:12.2	the only way we deal with poverty, the only way we deal with crime, the only way we deal with poverty, the only way we deal with any kind of mental illness or drug addiction,
0:18.0	and it can't be the case that prison is a solution for all of these issues.
0:23.0	Right. And so I think getting in the prisons and jails and speaking of these folks
0:28.4	helps you realize that there's so much more to their stories. Hey everyone, I'm Josie Duffy Rice, and I'm Clint Smith.
0:42.0	And this is Justice in America.
0:43.7	Each show we discuss a topic in the American criminal justice system and try to explain what
0:47.7	it is and how it works.
0:49.6	Thank you everyone for joining us today.
0:51.4	You can find us on Twitter at Justice
0:53.2	Underscore Podcast and like our Facebook page where you can find us at
0:56.8	Justice in America and please subscribe and rate us on iTunes. We'd love to hear
1:01.5	from you and it really helps.
1:03.4	So we started this show with a clip from our guest, John Legend, the critically acclaimed
1:08.1	multi award winning platinum selling singer-songwriter.
1:12.0	John has been at the forefront of criminal justice reform, but you
1:14.8	surely know him more for his work as an artist. He has garnered 10 Grammy Awards, an Academy
1:20.0	Award, a Golden Globe, and a Tony among others, and he's now up for an Emmy.
1:25.2	John also serves as one of the principles for Get Lifted Film Company, a film and television
1:29.6	production company based in Los Angeles.
1:32.4	In 2015, John initiated the hashtag Free America campaign, a campaign designed to change the
1:37.9	national conversation of our country's misguided criminal justice policies and to end mass incarceration.
	...

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