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John Legend is taking a firm stance in the United States’ issue on mass incarceration and his solution is beginning with a new campaign with the multiyear initiative, FREE AMERICA.

We have a serious problem with incarceration in this country,” Legend said in an interview, reports 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.”

In addition to visiting and performing at a correctional facility this coming Thursday in Austin, Texas, the Oscar/Grammy Award-winner will also visit a California state prison and co-host a criminal justice event with Politico in Washington, D.C., later this month, which also includes an appearance from Killer Mike.

“I’m just trying to create some more awareness to this issue and trying to make some real change legislatively,” Legend, 36 said.. “And we’re not the only ones. There are senators that are looking at this, like Rand Paul and Cory Booker, there are other nonprofits that are looking at this, and I just wanted to add my voice to that.”

Many artists talk political matters but few actually get around to walk down the line. Legend is obviously not included in that category.

Photo: Judy Eddy/WENN.com