John Legend Advocates For The Path To Re-Entry For Formerly Incarcerated Individuals

John Legend is lending his talents to help advocate for the formerly incarcerated and their path to re-entry post-release.

The EGOT recipient was front and center at the Milken 2023 Global Conference on Monday to take part in a panel discussion about the path to re-entry after incarceration. Moderated by MSNBC host Jonathan Capeheart, with opening remarks by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the discussion highlighted the importance of second chances for formerly incarcerated or people with criminal records and promoted the new Amazon Prime documentary narrated by Legend, Home/Free.

Every year, around 650,000 individuals are released from prison and must confront a new set of challenges upon returning home. They may face constant monitoring and limited opportunities for employment, education, and voting rights, among other obstacles.

The harsh realities of life after incarceration raise the important question: what does true freedom really mean? As responsible members of society, we have the power to create support systems that enable these individuals to fully reintegrate into their communities as free and equal citizens.

The panel discussion and new film helped to examine the collective efforts advocates, legislators, industry leaders, and everyday people can make in assisting formerly incarcerated individuals to achieve true freedom upon their return home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu4YhVk96ow&pp=ygUVaG9tZS9mcmVlIGpvaG4gbGVnZW5k

Anthony Ray Hinton, a man who spent 27 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, appeared in the film and helps shed light on the barriers he faced after spending nearly three decades in prison.

“Why do we always continue to break the ones who are already broken,” Hinton said. “We all deserve to come home to freedom.”

Joining Legend at the panel were Sheena Meade and Deepti Rohatgi. Meade serves as the CEO of Clean Slate Initiative, a national bipartisan organization aimed at expanding the sealing of arrest and conviction records for people who completed their sentences and remained crime-free for a period of time.

Rohatgi is the Executive Director of Slack For Good, a division of the tech company that has become a pioneer in helping to employ second-chance adults. Slack’s Next Chapter worked in partnership with Legend’s freeamerica and the Equal Justice Initiative to release Home/Free.

Together, the trio modeled their discussion around the documentary film that shared the stories of three people navigating their re-entry into society after incarceration, and the organizations on a mission to eliminate those barriers.

Legend shared that his passion for helping the formerly incarcerated started after seeing the father of his niece and nephews struggle to find a job after getting released from prison. The decorated musician explained how witnessing the challenges firsthand opened his eyes to the barriers that exist for people who paid their dues to society and deserve a second chance.

“We put so many barriers in the way of that happening in the name of continuing to punish people after they already paid their debt to society,” Legend said.

He noted how this leads to recidivism, where formerly incarcerated individuals end up back in jail for committing a crime in the time they struggled to find a job. Meade also appeared in the film and shared how stigma prevented her from being a chaperone on a school trip for one of her children, due to a check she bounced over 15 years ago.

Sharing statistics, Meade reminded the crowd of how likely it is that we or someone we know can end up getting arrested and facing a criminal charge. That one charge could lead to a lifetime of having to check a box that could prevent us from getting a job, seeking higher education, or even obtaining a place to live.

“There’s more than just employment barriers, housing barriers, there’s a humanity barrier there that people with arrest deal with,” Meade explained.

With organizations like Meade’s Clean Slate Initiative, she’s helping those who completed their sentence and proved their contributions to society through years of staying out of trouble, to get their records sealed. Slack For Good is also one company helping to be a part of the much-needed change by changing their policies to allow space for the formerly incarcerated to land jobs in tech at the community platform.

In the five years since launching Slack’s Next Chapter program, and conducting their first job interview in San Quentin prison, Slack has helped place 47 apprentices within 17 companies and has had a 100% success rate.

“We have had a 100% success rate,” Rohatgi said. “The talent is there. We just need to give them the opportunity and that’s ouR commitment.”

Watch the full panel discussion HERE and catch Home/Free on Amazon Prime video.