"Redemption Song"

John Legend is on a mission to transform America's criminal justice system. Through his Free America campaign, he's encouraging rehabilitation and healing in our prisons, jails and detention centers -- and giving hope to those who want to create a better life after serving their time. With a spoken-word prelude from James Cavitt, an inmate at San Quentin State Prison, Legend treats us to his stripped-down version of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.” "Won't you help to sing these songs of freedom?"

At Free America, we've done
a listening and learning tour.

We visited not only with prosecutors

but with legislators,

with inmates in our state
and local prisons.

We've gone to immigration
detention centers.

We've met a lot of people.

And we've seen that redemption
and transformation can happen

in our prisons, our jails
and our immigration detention centers,

giving hope to those
who want to create a better life

after serving their time.

Imagine if we also considered
the front end of this prison pipeline.

What would it look like
if we intervened,

with rehabilitation as a core value --

with love and compassion as core values?

We would have a society that is safer,

healthier

and worthy of raising our children in.

I want to introduce you to James Cavitt.

James served 12 years
in the San Quentin State Prison

and is being released in 18 months.

Now James, like you and me,

is more than the worst thing he's done.

He is a father, a husband, a son, a poet.

He committed a crime;

he's paying his debt,

and working hard to build the skills

to make the transition back
to a productive life

when he enters the civilian
population again.

Now James, like millions
of people behind bars,

is an example of what happens

if we believe that our failings
don't define who we are,

that we are all worthy of redemption

and if we support those impacted
by mass incarceration,

we can all heal together.

I'd like to introduce you
to James right now,

and he's going to share
his journey of redemption

through spoken word.

James Cavitt: Thanks, John.

TED, welcome to San Quentin.

The talent is abundant
behind prison walls.

Future software engineers,

entrepreneurs,

craftsmen,

musicians

and artists.

This piece is inspired
by all of the hard work

that men and women are doing on the inside

to create better lives
and futures for themselves

after they serve their time.

This piece is entitled, "Where I Live."

I live in a world where most people
are too afraid to go.

Surrounded by tall, concrete walls,

steel bars,

where razor wire have a way

of cutting away at the hopes
for a brighter tomorrow.

I live in a world

that kill people who kill people

in order to teach people

that killing people is wrong.

Imagine that.

Better yet,

imagine a world where healed people
helped hurt people heal

and become strong.

Maybe then we would all
be singin' "Redemption Song."

I live in a world that
has been called "hell on Earth"

by those trapped inside.

But I've come to the stark realization

that prison --

it really is what you make it.

You see, in spite
of the harshness of my reality,

there is a silver lining.

I knew that my freedom was gonna come,

it was just a matter of time.

And so I treated my first steps
as if they were my last mile,

and I realized that you
don't have to be free

in order to experience freedom.

And just because you're free,

doesn't mean that you have freedom.

Many of us, for years,
have been battling our inner demons.

We walk around smiling
when inside we're really screamin':

freedom!

Don't you get it?

We're all serving time;

we're just in different places.

As for me,

I choose to be free
from the prisons I've created.

The key:

forgiveness.

Action's my witness.

If we want freedom,

then we gotta think different.

Because freedom ...

it isn't a place.

It's a mind setting.

Thank you.

(Applause)

(Piano)

John Legend: Old pirates, yes, they rob I.

Sold I to the merchant ships.

Minutes after they took I

from the bottomless pit.

My hands were made strong

by the hand of the almighty.

We forward in this generation

triumphantly.

Won't you help to sing

these songs of freedom?

'Cause all I ever had --

redemption songs.

Redemption songs.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery.

None but ourselves can free our minds.

Have no fear for atomic energy

'cause none of them can stop the time.

How long shall they kill our prophets

while we stand aside and look?

Some say it's just a part of it,

we've got to fulfill the book.

Won't you help to sing

these songs of freedom?

'Cause all I ever had --

redemption songs.

Redemption songs.

(Piano)

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery.

None but ourselves can free our minds.

Have no fear for atomic energy

'cause none of them can stop the time.

How long shall they kill our prophets

while we stand aside and look?

Some say it's just a part of it,

we've got to fulfill the book.

Won't you help to sing

these songs of freedom?

'Cause all I ever had --

redemption songs.

Redemption songs.

These songs of freedom.

'Cause all I ever had --

redemption songs.

Redemption songs.

Redemption songs.

(Piano)

(Applause)

Thank you.

Thank you.

(Applause)