John Legend is an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award-winning entertainer, who recently kicked off a Las Vegas residency and just released a new single. But he's also a well-known activist and advocate for criminal justice reform and voting rights who has supported a number of Democratic candidates over the years. He's also throwing his support behind a number of progressive prosecutors who are running on a promise to reform a criminal justice system that they say is outdated and that...

The first time Teeanna Brisco saw her father after he was released from prison was just before her law school graduation, when she picked him up from the airport. Bernard Brisco had been imprisoned for 20 years for non-violent drug crimes, sentenced in 2001 for selling cocaine. His daughter was just four years old. Mr Brisco, now 53, was given the lengthy sentence because of the so-called "three-strikes" sentencing law. Under the policy, which was implemented in the US in 1994, judges had to...

#MomsAgainstTorture is a movement led by Gina Burns, Cheryl Canson and other mothers of vulnerable Californians who were incarcerated even though they were not restored to competence after being deemed incompetent to stand trial. In this conversation, they share the purpose and aims of their movement. Amanda Nguyen: How did you get started in this work? Gina Burns and Cheryl Canson: As a matter of survival. The impacted Black and Indigenous moms who founded #MomsAgainstTorture have been...