The past generation has seen America's prison population increase exponentially, sparking a new national conversation around mass incarceration among journalists and policymakers.
Recently, President Obama became the first sitting commander-in-chief to visit a federal prison to meet with inmates and discuss the issue. Now, dozens of celebrities hoping to build on this momentum have joined an effort aimed at raising awareness and reducing the number of prisoners in the system.
NBCBLK recently spoke to hip-hop icon Russell Simmons about his involvement in #cut50, a bipartisan effort to shrink the prison population by 50 percent over the next decade.
Simmons, a longtime advocate for sentencing reform who led a campaign to address sentencing disparities in New York more than a decade ago, shared his thoughts on the potential of the moment, and why he's participating.
Simmons said, "We lock up nonviolent, first-time offenders, users or tiny drug dealers ? and dump them back in the 'hood. Then jail culture becomes the core culture of communities, and you wonder why some communities are so violent. And so I'm really a supporter of this initiative and every criminal justice initiative they can come up with."