Prison is not always the answer, says John Legend

Los Angeles, Sep 15 (IANS) Singer John Legend opened up on prison sentences after actress Felicity Huffman got 14 days for her role in the college admission scandal.

In a series of tweets on Saturday, Legend said prison is not always the answer for every mistake.

Legend gave the example of a woman who was jailed for sending her child to the wrong school district and another one who was sentenced to five years for mistakenly voting when she was ineligible. He argued that those women should not be in prison, reports cnn.com.

"I get why everyone gets mad when rich person X gets a short sentence and poor person of colour Y gets a long one. The answer isn't for X to get more; it's for both of them to get less (or even none!!!) We should level down not up," he tweeted.

"Americans have become desensitised to how much we lock people up. Prisons and jails are not the answer to every bad thing everyone does, but we've come to use them to address nearly every societal ill."

Huffman is the first parent to be sentenced in the admissions scam in which rich parents paid large amount of money to help get their children into prestigious schools.

In addition to two weeks in prison, the "Desperate Housewives" actress was sentenced to one year supervised release and 250 hours of community service. She was also fined $30,000.

"I broke the law. I have admitted that and I pleaded guilty to this crime. There are no excuses or justifications for my actions. Period," Huffman said in the statement.

She needs to report to prison on October 25 to serve her sentence.