John Legend hopes his rallying prison reform speech at the Oscars will raise awareness of the problems in the U.S. justice system.

The singer and his collaborator Common won the Best Original Song prize for their Selma track Glory at the Academy Awards on Sunday (22Feb15), and Legend used his time at the podium to express his concerns over America's growing prison population, telling the audience, "We know that right now, the struggle for freedom and justice is real. We live in the most incarcerated country in the world. There are more black men under correctional control today then were under slavery in 1850."

Legend has now explained that he chose the Oscars stage for his rallying call for change because he is desperate to raise awareness of the issue, telling reporters afterwards, "I think there still is a lot to be done (to raise awareness)... Some of the things I spoke about today... (are) real, and people (are) feeling that around the country, what I spoke about regarding incarceration is real and it's destroying communities and it's a waste of our national resources to put so many people in prison, and it disproportionately affects black and brown communities... And so when we think about equality and freedom and justice, we know we've got more work to do. And we're going to do that work. We want to do that work, and we hope that our song is inspiration for those who want to do that work as well."