ICAN

The Philadelphia Inquirer just reported the lowest level of gun violence in a decade. Violence intervention and prevention is Don ‘Ike’ Jones’ life’s work, including through the nonprofit he co-founded in Philly called G.R.O.W.N.

“I have been staying very busy using my experiences to help ensure that others do not go the path that I traveled,” Ike says. “Us former juvenile lifers were once considered throw-away people. Decades later and we are out here doing the work to save our communities.”

Recognizing his outstanding efforts in supporting reentry and for exemplifying leadership in his community, Ike just received this year’s “Rising Leader” award from The Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project (YSRP). Like Don, members of the Incarcerated Children’s Advocacy Network (ICAN) remind us why the extreme sentencing of youth deprives our communities of the solutions we need.

Surviving in prison as a child, Armand Coleman remembers being committed to “his reputation as a gangster” during his first two decades of thinking he would spend his life behind bars. He had little confidence that any prison program could alter his understanding of himself or his crime. Then, he attended his first restorative justice circle.

“I listened to parents who lost children to violence as they described the intense pain of their loss and amazingly, expressed a desire to work with us, the perpetrators of harm, to bring about change. Their willingness to reach across what I thought was an unbridgeable divide moved me to break my longest-held rule: I cried openly.”

Before that moment, he couldn’t picture where he is today: a founder and executive director of the Transformational Prison Project (TPP) in Massachusetts. The program focuses on dialogue and brings together volunteers, people who are incarcerated or recently released from prison, victims of crime, and relatives of crime victims. This work builds on the later years of his incarceration, during which he expanded restorative justice inside the DOC, “focused on recruiting the most influential men in the prison, many of them lifers, considered incorrigible.”

Through all this work, he’s expanding the understanding between survivors and drivers of youth harm, including their commonalities. “Me recognizing myself as a victim first allowed me to acknowledge the people that I victimized.” Over the years, Armand says he came to realize, “every crime that I ever committed, every harm I ever committed, I was living out my own trauma that happened to me as a child.” According to the National Center for Victims of Crime, more than 90% of children who are in the criminal legal system experience extreme levels of trauma or abuse. Armand has set out to remedy this through his work to address harm and find healing, including through TPP’s recent efforts to invest in occupational therapy for those incarcerated as children to confront the damage of sensory deprivation that comes with growing up incarcerated.

Facing 30 years in prison at 16 years old, Sarah (Bryant) Bailey was determined to spend her incarceration healing while advancing her education to give back to others. She participated in the LIFE program with Lipscomb University and took advantage of their creative writing and poetry workshops. After coming home in 2008, Sarah continued her education at Lipscomb University, graduating Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Sociology and Business. She went on to obtain a second degree in Social Work from Chattanooga State.

Sarah has spent the past 13 years building a life centered around service and advocacy. Sarah now dedicates her time to helping others get back on their feet as a Detox Alcohol and Drug Counselor at the Council for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services. Beyond her work as a counselor, Sarah serves on the board of Sarah’s Place, a halfway house dedicated to supporting individuals in transition and those battling substance abuse.

Her commitment to community service extends to mentoring local youth and raising awareness about peer pressure, social issues, trauma, restoration, crime, and substance abuse. Sarah’s life and career are testaments to her resilience and unwavering commitment to helping others find their paths to recovery and success.

Kareemah Hanifa is an expert in the psychology and brain science that demands an end to extreme sentences for children.

She’s also an expert due to her own experience, and living proof that everyone is worth redemption. Kareemah was incarcerated at 15 years old and sentenced to two consecutive life terms. After serving 26 years in prison, she became a community organizer and leader, striving to live an exemplary life.

Since her release, Kareemah earned her associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees in positive psychology. Now as Director of the Chillon Project at Life University, she’s giving back to students through higher education, including those behind bars and impacted by the prison system.

In an exhilarating victory less than four months ago, the Georgia Pardons and Parole Board granted Kareemah a sentence commutation which means her sentence is complete and she is no longer serving lifetime parole. “I am FREE free,” she says.

Discarded with a life without parole sentence as a teen, Ernest Franklin is now a thriving business owner, devoted husband, and loving father. He was just 17 years old when he was sentenced to death by incarceration and spent nearly three decades behind bars before his long-awaited release in 2020. After gaining his freedom, he graduated at the top of his class at the All-State Career School and became a HVAC Technician before founding his business, the successful Philadelphia-based trucking company Gambit Logistics LLC. In the trucking industry, Ernest is passionate about teaching and hiring fellow formerly incarcerated individuals, knowing the importance that a stable and fulfilling job can have on people’s reentry journeys.