Kareemah Hanifa

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.