ICAN

Eric joined the CFSY team in 2017 and currently serves as the Youth Justice Advocate. In his role, he speaks to groups throughout the country in support of our public education and advocacy efforts. He is also a founding member of ICAN (Incarcerated Children’s Advocacy Network) and works with formerly incarcerated youth to help engage them deeply and strategically in the movement for the fair sentencing and treatment of all children.

At 17 years of age, Eric was arrested and subsequently charged with especially aggravated robbery and first-degree murder. Aware that the court was seeking a sentence of life without the possibility of parole, he pled guilty in order to receive two 25 year sentences (with a chance for parole) to be served concurrently in the Tennessee Department of Corrections. He was later paroled in 2004.

After his release, he began to volunteer in Alternative Schools for students with behavioral issues. He joined AmeriCorps Community Health Corps and assisted in establishing full-service medical clinics inside of local high-schools that provided health care to poor and underserved students and families. Eric became an independent vendor for the public school system. He facilitated trainings for school staff and campus security that offered strategies in identifying gang members and providing intervention for them and their families. He partnered with the Juvenile Detention Center and local organizations to provide services for students with trauma-related issues. The goal of this coalition of providers was to keep youth out of the juvenile justice system. As a Program Director for the YMCA of Middle TN, Eric operated a 3-point program that addressed the socio-emotional development in students with behavioral and academic performance issues.

In his downtime, Eric enjoys spending time with family and cycling. He finds time for a ‘flea market flip’ every now and then.

At age 17, Kimberly Simmons was an expectant mother who was charged with first degree felony murder and was later sentenced to serve her the rest of her life in prison. Today, at 47, Kimberly is a free woman who is a member of ICAN, and is discovering what it is like to live as an adult in free society and preparing to be the kind of mother she wasn’t allowed to be the first time.

When Kim was a child, she experienced trauma and neglect in many forms. Her parents separated when she was young, and her mother was paralyzed in an incident of extreme domestic violence when Kim was just 9 years old. Kim was also sexually abused by relatives, and slowly but surely she became angry and disconnected, isolating herself both in school, at home, and from her peers. At 16, she dropped out, and learned too late that she could not earn her GED until she was 18. She found herself alone in a new city, Cleveland, met a man, and became pregnant.

After a dispute with the father of her child over someone else he was seeing, some of Kim’s friends retaliated by throwing a Molotov cocktail into the house of his other love interest. Tragically, an elderly woman in the house was killed. Although Kim was not the one to throw the device, she was charged with and convicted of first degree felony murder and arson and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Kim gave birth while incarcerated, and her mother took her child in to raise her.

Like so many young people who enter the system, Kim says being locked up was incredibly difficult, particularly at first. “I was sexually harassed in prison, and I did a lot of things I’m not proud of. I was really trying to do the right things in a negative environment without proper guidance,” she says. “They say prison is supposed to rehabilitate you but they don’t give you the tools to grow. They don’t tell you how. They say you need to get rid of your anger but they never take you through the steps on how to deal with it.”

Over time, however, Kim transformed from a disenchanted teenager into a mature and remorseful adult, and was able to find herself, even within the confines of a prison. She earned her GED, her associate’s degree in applied arts and sciences, and her bachelor’s degree in behavioral science. She excelled academically, grew spiritually, and dreamed of someday being free.

Today, Kimberly is one of two female juvenile lifers who have been released in Michigan in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Montgomery v. Louisiana (10 more remain incarcerated). Simmons, a native of Detroit, came home on May 3, 2017, after serving 29 years. Now 47, she is living with her family and expecting her second child, a girl, due in the summer.

But being home is not without its challenges, like finding work and learning how to drive. Still, Kim is more than determined to succeed, particularly when it comes to having her new baby. “While I have a 29-year-old daughter, I have never been a full-time mom because I had my first child in prison,” she says. “It’s going to take a lot of prayer and patience. I’ll have to stay humble.”

But on most days, Kim’s new surroundings still feel wonderfully surreal to her. “I still have my days where I wake up and the first thing I do is look around, and think, ‘Ok, it’s really here. I’m really here,” she says. “It wasn’t a dream. I really am home.”

As a kid growing up in Southeast Chicago, Marshan Allen enjoyed fishing, hanging with friends, and even dabbling in music.

As a young person, Marshan witnessed the physical abuse of his mother, his father’s drug addiction, and eventually, started selling drugs alongside his brother. One day, a drug pickup turned robbery spiraled into Marshan stealing a car to aid in his brother’s vengeance. Although Marshan did not pull the trigger during the robbery, he was charged with two counts of first-degree felony murder and home invasion. This led to Marshan being sentenced to two counts of mandatory life without parole at the age of 15.

While in prison, Marshan became certified as a paralegal to fight his own case, served as a teacher’s aide for computer technology courses, earned an associate’s degree, and clerked in the law library, among many other activities. Today, after years of freedom, Marshan says he is working diligently, “trying to change the laws, trying to change the way the system views juveniles, and ultimately how they treat them.” All of the obstacles he has faced thus far have shaped how he approaches sentencing reform and the paths he has taken to produce change.

He currently serves as the Director of Policy & Communications at the Illinois Prison Project, is an alumnus of The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth (CFSY)’s board of directors, and a mentor in his community. When asked about how he sees himself giving back in the future, Marshan said, “I want to be an example and show that we are not the monsters or predators that they claimed we were. That given the chance, we can reintegrate into society and be a force for positive change.” Marshan graduated from Northeastern Illinois University in August 2020 with a Bachelor’s degree in Justice Policy and Advocacy and most recently received his law degree in 2026 from Chicago-Kent College of Law. “From a life sentence to a law degree,” Marshan celeebrates.

Marshan’s hobbies include reading, learning, fishing, and he has just recently picked up DJing.