Malachi (YJF Member)

One of our most recently released members, Malachi was incarcerated in an adult prison as a youth at the age of 17 and spent the next 29 years locked up. He was released in November of 2019 due to the U.S. Supreme Court cases of Miller v. Alabama and Montgomery v. Louisiana that addressed the re-sentencing of juveniles given a mandatory life without parole sentence. Malachi has received the greatest amount of individualized services from YJF due to only being home for a couple of months. He has spent many hours in his community being mentored by other formerly incarcerated leaders.

YJF helped Malachi obtain clothing, transitional housing, Medicaid, SNAP benefits, temporary drivers permit, and employment. Our Executive Director recently set up an opportunity for Malachi to speak with him on a panel about justice reform at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Last but not least YJF just helped him get accepted and fully-funded to attend Washtenaw Community College for an Ironworkers Pre-Apprenticeship program starting in the winter 2020 semester.