Asked to describe himself, Malachi Muhammad will tell you that he’s a believer. He believes in the ability of people to change and the need for second chances. He is also a student of the Nation of Islam. But he doesn’t describe himself with titles like advocate or mentor, even though he takes on both of those roles.
“I use the word ‘believer’ because it doesn’t put me in a box,” Muhammad explains. And after being in prison for 29 years, he’s had enough of that.
Muhammad is one of Michigan’s former juvenile lifers — someone who was sentenced to life without parole while they were still a teenager, but who has since come home thanks to subsequent Supreme Court rulings that found mandatory life for juveniles to be unconstitutional. Bills pending in Michigan would ban discretionary life without parole for juveniles as well.
Muhammad life changed when he was 15. First, one of his aunts was killed by her husband. The following year, his great-grandmother — who he lived with — passed away from a heart attack. As a result, he was sent to live with his grandparents on the city’s west side, a place where he didn’t feel he fit in.
Soon, he became involved with people who sold drugs. That led to a plan to rob someone of his drugs, but the plan went wrong. Muhammad wound up shooting and killing the man.
“Your life can change in that quick of a second, and you can’t take it back,” Muhammad said.
Muhammad entered prison at 17 and learned what it meant to be incarcerated for natural life when others told him he was going to die there. Rather than give up or get angry, Muhammad decided he must improve himself.
He found support and inspiration from Islam, a faith he discovered while incarcerated. Asked to deliver a speech for the solemn holiday of atonement in 2013, Muhammad understood that he must first make his own atonement. He stopped referring to himself as innocent and began to take full accountability for the actions that led to his incarceration.
By the time the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions rethinking juvenile life without parole led to Muhammad’s resentencing hearing, even the mother of the man he had shot saw a change in him. She told the judge that she believed Muhammad had learned his lesson and deserved a second chance.
Muhammad was released in November 2019.
Since then, he has been working and volunteering as a community outreach worker for the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office, where he helps people in the county jail prepare to transition home, and as a mentor for people on probation. He’s also a trauma informed peer led reentry navigator for A Brighter Way in Washtenaw County.
Muhammad points out that both science and faith now agree that youth deserve second chances. The most recent studies in brain development suggest that human brains aren’t fully developed until the age of 25, and younger people don’t have the same ability to think through decisions as adults. And all faith traditions relate the importance of redemption and second chances.
“Get to know us,” he urged. “Get to know the criminal justice system. It’s flawed in so many ways.”
