Michelle West

Long SentencingSecond Look SentencingRestorative JusticeWomen and Incarceration

Oct 4

Written By Gary Ricke

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Michelle West is a mother, networking specialist, and criminal justice reform activist.
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About Michelle

Michelle West is a mother, networking specialist, and criminal justice reform activist. She is passionate about supporting women’s reentry journeys, creating pathways to success for young people, and educating future legal practitioners about the realities of the criminal legal system.

In 1994, Michelle was unjustly sentenced to a double life sentence plus 50 years for her role in a drug conspiracy. Though she had no prior criminal record, Michelle fell victim to mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

Michelle survived over three decades of incarceration in federal prison. Despite her sentence, she served as a "role model," supporting her daughter, Miquelle, on the outside and mentoring others inside the prison walls. In addition to helping to launch and manage her daughter’s career while in federal prison, Michelle received awards from the Department of Justice for exemplary service.

Michelle also led efforts to share her story on the national stage. Over more than 30 years, she worked with Miquelle, her legal team, and leading advocates and nonprofit organizations on the #FREEMICHELLEWEST campaign. Her campaign brought national attention to her clemency appeal, as well as highlighted the many women today who are serving extremely long and unjust sentences as a result of mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

In 2016, Michelle's story was featured in the Revolt documentary, #FREEMICHELLEWEST. In 2024, Michelle was also portrayed in the film KEMBA, narrating the story of Kemba Smith Pradia and her 24 year prison sentence for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense. The two women became close while incarcerated at FCI Danbury before Smith Pradia received a commutation from President Bill Clinton in 2000.

On February 18th, 2025, thanks to the advocacy of Miquelle, Kemba, and countless others, President Biden commuted Michelle's sentence, citing her overwhelming support from the civil rights community, women’s rights advocates and lawmakers. Michelle currently resides in Los Angeles with her daughter, and now serves as a member of Represent Justice’s Speakers Bureau, sharing her story full-time to change the criminal justice system.

Since her release, Michelle was honored by the Black Music Action Coalition, has advocated for federal prison reform on Capitol Hill, spoke alongside Kim Kardashian, and has served as the Keynote Speaker at JustUs Ideas Week.

Other Speakers

Kemba Smith Pradia

Virginia
Kemba Smith Pradia, once sentenced to 24.5 years in prison for drug-related offenses, became a prominent advocate for criminal justice reform after receiving clemency from President Clinton, and now works as a public speaker, author, and consultant while continuing her activism through various organizations and her own foundation.

Michelle West

California
Michelle West is a mother, networking specialist, and criminal justice reform activist.

Michael Saavedra

California
Michael Saavedra is a legal advocate, solitary confinement survivor, and hunger striker.

Dolores Canales

California
Dolores Canales is an activist, organizer, and the Director of Community Outreach for The Bail Project.

Jack Morris

California
Jack Morris is the program director at St. John's Community Health in Los Angeles, here he works with justice-impacted communities and those exiting incarceration by providing re-entry services based on the social determinants of health.

Donna Hylton

New York
Donna Hylton is an activist and author who advocates for women and girls affected by intersectional trauma, focusing on issues such as domestic violence, police brutality, and incarceration, while also contributing to significant legislation like the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act and leading her own nonprofit, A Little Piece of Light, to empower survivors and promote healing through education and community support.

Jessie Mabrey

Georgia
Jessie D. Mabrey is Certified Peer Specialist and dedicated advocate for justice-impacted people and children with incarcerated parents, leveraging over 15 years of experience to connect people in reentry to resources, support, and programming. She is driven by her belief that "where you’ve been is not who you are."

Xavier McElrath-Bey

Illinois
Xavier McElrath-Bey, Executive Director of the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth and Co-Founder of the Incarcerated Children's Advocacy Network, champions the human rights of incarcerated children by advocating for the abolition of life without parole and other extreme sentences for youth. Drawing from his own experience of being charged as an adult for murder at 13 and serving 13 years in prison before becoming a dedicated advocate for at-risk youth, Xavier boldly professes to the world that "no child is born bad."

Waleisah Wilson

Georgia
Waleisah Wilson is a passionate criminal justice reform activist and organizer who founded NewLife Second Chance Outreach, Inc. after her release from prison in 2011 to provide essential employment and entrepreneurship services and workshops for individuals with criminal convictions, while advocating for disability justice, voting rights, bail reform, faith community inclusion, an end to solitary confinement, fines & fees, mass incarceration and prison labor in Georgia, and the removal of barriers to reentry.

Vivian Anderson

South Carolina
Vivian is an advocate, healer, and the Founder & Executive Director of EveryBlackGirl, Inc., a grassroots, community-based advocacy and service organization focused on prevention, intervention and creation for a world where every Black girl thrives.

Tyra Patterson

Ohio
Tyra Patterson, an artist and activist serving as the Community Outreach Strategist at the Ohio Justice & Policy Center, utilizes her lived experience to educate legal professionals, advocate for policy reform—such as the ban on life sentences without parole for children in Ohio—and integrate art into the narrative of justice-impacted individuals.

Tabatha Trammell

Georgia
Tabatha is a full spectrum birth doula, prison doula, and abortion doula that helps incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and girls through her program, Dorcas Doula Initiative. Through her other venture, Woman With a Plan, Tabatha provides mentorship and support services while sharing her own journey of mental illness, drug addiction, incarceration, and motherhood.

Shannon Ross

Wisconsin
Shannon Ross, the Executive Director of The Community, founded the organization while serving a 17-year prison sentence to address the criminal legal system's impact through greater information sharing, self-empowerment, and narrative change. Since his release in 2020, he has expanded his advocacy as a graduate student, podcast host, and entrepreneur focused on supporting system-impacted individuals.

Paine the Poet

Washington D.C.
Paine The Poet, a spoken word artist and activist, uses his poetry and personal experience as a formerly incarcerated individual to advocate for the disenfranchised, disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline through high school poetry courses, and prepare incarcerated youth for reintegration into society.

Norris Henderson

Louisiana
Norris Henderson, Founder and Executive Director of VOTE and Voters Organized to Educate, leverages his 27 years of wrongful incarceration to advocate for public policy reform in areas like police accountability and public defense, while actively working to uplift communities of color across Louisiana through various leadership roles and community outreach.

Nelson Morris

Illinois
Nelson Morris, a Project Associate at Restore Justice, dedicates his efforts to community outreach and fundraising while mentoring youth and teaching advocacy courses, all after spending 29 years in prison for a crime committed at 17, from which he was granted a new sentence following the Supreme Court’s Miller decision.

Michelle Cirocco

Arizona
Michelle Cirocco, Chief Social Responsibility Officer for Televerde and Executive Director of the Televerde Foundation, has been recognized as one of the World-Changing Women in Conscious Business and is committed to using her leadership to advocate for second chances while actively volunteering in her community.

Malika Kidd

Ohio
Malika Kidd is a Project Manager at the Council of State Governments Justice Center, where she leads initiatives to support economic mobility for people with criminal records, drawing on her personal experience and expertise in workforce development, education, and reentry services.

Kerry Myers

Louisiana
Kerry Myers is the Deputy Director of the Louisiana Parole Project and an award-winning journalist dedicated to aiding individuals who were sentenced to life as children and others with extreme sentences. He spent 27 years fighting for his own exoneration after being wrongfully convicted of murder. He now advocates for justice reform through his writing and public speaking.

John Pace

Pennsylvania
After serving 31 years of a life sentence given at age 17, John was resentenced and paroled, and since his release, he has dedicated himself to supporting other former juvenile lifers in their reentry journeys and young people who find themselves involved in the criminal justice system, earning recognition for his advocacy work and serving as Senior Reentry Coordinator at the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project in Philadelphia.

Herman Lindsey

Florida
Herman, the 135th person exonerated from death row in the U.S. and the 23rd from Florida, views his wrongful conviction as a lesson that fuels his advocacy for criminal justice reform, trauma awareness, and the abolition of the death penalty, as he now works with at-risk youth and speaks internationally on these crucial issues.

Halim Flowers

Washington D.C.
Artist Halim A. Flowers turned his experience sentenced to life at the age of 16 into 11 published works through his company SATO Communications. He was released in 2019 and has since earned prestigious fellowships and representation for his visual art.

Niya Kenny

South Carolina
Niya Kenny is a social justice advocate and education reformer who uses her experience to fight the school-to-prison pipeline and challenge laws that disproportionately impact Black students.

George Morton

Georgia
George Anthony Morton is an Atlanta-based award-winning and internationally recognized artist, specializing in classical painting and drawing inspired by Classical-Realist tradition.

Fernando Bermudez

New York
Fernando, wrongfully convicted of murder and imprisoned for over 18 years, was exonerated in 2009, becoming the first Latin-American male in New York to be cleared on actual innocence grounds, and has since transformed his life into a powerful advocacy and public speaking career while pursuing his creative passions.

Eddie Ellis Jr.

Washington D.C.
Eddie B. Ellis Jr., a reentry advocate and consultant, founded One by 1, Inc. and leverages his experience as a formerly incarcerated person to build safer communities through training, mentorship, and support for reintegration, while also serving as the Co-Director of Outreach & Member Services at the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth.

Andrew Hundley

Louisiana
Andrew, once labeled a “juvenile lifer,” transformed his life after becoming the first in Louisiana to be paroled under new rulings, and now leads the Louisiana Parole Project to help others with extreme sentences reintegrate and thrive.

Amanda Freed

Ohio
Sentenced to 10 years in prison at the age of 23 for crimes related to her addiction, Amanda is now devoted to her recovery and helping others in recovery.

Twyana Davis

Ohio
Through powerful storytelling and vivid artistic expression, Columbus-born filmmaker and playwright Twyana Davis brings light to social injustices, trauma, and the voices of the system-impacted, inspiring audiences to think beyond boundaries and embrace change.

~New Film

Gary Ricke http://orbisdesign.com

Michelle West

Topics:

About Michelle

Kemba Smith Pradia

Michael Saavedra

#RepresentJustice