Re-Entry Support for Q and Other Juvie Lifers
Donation protected
My name and title is Elder G. Yusef Qualls…..I am a father!
I wore many hats in my lifetime, but I am now an ordained minister. I have a son who was convicted and sent to prison as a juvenile for aiding and abetting in a terrible crime. My life changed immensely upon his conviction. The day I heard “Guilty,” and “You were deemed a menace to society,” I felt convicted also. There were things I felt I didn't do, and I had to seek redemption through service. I focused on helping to change the lives of other young men— for prevention and support— but also for penance. I learned that when a loved one goes to prison, you go with him and serve the sentence.
In Detroit, in the 90s, we saw hundreds of families in that same position- watching our children go to prison for LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE before they had even reached 18 years of age.
The United States has now deemed this practice Unconstitutional, but Michigan has failed to re-sentence these people in a timely manner. There are still hundreds of Juvenile Lifers, who were sentenced to prison before their brains had fully developed, before they could understand the devastation taking a life has on the entire community. Now they are grown men and women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. And they are coming home to a very different world.
We are raising money to support my son, Yusef, and others as they come home from prison and re-enter society in the most uncertain time our country has ever faced.
I became an advocate for these young men and women. After 15 years, I began to visit a totally different man in prison. In my son, I saw a remorseful, introspective man who learned to turn inward to embrace the creativity within himself. I witnessed an insatiable appetite for knowledge grip him, and our relationship changed as he shared insights which allowed my work to be focused, direct, and effective. I saw the men around him, also sentenced as juveniles, go through these same transformations.
As I watched my son grow inside prison, my ministry became larger, and I was able to pull my oldest son, Richard, into it with me. I believed we, as a family, were on the path to redemption, until Richard was tragically shot to death in a robbery attempt by a woman looking to support her drug addiction.
In my grief, I became a victims advocate. I have been given an undesired perspective as someone who had a child taken away by violence, and I sat for three days looking at a woman who killed my son. While sitting in that courtroom, I realized how devastated the other family must have been by the actions of the men that took their loved ones’ life. I realized how much our community has been destroyed by violence, and how it is now being destroyed by the incarceration of our children.
All of these men and women are set to be re-sentenced. This campaign is to raise money for re-entering society during a pandemic and immense civil unrest. The violence inflicted on our community by police, by ourselves, and by others, is being reckoned with in a way that it never has before. We want to support and uplift these changed individuals as they come home into a difficult world, and start people on a better path forward.
We are so grateful for your help and support in these efforts.
Please also watch this beautiful piece written by Shaka Senghor and performed by Andre Shields, which tells the story of father and son through this painful journey: A Fathers Plea
Logistic Notes:
All words belong to Elder Qualls.
Jacq Lantz is a long-time family friend of the Qualls and manages the fundraiser under explicit direction from the family, due to technology limitations.
The funds will be withdrawn by the family, not the organizer.
The funds will be spent on re-entry support for Yusef and other juvenile lifers returning home. This includes: transportation and housing, technology support (purchasing a computer), food and clothing and basic
hygiene needs, and other necessities.
The Qualls family is in direct contact with several juvenile lifers and their families returning to Detroit, and will work together for mutual aid.
Please contact the organizer with any questions re verification and you will be put in direct contact with the family.
This is the only account approved by the Qualls Family.
I wore many hats in my lifetime, but I am now an ordained minister. I have a son who was convicted and sent to prison as a juvenile for aiding and abetting in a terrible crime. My life changed immensely upon his conviction. The day I heard “Guilty,” and “You were deemed a menace to society,” I felt convicted also. There were things I felt I didn't do, and I had to seek redemption through service. I focused on helping to change the lives of other young men— for prevention and support— but also for penance. I learned that when a loved one goes to prison, you go with him and serve the sentence.
In Detroit, in the 90s, we saw hundreds of families in that same position- watching our children go to prison for LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE before they had even reached 18 years of age.
The United States has now deemed this practice Unconstitutional, but Michigan has failed to re-sentence these people in a timely manner. There are still hundreds of Juvenile Lifers, who were sentenced to prison before their brains had fully developed, before they could understand the devastation taking a life has on the entire community. Now they are grown men and women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. And they are coming home to a very different world.
We are raising money to support my son, Yusef, and others as they come home from prison and re-enter society in the most uncertain time our country has ever faced.
I became an advocate for these young men and women. After 15 years, I began to visit a totally different man in prison. In my son, I saw a remorseful, introspective man who learned to turn inward to embrace the creativity within himself. I witnessed an insatiable appetite for knowledge grip him, and our relationship changed as he shared insights which allowed my work to be focused, direct, and effective. I saw the men around him, also sentenced as juveniles, go through these same transformations.
As I watched my son grow inside prison, my ministry became larger, and I was able to pull my oldest son, Richard, into it with me. I believed we, as a family, were on the path to redemption, until Richard was tragically shot to death in a robbery attempt by a woman looking to support her drug addiction.
In my grief, I became a victims advocate. I have been given an undesired perspective as someone who had a child taken away by violence, and I sat for three days looking at a woman who killed my son. While sitting in that courtroom, I realized how devastated the other family must have been by the actions of the men that took their loved ones’ life. I realized how much our community has been destroyed by violence, and how it is now being destroyed by the incarceration of our children.
All of these men and women are set to be re-sentenced. This campaign is to raise money for re-entering society during a pandemic and immense civil unrest. The violence inflicted on our community by police, by ourselves, and by others, is being reckoned with in a way that it never has before. We want to support and uplift these changed individuals as they come home into a difficult world, and start people on a better path forward.
We are so grateful for your help and support in these efforts.
Please also watch this beautiful piece written by Shaka Senghor and performed by Andre Shields, which tells the story of father and son through this painful journey: A Fathers Plea
Logistic Notes:
All words belong to Elder Qualls.
Jacq Lantz is a long-time family friend of the Qualls and manages the fundraiser under explicit direction from the family, due to technology limitations.
The funds will be withdrawn by the family, not the organizer.
The funds will be spent on re-entry support for Yusef and other juvenile lifers returning home. This includes: transportation and housing, technology support (purchasing a computer), food and clothing and basic
hygiene needs, and other necessities.
The Qualls family is in direct contact with several juvenile lifers and their families returning to Detroit, and will work together for mutual aid.
Please contact the organizer with any questions re verification and you will be put in direct contact with the family.
This is the only account approved by the Qualls Family.
Fundraising team: Welcome Them Home (4)
Jacq Lantz
Organizer
South Lyon, MI
G. Yusef Qualls
Team member
Olivia Vizachero
Team member
Shannon Nevins
Team member