For Efrén Paredes, Jr., even time spent behind bars is time to be used in constructive ways. We would like to share some of Efrén’s inspiring accomplishments with the reminder that circumstances do not need to hold young people back from getting an education, helping others, and living as an active, hopeful, vigorous force for positive change in our world.

Formal Education and Studies

Before his arrest, Efrén had an excellent record of high grades, and after being sentenced to life in prison, he went on to complete his GED at the age of 16. Through prison programs, he took classes from Montcalm Community College. In 1997, he earned certification from the Library of Congress as a Literary Braille Transcriber.

Over the course of nearly three decades, he went on to successfully complete therapeutic courses facilitated by social workers and psychologists, including Anger Management, Thinking Errors, Meditation, Stress Management, Grief and Loss, Character Development, and Group Therapy.

In 2014, he co-facilitated a Conflict Resolution class alongside facility staff at the Kinross Correctional Facility. Subsequently he completed a relationship course and the Inside-Out Dad program which teaches parenting skills to incarcerated fathers.

Efrén also completed several important educational programs in 2015-2016. These were Forty Days of Peace, Forty Days of Power, Transition to Success, Juvenile Restoration in Progress, and Chance for Life.

Michigan Department of Corrections Chaplain Onesiphorus Burrel writes of the dramatic effects of the Forty Days of Peace and Forty Days of Power programs, presented by Kit Cummings of Atlanta, Georgia. “The Power of Peace Project has been a phenomenal blessing to me and the prison population at Earnest C. Brooks Correctional Facility, as evidenced by half of our population of 1200+ prisoners asking, seeking, and desiring to be a part of the POPP movement. We have seen approximately 2000 inmates complete this powerful project, and violence decreased considerably. Kit keeps real, because Hope is the new Dope.”

The programs of Transition to Success and Juvenile Restoration in Progress focus on transitional, re-entry, and basic life skills for incarcerated people: the latter reaches out to people incarcerated for life as juveniles. Chance for Life (Efrén completed Tier I and Tier II), is a program offered by a non-profit corporation of the same name. It teaches leadership, communication, mediation, and other skills; and has strong support from the Michigan Department of Corrections.

In 2017, Efrén participated in the Employee Readiness Program. The program required completing all modules and becoming certified in Microsoft Digital Literacy, Workforce Development, and FDIC Money Smart. He was subsequently hired by the program instructor as a tutor to teach the program to other incarcerated people.

Other highlights of Efrén’s education include a period from 2005-2009, when he participated in three University of Michigan Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP) creative writing and art workshops. One of his poems was featured in the University of Michigan Creative Writing Workshop 2005 United Nations World Environmental Day anthology, “A Crack in the Concrete.”

In 2015 and 2016, he again participated in two creative writing workshops through Free Verse Arts, which were facilitated by Guillermo Delgado, Associate Professor in the Residential College of Arts and Humanities, Michigan State University, and Dr. Delgado’s art students from MSU.

During the same two year period, Efrén also had the privilege of participating in a theatre class facilitated by Dr. Lisa Biggs, author (The Healing Stage: Black Women, Incarceration, and the Art of Transformation, Ohio State University Press, 2022) and former Associate Professor in the Residential College of Arts and Humanities, Michigan State University. (Dr. Biggs is now an Associate Professor at Brown University.) The class wrote and performed an original play in an auditorium at a prison in Ionia, Michigan, titled, “Only the Blind Can See.”

In the summer of 2023 Efrén was accepted into the Western Michigan University (WMU) Higher Education for the Justice-Involved (HEJI) Program. He is part of the first cohort of 22 students admitted into the program at the WMU-Coldwater campus who become eligible to earn a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from the College of Arts and Sciences at WMU. Now in his junior year, he continues to hold a 4.00 GPA.

Most recently, Efrén has been chosen to serve as a member of the Michigan Consortium for Higher Education in Prison (MiCHEP) Steering Committee. His two-year term will begin July 1, 2025, marking a historic milestone as the first Latino student to serve in this capacity. MiCHEP is a collaborative organization of individual institutions of higher education, multi-institutional partnerships, and the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC). Only one incarcerated male and one incarcerated female, in the MDOC, are appointed to serve in this capacity from among the nearly 1,500 students actively participating in a college program who submit applications.

According to Efrén, “I’m honored to be entrusted with this role. I look forward to using my platform to help improve student outcomes and represent all MiCHEP partners and stakeholders to the best of my abilities.” He added, “It will be a great experience to collaborate with a team of leaders who care deeply about the quality of higher education offered to justice-involved individuals in Michigan’s carceral facilities. Together, we can create pathways that empower students to become productive citizens upon their eventual return to society.”

Work History

As an incarcerated teenager, Efrén worked as a clerk for the school principal at the Michigan Reformatory. He subsequently worked as a clerk and teacher’s aide at various prisons between 1990-97. Teachers described him as a hard worker, an excellent communicator, and an invaluable asset to the classroom setting.

From 1997, and for the next thirteen years (until 2010), Efrén worked for the Michigan Braille Transcribing Fund, transcribing print textbooks into braille for blind and visually impaired children. He also worked as a clerk in the accounting department, made presentations to board members, and presented innovative ideas to help the corporation grow into what the MBTF website describes as “one of the largest braille production facilities of its kind in the nation.” (www.mi-braille.org) At the same time, he became proficient in the use of what was then the latest computer software and technology.

Consequently, a retired Michigan Braille Transcribing Fund Executive Director, as well as current and retired members of the Michigan Department of Corrections staff, have expressed their appreciation of Efrén’s work in writing and have provided letters of support.

Since 2010, Efrén has consistently been employed at every prison he has been housed at and received positive work reports while carrying out a diversity of tasks. These include Food Services, the Special Acts Department (clerical), Maintenance (electrical), the Recreational Department, and environmental services positions.

Specifically, in the Food Service Department, Efrén has worked as a vegan cook, baker, and lead person responsible for making the food serving line function efficiently. Clerical tasks have included taking and printing photographs, posting and collecting event sign-up information in housing units, maintaining AA/NA participation records, etc.

In Maintenance, he has been employed as an electrician assistant, addressing electrical issues throughout the prison in the housing units, the Food Services Department, Health Services, and the Educational Building. Additionally, he has served in the Recreation Department, maintaining weight lifting equipment in indoor and outdoor weight training areas; and was a referee for various sporting events. He has also been employed in the housing unit as a laundry porter, cleaning the bathrooms and commons areas, and stripping and waxing floors.

Above and beyond these employment activities, Efrén has received commendations from prison wardens for his positive work in assisting the incarcerated population.

Volunteer Work

An active volunteer, Efrén has given many hours of effort to create positive change inside and outside the prison system.

One of the projects most personally meaningful to him took place in 2008, when he used his voice and social platform as part of a successful grassroots campaign to help the Anahuacalmecac International University Preparatory of North America receive its charter authorization from the Los Angeles Unified School District.

A letter of thanks from Salomon Zavala, General Counsel of Anahuacalmecac International University Preparatory, reads in part:

“Your actions, including the development of the online petition, were invaluable and helped galvanize support across the nation. It means a lot to us that you found the time and energy to be a part of this effort. The authorization of Anahuacalmecac was truly a community endeavor, involving parents, students, staff and folks like yourself who believe in the value of a community-based education.”

Through the years, Efrén has raised money for underfunded public school classrooms, youth summer camps, and breast cancer awareness. He has developed proposals and received approval by prison administrators to host numerous members of the public who have visited prisons to speak on an array of subjects. Some of the people who have visited prisons upon his invitation include professors, state legislators, poets, authors, psychologists, lawyers, clergy, and social justice advocates.

At one point during Efrén’s incarceration, he also applied for and received over $80,000 in grant funding from a non-profit corporation to build a weight training area and fund the purchase of library books, encyclopedias, and a learning resource center at the prison where he was then housed.

In 2017, he was one of four volunteers in the Warden’s garden at the Handlon Correctional Facility, tasked with planting and maintaining dozens of different types of flowers. He further helped harvest over 1,000 pounds of produce which were donated to Meals on Wheels and the Center on Aging in Ionia, Michigan.

He has served 14 six-month terms as a member of the Warden’s Forum at various prisons. For the majority of these terms, he was elected to serve as Warden’s Forum Chairman.

Additionally, Efrén has served multiple terms as a board member of several cultural and civil rights organizations (with prison chapters) throughout his incarceration. These include the NAACP, Latin American Spanish-Speaking Organization (LASSO), Hispanic Americans Striving Towards Advancement (HASTA), Indian Nations United (INU), and the National Lifers of America (NLA).

In February 2025, Efrén played a pivotal role helping transform a reality show named FliKidz into a thriving arts program named FliKidz Arts Academy. (FliKidz is pronounced ‘Fly kids.’) FliKidz originally documented children volunteering in the Flint, Michigan community. It also taught children how to create social media content while providing mentorship and academic support. Today, FliKidz is dedicated to bridging the educational gap for marginalized and disadvantaged children by providing access to transformative arts education. Through creative expression, the program empowers young minds to develop cognitive skills, build resilience, and achieve academic success.

Due in large part to Efrén’s leadership, digital strategy expertise, and collaboration with the FliKidz board of directors, FliKidz has evolved into a year-round, elite after-school and summer program that meets a broader range of children’s needs, including providing them free meals. This summer, FliKidz will begin offering youth-serving programs which teach multimedia production (acting, scriptwriting, filming, social media content creation, and using green screen technology), sound engineering (beat making, podcasting, and music recording), and visual art (sculpting, drawing, and painting). It will also offer workshops on CPR certification, self-defense and safety training, resiliency building, mental health wellness, meditation and relaxation techniques, goal setting, and life skills lessons that promote trauma-informed practices. A licensed psychologist will also be on staff to provide therapy to children who need or request it.

Efrén currently serves on the FliKidz advisory board, and when he is released from prison, the program welcomes him to serve in a more prominent role.

A Voice for Peace and Social Justice: Speaking, Writing and Teaching

The use of media as a positive force for social change has been the trademark of Efrén’s social justice work while incarcerated.

In 2009, he co-founded Presente.org, a national online organizing network dedicated to the political empowerment of Latinx communities. Presente.org is the nation’s largest digital Latinx organization that advances social justice through technology, media and culture.

He has been, and is, an active and well-known speaker; and has participated (by telephone) on panels, and spoken at conferences regarding mass incarceration, cultural, race-relations, and political issues (also via telephone) at the U.S. Social Forum, Dia de la Mujer (Day of the Woman) Conference, Detroit Museum of Contemporary Art, David Weinberg Gallery, Thumbprint Summit, and St. Louis International Film Festival. He has been featured at events on the campuses of Columbia University, Michigan State University, Chicago School of the Arts Institute, Prescott College, University of Oregon, University of Michigan, University of Southern California (USC), and University of California, Berkeley.

Efrén has been invited to speak at religious services of various faiths (e.g., Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Native American, and Buddhist) and cultural organization events throughout his incarceration; and has addressed audiences at diverse cultural events celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black History Month, Cinco de Mayo, Latino Heritage Month, and Kwanzaa.

For the past several years, he has appeared on various radio stations and podcasts across the nation to discuss criminal justice issues. Some of the stations include National Public Radio (NPR), Youth Radio, Michigan Radio, Central Michigan University Public Radio, The Jack Ebling Show, La Raza Chronicles, KPFA Radio, Detroit Superstation 910 AM, Thousand Kites, On Spec, Abuse of Power, Juvenile Justice Matters, 99% Invisible, and The Theory of Everything.

Efrén has taken his message of non-violence and criminal justice reform to other countries as well. He spoke to a large audience of youth at a basketball tournament in Toronto, Ontario (Canada) and has appeared twice on TelesurTV, a television and radio station based in Quito, Ecuador.

In 2014, he partnered with Natalie Holbrook, Director of American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), and a group of 15 other incarcerated people at the Kinross Correctional Facility, to develop a curriculum for the “Peer Enrichment and Parole Readiness” workshop. The curriculum helps prepare incarcerated people for parole interviews and public hearings conducted by the Michigan Parole Board. The workshop is currently being taught in over half of Michigan prisons.

In September 2015, he was among 20 incarcerated people selected to help develop a prison outreach component of the My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) program based at Michigan State University (MSU). The program trains mentors who will work with at-risk African-American boys, Grade 6-8, in the Detroit Public Schools. Its goal in the correction setting is to create a peer-to-peer mentoring program, in which incarcerated people learn the skills to mentor middle-school students.

In 2017, Efrén co-organized the “Juvenile Lifer Rally for Justice” in Detroit, Michigan, with Elena Herrada, Detroit Superstation AM 910 radio show host, professor, and human rights activist. It was the largest attended juvenile lifer rally in the nation. Attendees traveled from as far away as New York, Tennessee, and the District of Columbia. The event was widely covered by the television, radio, print, and Internet news media.

In 2020, as COVID-19 swept through Michigan prisons, Efrén wrote a series of articles detailing its effects on incarcerated people—a series now featured on the website of the University of Michigan’s Carceral State Project. The Project’s broader goals include “research and advocacy on criminal justice, policing, imprisonment, and inequality.”

In 2021 and 2023, Efrén was a lecturer at Prescott College in Arizona (via telephone), at the invitation of Professor Ernesto Mireles. He gave presentations on the subjects of critical human rights, and the inhumane practice of sentencing justice-involved children to life without parole.

Between 2022-2023, he served as co-chair of the Michigan Poor People’s Campaign (MIPPC) and remains a member of the MIPPC Statewide Coordinating Committee. He is the only currently incarcerated person to ever serve as a state co-chair nationwide. The Poor People’s Campaign is a national moral fusion movement that is now active in 45 U.S. states. Its network includes thousands of faith leaders and hundreds of partner organizations, bringing together the nation’s 140 million poor and low-income people across the divisions of race, ability, religion, gender and sexual orientation, region, and other issues.

Most recently, he co-wrote a chapter titled “How Prison Survivors Shift What Civic Participation Means: Incarceration and Activism in the Pandemic” along with Alexandra Friedman, research assistant for the Carceral State Project at the University of Michigan, and University of Michigan associate professor Ashley Lucas. The chapter is featured in the college textbook Making Citizenship Work: Culture and Community. [Edited by Rodolfo Rosales (Routledge 2023), ISBN 9780367762391.]

In addition, Efrén is active as a prison educator; and has designed and presented a comprehensive digital literacy class for incarcerated people, many of whom have been absent from society for long terms and are anxious about returning to a digital age that most have never experienced. The class teaches Internet usage, web development, and blogging; and provides lessons about social networking for social justice.

In the Media

In 2015 Efrén was featured in the documentary film Natural Life produced by Tirtza Even, which tells the stories of Michigan citizens sentenced to life without parole as juveniles. The film can be viewed on Amazon Video, Google Play, Vudu, and on iTunes by visiting the Apple Store. Efrén will also be featured in two future films being produced. One deals with extreme sentences, and the other is an investigative documentary of circumstances surrounding his incarceration.

In 2018 an exhibit about Efrén titled, “Buried Alive,” was displayed at Columbia University in Manhattan, New York, which featured audio clips, photographs, and writings of Efrén about the experience of being imprisoned as a juvenile sentenced to life without parole. A short film about Efrén’s experience was also screened and portions from an exclusive interview with him never before made public were displayed. The exhibit was created by a multimedia producer and Columbia University graduate student in the Oral History Department, who is now creating an immersive audio project regarding his case. Additionally, an Emory University law professor, authoring an upcoming book on people sentenced to life without parole as juveniles, is devoting a chapter of her work to his experiences.

Articles about Efrén have been featured on ColorLines, RaceWire, Xica Nation, The Progressive, The Michigan Citizen, South Bend Tribune, TelesurTV, Latina Lista, The Nation, Seattle Times, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, Lansing State Journal, MLive, Associated Press, AlterNet, the ACLU blog, Against the Current, and other web sites.

Mentions and Awards

In 2005, a Warden and 30-year veteran of the MDOC placed a letter of commendation in Efrén’s file stating in part, “[Y]ou have not only served as the chairman of the Warden’s Forum for four terms … you have also led the forum in a direction of positive change and helped to maximize communication between the administration and other prisoners. … [T]he attitude that you display, and the manner in which you carry yourself, is an excellent example to other prisoners as you demonstrate that it is possible to be positive and productive even within a correctional setting.”

In 2009, the Berkeley City Council in California passed a resolution condemning Efrén’s sentence as a human rights violation.

In 2016, LATINA magazine named Efrén as one of four Latino prisoners in the U.S. deserving clemency.

And, in 2022, Efrén was awarded the Lifetime Peacemaker Award from the Peace Education Center of Greater Lansing for his peace and justice work in the areas of decarceration, working to improve prison conditions, racial justice, conflict resolution, and other social justice work spanning three decades. He is the only incarcerated person to ever receive the award in the organization’s 50-year history.

This page was last updated on 12/16/2025.