MADP is very pleased to announce that Michelle Smith will be joining the state office team as Racial Justice Coordinator in 2021.
Michelle was born and raised in St. Louis. As a justice system impacted Black woman who has served time in state and federal prison, her experiences have left her with insight, knowledge, and drive to help others and holistically change the criminal legal system. While in prison, Michelle became a law clerk and chair of the NAACP chapter’s legal redress committee. She works in coalition with organizations across the state and country, including Empower Missouri, The National Council of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women, Cut50, and is a graduate of Prison to Ph.D.
“My passion is to right the serious wrongs done to marginalized, poor, and subjugated people.”
Michelle’s position as our Racial Justice Coordinator will further the coalition work of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and bring attention to the ways the death penalty is intertwined with the state’s history of slavery, lynching, and the constructs of fear, oppression, vengeance, and racism that shaped and continue to burden the criminal justice system. She will also be coordinating programming and services to forward the mission of death penalty abolition in the state through public education, citizen engagement, and grassroots organizing.
Please join us in welcoming Michelle Smith to MADP in January 2021.