SHARIFF INGRAM

Speakers Bureau Coordinator

pronouns: he/him

Shariff fulfills requests to share YSRP’s mission by those most affected by youth incarceration using trauma-informed, valued-aligned processes, centering our client-partners in the work by giving them the opportunity to share their personal experiences with mass incarceration. In addition to facilitating requests from schools, organizations, media outlets, or anyone wanting to know about the work of YSRP, Sharif shares his personal story and that of other former juvenile lifers.  Incarcerated at age 15, Shariff himself was charged and convicted in adult court, and sentenced to a mandatory life sentence without any chance for parole. He served 23 years before being released after a US Supreme Court decision (Montgomery V. Louisiana) made retroactive an earlier decision in that court (Miller V. Alabama) that it was unconstitutional to sentence children to a mandatory life sentence without parole.
Since being released, Shariff has worked full-time in construction, starting off doing highway concrete paving, and then moving on to building bridges. He has worked as a laborer in the bridge division for two years, primarily in Montgomery and Berks counties.
For the past two years, Shariff has sat on the Advisory Committee for The PA Prison Society. He is also a member of the Intergenerational Healing Circle (IGHC) at YSRP. Since being released from prison in 2020 Shariff has also worked hard to mentor youth. with organizations such as IDAAY (Institute for the Development of African American Youth) in Philadelphia: a program for children who have been labeled “high risk” for violence Shariff’s story was also mentioned In Patrice Gaines Chapter in the book “Say Their Names: How Black Lives Came To Matter In America”.

Contact: singram@ysrp.org; 215-326-9791