Closing out 2025, Felony Murder Elimination Project would like to use this space to honor Demetrius Buckley, an award-winning writer and poet incarcerated in Michigan, who personifies both the successes and drawbacks associated with the cost of truth telling.

In October, the Detroit Free Press published a video released by the Michigan Department of Corrections in 2024 to settle a Michigan Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by investigative journalist Dan Moritz-Rabson. The troubling video exposes a level of dehumanization that should anger all of us, but surprise no one.

The video features Buckley, affectionately known as Meech, being brutalized by correctional officers at the Richard A. Handlon Correctional Facility in Ionia, Michigan. While it is easy to turn away from the abuses incarcerated people are facing every day, it is important to allow yourself to witness what happens to Meech at the hands of not only the correctional officers, but also by the larger system at work.

We all know prisons are not the solution, and these behaviors by correctional officers will continue as long as prisons remain the default answer to community harm. Prisons are the catch-all for every social issue this country refuses to address, but we resist the system’s attempt to bury those who bring their abuses to the light and fight for a change in how incarcerated people are treated.

Buckley spoke on his incarceration in an interview with Moritz-Rabson

I’ve learned that prison isn’t about helping the incarcerated with their past traumas. The Department of Corrections is big business. My biggest fear is admitting this fact, where I am today, standing by myself in some facility, alone in individual response toward institutional abuse. I don’t know if I am doing the right thing for myself. I just hope my struggles help other incarcerated people who may be subject to similar abuse.

If you are part of a community that values justice for all underserved and neglected communities, and it’s fair to assume that people who support our organization and stand beside us in advocating for a fairer and more just system, then we look forward to 2026 and working hand-in-hand to ensure justice is actually practiced rather than just proclaimed.

Thank you all for helping us continue the work of truth telling and following up those truths with policy that support those truths.

To read more about Demitrius Buckley, visit his website —>>> Demitrius Buckley: Writer