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FICGN (Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network)

@ficgnetwork

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Our mission is to promote the education and empowerment of formerly incarcerated people through a collective community.

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📢 TAKE ACTION: CALL AMC NETWORKS!

Incarceration is not entertainment. Our families are not content. Our trauma is not a business model.

The AIRS Campaign (Abolish Incarcerated Reality Shows) is calling on AMC Networks to immediately cancel Love After Lockup and Love During Lockup.

These shows turn the lives of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people and their families into entertainment, reinforce harmful stereotypes, and normalize mass incarceration—all while profiting from their personal struggles.

📞 CALL AMC NETWORKS: (212) 324-8500

Ask to have your message forwarded to CEO Kristin Dolan and AMC Networks’ executive leadership.

🗣️ WHAT TO SAY:

“I’m calling to demand the immediate cancellation of Love After Lockup and Love During Lockup. These shows exploit incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people and their families, reinforce harmful stereotypes, and profit from their struggles. People impacted by incarceration deserve dignity, privacy, and the opportunity to tell their stories on their own terms—not to have their trauma turned into entertainment. AMC Networks must take accountability and end this exploitation.”

✊🏽 EVERY CALL COUNTS. We will not stay silent while our communities’ experiences are turned into profit.

📲 Make the call. Share this post. Encourage your friends, family, and community to take action!

END THE EXPLOITATION. ABOLISH INCARCERATED REALITY SHOWS.

#AIRScampaign #CancelLoveAfterLockup #CancelLoveDuringLockup MediaAccountability #EndMassIncarceration #CarceralEntertainmentComplex

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The Parallel Sentence helps with support and healing for Children of Incarcerated Parents.
For more information please visit TheParallelSentence.com.

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Teaching is incredibly rewarding. Teaching in prisons is better. Also get your shirts from @ficgnetwork and support work that truly helps folks! Ok back to my students!

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Incarceration is not entertainment.

On July 22, the AIRS Campaign and our coalition partners will submit testimony, reports, and policy recommendations to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), calling for greater accountability in incarceration-based reality television and exploitative true crime media.

Media that profits from incarceration without dignity, consent, accountability, or context does not serve the public interest. It’s time for broadcasters to be held to higher ethical standards that center human dignity and protect impacted communities.

We need your voice. If you are formerly incarcerated, currently incarcerated (through a loved one or advocate), a family member, advocate, scholar, or community supporter, we invite you to submit testimony to the FCC and help make your voice part of the public record.

Sign up through the link in our bio (Linktree) to receive the testimony template and instructions before the July 22 submission.

Together, we can change the narrative and demand ethical, accountable media. 
#AIRSCampaign #IncarcerationIsNotEntertainment #MediaJustice #federalcommunicationscommission #NarrativeChange

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KNOW THE FACTS
Monday Fact Check

An estimated 230 million Americans consume true crime content through television, streaming documentaries, podcasts, YouTube, books, and social media.

WHY IT MATTERS:

Millions of people learn about incarceration through entertainment. These stories shape public perceptions of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, influence attitudes about justice and public safety, and can affect support for criminal justice policies.

If directly impacted people don’t tell their own stories, others may tell them—and profit from them.

Reflection: Who benefits from these stories? Whose voices are missing?

#abolishincarceratedrealityshows #endcarceralentertainmentcomplex

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A great opportunity from the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network (FICGN)!

FICGN is offering members free access to the Getting Started with Google Workspace certificate through Coursera. It's a chance to build practical digital workplace skills and earn a credential recognized by employers.

They're also hosting Live Zoom Office Hours on June 29 to help participants get started, stay on track, and complete the certificate.

If you're eligible, I encourage you to take a look. Thank you to FICGN for making opportunities like this available to the formerly incarcerated community.

On June 29, we're hosting Live Zoom Office Hours to help you start, finish, and earn it.

🗓 Monday, June 29
⏰ 1PM EDT
📍 Live on Zoom

👉 RSVP: https://lnkd.in/eabnr8EV

If you could earn one certificate this summer, what would it be?

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As we approach the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) June 25, 2026 Open Commission Meeting, we are sharing a statement from Demetrius (Meech) Buckley, who is an incarcerated member, in support of the AIRS Campaign and its call for accountability in incarceration-based reality television and exploitative true crime programming.

In his statement to the FCC, Demetrius reflects on the lasting impact that one-sided media narratives can have on incarcerated individuals, their families, and their efforts toward rehabilitation and redemption. His testimony highlights the need for ethical standards that ensure accuracy, fairness, and respect for the humanity of those whose lives are portrayed for public consumption.

The AIRS Campaign is working to build a public record that documents the real-world harms caused by these programs and to advocate for meaningful reforms and abolition that protect impacted communities.

Together, we can elevate the voices of those directly affected and demand greater accountability from broadcasters and content producers.

#AIRSCampaign #AmericaOnTrialInc #MediaAccountability #NarrativeJustice #HumanDignity”

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Public airwaves come with a public responsibility. Broadcasters should not profit from the pain, trauma, and lived experiences of incarcerated people, formerly incarcerated people, and their families. The stories of system-impacted communities are not commodities to be bought, sold, sensationalized, or exploited for ratings and profit—they are human lives deserving of dignity, respect, and care.

The Federal Communications Commission @fcc has an obligation to uphold the public interest by examining media practices that exploit incarceration, trauma, and family separation for entertainment. Accountability, transparency, informed consent, and ethical storytelling must come before profit.

It is time for broadcasters to be held to higher standards that center human dignity, protect impacted communities, and recognize that incarceration is not entertainment.

— #AIRS Campaign

#FCC
#MediaAccountability
#PublicInterest
#IncarcerationIsNotEntertainment

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As we continue collecting statements and testimony through June 17 for the Federal Communications Commission FCC’s Open Commission Meeting on June 25, we are inviting advocates, scholars, impacted individuals, community leaders, and supporters to add their voices to this important effort.

The FCC has a responsibility to ensure that broadcasters operating on public airwaves truly serve the public interest—not profit from the exploitation of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, or the harm experienced by their families.

For too long, incarceration-based reality programming and exploitative true crime media have turned real human suffering into entertainment, often without dignity, consent, or meaningful context.
The #AIRS Campaign is calling on the c to take action by strengthening accountability measures and advancing clearer ethical standards for broadcast media. Communities impacted by incarceration deserve media that respects their humanity, not content that profits from their pain.

If you would like to submit a statement or testimony to the FCC in support of this effort, please click the link in our Linktree. An America On Trial staff member will follow up with you, provide materials, and help guide you through the submission process.

Together, we can build a stronger public record and call for media accountability, ethical storytelling, and respect for human dignity.

#FCC #MediaAccountability #EndExploitation #IncarcerationIsNotEntertainment

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Today I want to share something I worked hard on and something that means a lot to me.

Through the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network (FICGN) Narrative Fellows Program, I was given the opportunity to publish my story, The Struggle Don't End When You Get Out.

This ain't just an essay. It's part of my life.

I spent 17 years incarcerated over 9 prison terms in a 29-year span, doing time in 14 California state prisons, all in G*Population. I've been homeless, battled addiction, slept in places most people wouldn't last a night in, and lost more than I care to talk about.

Today I'm a college student at Mt. SAC, a Rising Scholar, part of the Youth Law Center cohort, involved with the We Rise Recovery Club and a Graduate Of The Bruin Underground Scholars Ambassadors Program. None of that happened overnight. It took a lot of falling down and getting back up.

The reason I'm sharing this isn't because I want recognition. The truth is, this story is for the people still struggling. The ones coming home from prison. The ones sleeping in shelters, on couches, in cars, or on the streets. The ones trying to figure out how to start over when nobody believes in them.

I also want to thank the programs and communities that helped me along the way, including Rising Scholars, Underground Scholars, Project Rebound, We Rise Recovery Club, FICGN, and everybody out there creating opportunities for system-impacted students.

Most of all, I want to thank God. The glory isn't mine. There were too many times I should have been dead, locked up forever, or forgotten. God had other plans.

And to my son, I love you more than you'll ever know. You are one of the biggest reasons I keep pushing forward. Everything I do today is about becoming a better man, a better father, and showing you that no matter how far someone falls, they can get back up.

If you get a chance, take a look at my story.

https://ficgn.org/narrative-fellows/essay-8

If it speaks to you, please like it, share it, and help spread the message. There are a lot of unheard voices out there, and their stories deserve to be heard too.

#TheStruggleIsReal #FICGN #RisingScholars #UndergroundScholars #WeRise@MtSac

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Just dropped my story with the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network.

This one is real.

I didn’t come into college knowing what I was doing. I didn’t even know how to use a laptop when I first got to Mt. SAC. I came in with nothing. No support, no direction, just trying to figure it out day by day.
Programs like We Rise Recovery Club, the Underground Scholars Ambassadors program, and Project Rebound helped keep me grounded, helped me stay alive, and showed me there’s a real path forward through education.
This isn’t just about me. This is for the next person coming home with nothing, trying to figure it out if change is even possible.
It is.
A wise man once told me you unlock your full potential by educating yourself. I stand on that.
Much love and respect to Danny Roman, Pop’s Popeye from WS Harpy’s. Rest in peace.
The struggle is real… but it don’t end when you get out.
#LivingProof #FICGN #FormerlyIncarcerated #RisingScholars #UndergroundScholars ProjectRebound WeRise MtSAC SecondChances EducationChangesLives TheStruggleIsReal

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One of the perks of attending NCHEP last week was being able to see friends from all over the country and catching up on what they have been up to in the collective movement of helping justice impacted people.

@allianceforhep

#secondchances #reentrycampusprogram #nchep15 #communitypower

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