Biography
Mujahid Farid was a New Afrikan activist who spent 33 years in New York State prisons following a 1978 conviction arising from a shootout with New York City police. While incarcerated he earned multiple degrees and became a leading prisoner-educator and organizer, co-founding the Prisoners Education Project on AIDS (PEPA) at Auburn to confront the prison AIDS crisis. Released in 2011, he founded the Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) campaign and became a nationally known advocate for elderly prisoners until his death in 2018.
Custody precision review October 13, 2026: The organizers' 2017 event biography identifies 1978 entry and 2011 release, describing 33 years confined. RAPP organizer Laura Whitehorn's remembrance also confirms release in 2011 after 33 years. These support the existing year-precision endpoints and approximate duration, not January 1 as an actual admission or release day. The unsupported 12,053-day exact total is therefore removed; the 396-month approximate field is retained. Exact arrest, admission, executed sentence and release days remain unverified.
The February 4, 2008 report in Farid v. Bouey describes his associate’s degree in business, dual bachelor’s degree in liberal arts/arts and sciences, and master’s degrees in sociology and ministry. Magistrate David E. Peebles recommended dismissal of his challenge to the April 2003 parole denial; this was a recommendation, not a final judgment or prison-release order.
