A statewide organization made up of formerly incarcerated people and their families wants to educate people on the impact of mass incarceration and mobilize them to create change.

Building Freedom Ohio (BFO) works to bring together people impacted by felony convictions, and their families, friends and neighbors, to end collateral sanctions – laws that create barriers for people trying to reintegrate into their communities after incarceration. Collateral sanctions can prevent people from renting a home, getting a job, going to school or volunteering years after they’ve served time in prison. 

On May 19, BFO will host “Felony Impacted Liberation Movement: The Convening,” a half-day event featuring people’s stories about collateral sanctions. Attendees will also learn about the Getting Rehabilitated Ohioans Working Act (GROW), which, if passed, will create opportunities for record sealing after a person goes through rehabilitation and a period of crime-free behavior.

The event will bring together people from across the state to talk about why it’s important for people with felony convictions to vote in Ohio and “why it’s imperative for them to participate in democracy instead of sitting on the sidelines,” said Fred Ward, state director of Building Freedom Ohio.

On the Ground Railroad

The Felony Impacted Liberation Movement, or FILM, is a coalition that will continue the work after the gathering. The coalition plans to meet every other week to keep engaging new voters and building relationships with state legislators, Ward said. 

BFO is calling the movement the “On the Ground Railroad” and sees it as continuing the work of the underground railroad, Ward said. In conversation with other members, Ward said they realized slavery was never abolished. It was reframed in the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

The 13th Amendment states: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

BFO members looked back to their ancestors and the allies who helped people escape slavery through the Underground Railroad, Ward said.

“They used the Underground Railroad, but in 2024, in the age of social media, we no longer can be underground,” Ward said. “So we said we’re going to an on-the-ground. And it’s gotta be boots on the ground.”

Connecting people to their values

Last year, BFO hosted a policy summit where people with felony records shared how collateral sanctions impacted them. Ward said the goal was to help policy groups understand the severity of existing barriers. After that summit, the groups committed to helping organizers advocate for policy changes to remove some of those barriers, Ward said. 

The upcoming event is a follow-up to last year’s summit and to the work BFO has been doing the past year. 

BFO members work year-round registering people to vote and educating them on how politics affect formerly incarcerated people.

“We connect people in a transformative way to their values, to the things that they care about. And give them a clear pathway of how you can change your circumstances and situations, as well as find a voice,” Ward said.

“For a lot of people who became hopeless and disengaged from democracy altogether, we reignite them to another way of imagining themselves being front and center, within the things going on in their own life and community.”