Ben Free Project

About This Project

Summary

The Ben Free Project challenges the idea that justice ends at release. Through in-prison arts programs like Comic Creation (in partnership with 3X Ringo Award-winning graphic novelist Rylend Grant and Half-Evil Comics), campus organizing, storytelling, and legal advocacy, we support the wrongfully convicted. Our strategy centers lived experience and narrative transformation to drive reentry-focused, community-rooted change.

Goals & Objectives

To support successful reentry, expose systemic injustice, and center the voices of the wrongfully convicted through programs like Comic Creation, which turn lived experience into healing narratives. Our work fuses education, art, and advocacy to drive meaningful change.

Results & Impact

Taught Comic Creation weekly in Lancaster prison through a CA Arts Council contract. Partnered with Caits Meissner (PEN America), Austin Alexander (Hope & Mic), 3X Ringo Award-winner Rylend Grant, Dr. Elizabeth Hinton, and Dr. Randall Horton to bring healing and advocacy into prisons and beyond.