Freedom Within Project

I had the privilege of sitting down with Zakee Hutchison , a member of the Freedom Within Project board and someone who brings powerful lived experience to this work.

In his current role with GRIP Training Institute , Zakee helps citizens returning from prison navigate their first 90 days after release. He supports people in finding housing, employment, and educational opportunities as they begin rebuilding their lives – a transition he himself successfully navigated just six years ago.
In our conversation, Zakee spoke about something that often gets lost in public conversations about justice.

Many people inside prison are carrying unprocessed trauma and grief that began long before their incarceration, often rooted in what are known as ACEs - Adverse Childhood Experiences.
“They’re not inherently evil,” Zakee shares. “Many were never taught emotional regulation or healthy relationship skills.”
Zakee also spoke about the importance of helping people shift from reaction to reflection – a shift he believes is fundamental to public safety, and one he has experienced in his own life.
“If we want to offer safer communities, we’ve got to invest in the internal transformation of people who will eventually return to society. The question is: do we want them to come back with deeper resentment and untreated trauma, or do we want them to return with the emotional tools and accountability skills needed to become positive and productive citizens?”

Thank you, Zakee, for sharing your story and for helping illuminate how programs like Freedom Within cultivate stronger and safer communities through accountability and healing.
Zakee and I recorded our conversation and we will be sharing it soon in our new monthly newsletter.

👉 you can listen to the full interview here!
https://freedomwithinproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/zakee-full-final.mp3

Fifteen years ago, I co-founded Freedom Within with my friend and colleague Jay Saber with a dream of creating trauma-informed, restorative healing spaces inside prisons.
This past year was an inflection point.

Not because it was easy, but because it asked us to deepen how we hold challenge.

One of our recent cohorts nearly fractured. Trust wavered. I had to look honestly at my own leadership.

And then something shifted.

By graduation, the men stood together in courage and accountability, and one participant spoke about rediscovering a sense of belonging he hadn’t felt in years.

THIS is the work. THIS is the transformation.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing more about what this work looks like from the inside...what we’re learning, and what it takes to steward healing spaces over time.

If you’re thirsty for stories of healing, justice, personal transformation and collective liberation, stay tuned.