A New Era for Freedom Overground

Freedom Overground was the brainchild of Ky Peterson, who, at the time, was incarcerated in a Georgia women’s prison. As a trans-man, he faced a number of challenges and overt discrimination. His friend, Pinky Shear, shared his vision of better treatment for transgendered individuals who were incarcerated. At the time, Ky was serving a 20-year sentence. But as a poor black youth in Americus, Georgia, the circumstances of the crime are irrelevant if you don’t have the resources to fight the charges.

Pinky was released from prison shortly after meeting Ky. She founded Freedom Overground Corp. and obtained charitable organization (501c3) status for the company. I joined the Board of Directors during the phase when we were applying for non-profit status. My job is to oversee the day-to-day operations from a technical and marketing perspective. We began working with clients right away, doing direct inmate support services, something no other organization is doing in this country.

On July 20, 2020, Ky Peterson walked out of jail a free man, eight years early, mostly due to the efforts of Pinky Shear and Freedom Overground. But this is not about Ky’s story. He will tell that story in his own words, in his own time.

It might seem that with Ky’s release, our primary mission might be over. That is not the case, and although we did focus a lot of effort and resources on Ky’s release, we also began supporting clients in several other states, including Tennessee, Florida, and California, in addition to Georgia.