When Does Freedom Begin

There is no road map for coming home from prison. Freedom can take time and there are many obstacles, including the tangled labyrinth of probation and parole supervision. Nonetheless, it's possible to return home and remain free. This is what drives the film's protagonists. When Does Freedom Begin is about three formerly incarcerated people leading the fight for empathy, reform and freedom. It's a crash course in activism as the protagonists illustrate how to make a movement, exploring the impact of prison on families and children, probation and parole as drivers to mass incarceration, the difficulty of reentry, and the importance of freedom, love and forgiveness. Roland Whitley was the star of his high school football team. He couldn't read or write when he graduated, but he taught himself in prison and vowed not to let other youth fall into the same trap. Tiheba Bain was a young working mother with two small children when she went to prison and shortly after her release she founded the organization Women Against Mass Incarceration. And Louis Reed, although he stumbled and got rearrested on his return home, he's now found a path to the national stage seeking to reform probation and parole laws which are the biggest drivers of reincarnation. Since the early 1990's, Bridgeport, the largest city in Connecticut has been a place of over-incarceration. Many people have a family member, friend or neighbor who's been to prison and it's not just the men. Women are the fastest growing population in the U.S. prison system today. Eventually, most of those loved ones will come back to the city and that's when the healing and the rebuilding really begins.