Directly Impacted People and Communities Leading the Work
Real change can only happen when we center the experiences, expertise, and voices of people impacted by the criminal legal system. The Fully Free Campaign centers and supports the leadership, power, and expertise of people with records and people of color with records.
The Fully Free Campaign has a Governing Board made up of people who have been incarcerated, who have records, and who have been directly impacted by the criminal legal system. The Governing Board informs the Campaign research, strategy, communications, and advocacy, and provides expertise to Campaign staff and partners.
The Fully Free Campaign also hosts community conversations and other events with directly impacted people in order to change the narrative about people with records and educate people on the need to end permanent punishments.
Finally, the Campaign research also centers people with records. For our study of permanent punishments—the first of its kind in Illinois—people with records provided input into our research design, the questions we asked and how we asked them, and helped to author the report.
Meet the Fully Free Campaign Manager
Marlon Chamberlain
Marlon J. Chamberlain is an advocate for people directly impacted by the criminal legal system. He brings over 20 years of lived and professional experience to his work at Heartland Alliance.
Marlon has an established track record of creating effective coalitions. Previously, he served as the Englewood Project Manager with the READI Chicago Program at Heartland Alliance. Prior to that, he was a Community Organizer with the FORCE (Fighting to Overcome Records and Create Equality) Initiative. Marlon developed FORCE to become one of the strongest organizations led by people with records to advance issues, policies, and legislation at the state level – including passing the largest sealing expansion law in the United States and leading a voter registration campaign that registered over 1,000 people with records to vote.
Marlon is very active in the community. He is a founding member of the RROCI coalition (Restoring Rights & Opportunities Coalition of IL); He Chairs the Live Free Decarceration advisory committee; he is an Alumni of JustLeadership USA - a national organization with a mission to reduce the U.S. prison population in half by 2030. In 2013, he received the Purdy Award from the Community Renewal Society in recognition of his outstanding leadership in organizing and policy work. And in 2017, he received the CARRE Visionary Award from Safer Foundation. Marlon lives on the south side of Chicago with his wife and five children.
Meet the Fully Free Board Members
TraVonn Jones, Alliance for Safety and Justice
Belleville, IL
"The Fully Free Movement and its core values align perfectly with my personal vision for healthy communities and social justice. The energy of the movement is infectious and needed."
Quianya Enge, Beyond the Walls (BTW)
Carbondale, IL
“As someone that has long since completed my sentence to the state of Illinois, I deserve the opportunity to fully participate in society as a free person with access to housing, education, and employment. And yet, Illinois continues to erect barriers that restrict people like me, with records, from rebuilding our lives. BTW has partnered with Fully Free to help disseminate the problem of permanent punishments and work to pass laws that will eliminate these high hurdles that hinder the disenfranchised community I belong to.”
Maria Garza and Javier Reyes, Challenge II Change (CIIC)
Aurora, IL
“We are part of Fully Free because, as system impacted individuals, we have lived firsthand the permanent punishments we face upon reentry and continue to face no matter how well we are doing in society. We support FF not only for us but also for those who will come after us, those who do not have the strength to fight like us, and those who have lost to the struggle. This work is essential because it creates an opportunity that did not exist before and because we are stronger in numbers. Together we bring volume to our unified voices.”
Jeffrey (JD) Dixon, Empire 13
Belleville IL
“You shouldn’t have to have a life sentence of being denied economic growth and the full benefits of life because you made one bad decision. We are fighting for systemic change and ending the effects of systemic racism. Black Americans make up more than 51% of the prison population. That’s over 51% of Black Americans that, with the current laws, will never be fully free due to permanent punishments. Partnering with Fully Free allows us to combat the systemic oppression of mass incarceration and the effects of systemic racism in the penal system.”
Alonzo Waheed, Equity and Transformation (EAT)
Chicago and Joliet, IL
"Equity and Transformation (EAT) is a part of the Fully Free Campaign because we believe that all individuals should be able to have their rights re-established after their criminal sentence is served."
Crushion Stubbs, First Followers Reentry
Champaign, IL
“As a directly-impacted led organization and advocate for justice, we find this work of removing any and all permanent punishments important to us. FirstFollowers joined the Fully Free Campaign to build a statewide coalition of formerly incarcerated people in leadership to advance good policies and dismantle those that ultimately create a "prison after the prison”.
Terry Burnside, House of Hope
Peoria, IL
"House of Hope Peoria. INC is a partner with the Fully Free Movement because of our Re - entry program. Our program is designed to provide participants with resources, counseling and opportunities to decrease recidivism."
Avalon Betts-Gaston, Illinois Alliance for Reentry & Justice (ILARJ)
Chicago, IL
"Ending permanent punishments is vital to our communities thriving instead of surviving. With Black, Brown, Indigenous, and poor people suffering disproportionately from the punishment by the criminal legal system along with disproportionate divestment, substantive and enduring reinvestment cannot happen apart from the elimination of permanent punishments."
Gregory Chambers and Tamika Davis, Live Free
Chicago, IL
"We are system impacted people who believe the formerly incarcerated should be restored to useful citizenship without being subjected to barriers. Fully Free realizes after a person has paid their debt to society, they should be FULLY FREE. Further, Fully Free is but one step in rebuilding the Black community. The forms of violence perpetrated against the Black community have resulted in mass incarceration, police misconduct/abuse/violence, and gun violence, plaguing our communities. Being able to live FULLY FREE is a partial resolution to these systemic problems. That is why LIVE FREE supports the Fully Free campaign."
Toy Beasley, Mclean County Reentry Council
Bloomington, IL
"We are partnering with the Fully free Campaign to be a part of a Statewide movement to help reduce recidivism, and help eliminate permanent punishments in Illinois. Also, to be a part of vision to help Mclean County Reentry Council grow as council through education and trainings."
Jennifer Stephens, People's Liberty Project
Chicago, IL
"Peoples Liberty Project is a partner of the Fully Free Campaign because it centers the voices of people impacted by incarceration and builds upon the collective expertise of its members across Illinois. All people deserve a fair chance, and together WE intend to remove the barriers that keep people under permanent punishment."
Wendell Robinson, Restore Justice
Chicago, IL
"I believe in the Fully Free Campaign because I've served 25 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for a conviction at the age of 17. As a justice impacted individual, I've encountered the barriers that prevent Returning Citizens from being fully free!"
Earnell Brown, Sir Donald Foundation
Dekalb and Rockford, IL
"As a justice impacted person, I am involved in the work of Fully Free because: 1) Of the impact permanent punishments have had on my ability to live a life free from restrictions and barriers; 2) the legal discriminations that create a crippling effect on the upward mobility and stability of myself and other justice impacted individuals and 3) to change the perception of individuals like myself."
Colette Payne, The Women’s Justice Institute (WIJ)
Chicago, IL
"The WJI is a partner in the Fully Free Movement because, without access to meaningful employment and safe and stable housing, an individual with a record will struggle toward freedom. Fully Free is tackling all permanent punishment that prevents a person with a record from living a successful life. This movement is necessary, and it takes us to freedom!"
Antonio Lightfoot, The Workers Center for Racial Justice (WCRJ)
Chicago, IL
"The Workers Center for Racial Justice is part of the Fully Free Campaign because this work cannot be done alone. After generations of criminalizing and ostracizing marginalized people, the work that we have to do is plentiful. The Fully Free Campaign is the only coalition that requires formerly incarcerated people to not only inform, but lead the work. Our coalition understands the necessary perspective that justice-impacted people bring to the table; and that nothing should be debated, bargained, decided, or implemented about us, without us."
Community Conversations
If you are interested in obtaining video recordings of community conversations, please contact: mchamberlain@heartlandalliance.org.
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