Empowering Exonerees and Freed People & Their Families
June 2024 - 2025
As this community continues to grow, the Exoneree Network (EN) team had a busy year supporting exonerees and their family members, people freed but still fighting a wrongful conviction, and those coming home after long-term incarceration. We continue to see success as we work toward the goal of ensuring all exonerees and freed people know they are not alone and have access to comprehensive support upon their release. Here are some of our key achievements from the last year:
Mental Wellness
Monthly Healing Circles:
EN hosts a bi-monthly healing circle where we support exonerees and their loved ones in the exploration of self-affirming practices and healing modalities to address ongoing stressors, strained relationships, and prolonged trauma.
Quarterly Support Groups:
EN facilitated three support groups that provided emotional and social support to 20 different exonerees. These quarterly gatherings offer our EN community a chance to come together over a shared meal in a welcoming, communal space in order to connect, reflect, heal, and support one another.
Wellness Retreats:
EN hosted four wellness retreats benefitting members of our community and their significant others. These retreats focus on improving communication skills, strengthening personal relationships, and promoting mental well-being.
Annual Healing Retreat:
EN held its first Annual Healing Retreat—a three-day, two-night experience focused on healing and connection. A group of nearly 30 participants, including exonerees and their support people, and guided by our community partner, Who’s Got Morale, engaged in Indigenous healing practices and explored holistic methods for coping with the trauma of incarceration and adjusting to a new world. The retreat provided a supportive space for reflection, growth, and collective restoration.
Individual Support:
EN has a full-time social worker on staff who can provide individualized support to community members as needed, including referrals to a mental health clinician. Over the past year, the EN staff fielded 63 individual calls or requests for support, ranging from housing and medical needs to technology and mental health support, and more. Ongoing daily contact with his advocate provides both a strong sense of community and critical support for crisis management.
Community Building
The Exoneree Network passionately cultivates a thriving community for people who have been wrongfully convicted or suffered the trauma of long-term incarceration and their families. The EN hosted or participated in several community events throughout the year to bring people together, including:
Celebration of Freedom & Community:
The EN hosted the annual Celebration of Freedom & Community last June, a private event for exonerees and freed people and their families to come together, share stories, dance, welcome newly freed members, and celebrate freedom in a safe environment. This year, the event was hosted at Kimball Farm and was attended by 106 people, including 25 exonerees and freed people and their family and friends.
The Innocence Network Conference:
In April 2025, members of the Exoneree Network community joined hundreds of exonerees, freed people, their families, and advocates from across the country at the annual Innocence Network Conference—the largest gathering of its kind in the world. Held this year in Seattle, the conference is more than just an event; it’s a powerful reminder of the strength, joy, and healing power of community. This year, 11 exonerees and freed people from New England attended the conference. Collectively, they lost more than 353 years to wrongful imprisonment.
Wrongful Conviction Day:
Every October 2, the Exoneree Network community comes together in honor of Wrongful Conviction Day for our annual march and rally to raise awareness about the injustice they have suffered. This past October, we hosted an event at the State House where we advocated for much-needed reforms to prevent future tragedies, provide more pathways to freedom, and provide compensation upon release.
Advocacy Efforts:
We invite EN community members and their families to come together to advocate for themselves and for systemic change in various ways, including testifying about their experience in support of key legislation and attending legal hearings to support their peers as they fight their cases in court. Most recently, four exonerees and freed people testified at a judiciary hearing to fight for compensation (Bill H1965/S1132) for the trauma caused by wrongful convictions and decades of incarceration.
Speaking Opportunities & Sharing Stories:
Sharing their stories is essential for the growth and healing of exonerated and freed people as well as their family members. Speaking opportunities also help educate and inform by raising awareness about wrongful convictions, the trauma of long-term incarceration, and the long and difficult journey to rebuild after release. In the last year, as we prepare to launch our EN Speaker’s Bureau, the EN has hosted two group storytelling training sessions attended by exonerees and their support people, and provided a series of individual public speaking training sessions to four exonerees. Several community members have also spoken at schools or universities, as well as to at-risk youth, about their experience being wrongfully convicted.
Financial Empowerment
Seasonal Stipend Program:
The Exoneree Network continued its Seasonal Stipend Program, distributing 118 stipends totaling $59,000 in direct cash assistance to 31 exonerees to provide immediate and on-going financial support to decrease the stress that comes with food, clothing, and housing insecurity while community members rebuild.
Freedom Package:
EN provided 11 freedom packages, including 10 New Day Funds totaling $10,000 to address immediate needs. This included the distribution of 8 cell phones and 11 laptops to help exonerees stay connected and access critical services.
Financial Literacy:
Many members of our community have never had a bank account or a credit card, or do not know how to write a check. Seventy-five percent of EN members didn’t know their credit score or how to find out. In the last year, we’ve offered personalized one-on-one financial coaching to EN members to encourage financial empowerment and independence. In addition, the Exoneree Network offered a financial literacy course that teaches members how to create budgets and understand credit.
Housing Assistance
After decades of incarceration and without compensation from the state, there is a great and immediate need for secure housing for people who have been released after a wrongful conviction.
Rental Assistance:
In the last year, EN allocated $9,038 in rental assistance to help exonerees maintain stable housing and support successful reintegration into the community.
EN Freedom House: In early 2024, the EN launched the Freedom House, a transitional home providing safe and stable housing exclusively for exonerees and those suffering as a result of long-term incarceration. Designed as a supportive, trauma-informed living environment, the Freedom House offers a foundation for healing and reintegration. In the past year, it has housed five exonerees and freed people who collectively spent over 120 years incarcerated, one of whom has gone on to secure long-term housing.
Help Navigating a New World
Tech Training with Deloitte:
Many members of our community have had limited or no access to or training in the digital world. In collaboration with Deloitte, EN organized two technology training sessions attended by 16 exonerees and family members. These sessions enhanced participants’ digital literacy and tech skills.
Job Training Program:
In partnership with Operation Able, the Exoneree Network continues to engage two community members as part-time employees, Stephen Pina and Raymond Gaines. This opportunity provides individuals who have a limited employment history due to years of wrongful incarceration with valuable workplace skills, including workplace communication and culture, public speaking skills, and basic computer literacy, while helping exonerees and freed people build their resumes.
The program has proven to help community members, like Stephen and Raymond, build confidence and gain a deeper understanding of how to navigate professional environments, while also providing participants with a renewed sense of purpose.
Help with IDs, benefits, healthcare, and more:
EN’s Social Service Advocate works to support community members in accessing essential social services and ensuring their rights are protected. Primarily, she assesses the needs of individual community members and connects them with service providers, helping them navigate complex systems such as healthcare, housing, and public assistance programs. In the past year, EN’s social service advocate has helped community members obtain disability benefits, health insurance, access to a primary care physician and a dentist, and obtain a driver’s license or state ID, among other critical services.