My City May 2023

MYCITYLAW

Nation Outside In 2016, Johnell Allen-Bey had an epiphany. While – and it was a life-changing moment,” he recalls. “To see Moving Forward Together BY PETER HINTERMAN

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facility, Allen-Bey was re leased in 2018 and he wasted no time. He started his own company, Johnell’s Transpor tation, became co-owner of J&J Home Improvements, began working as a life coach with Re-Connect My Life and as a motivational speak er. He embedded himself in the Flint community serving on numerous boards and in neighborhood projects, and forged relationships with the Genesee County and Washt enaw Sheriff departments.

Allen-Bey, with friend Percy Glover and in partnership with Sheriff Christopher Swanson, started the I.G.N.I.T.E. inmate edu cation program. A busy and motivated man, Allen-Bey is constantly working toward a goal, so it became obvious that he would join the Na tion Outside organization, co-founded by his friend Simpson-Bey, and serve as its Flint Regional Coordi nator. “Nation Outside gives a voice to the voiceless,”

someone I knew who was making a difference in the world and changing things for the better made me really think of possibly being free again and what I could do.” Simpson-Bey was fighting for equality for formerly incarcerated persons with Nation Outside, and Al len-Bey felt it was a cause he could believe in. After spending 29 long years in a correctional

incarcerated serving out a multi-year prison sentence, a former cellmate and friend who did his time and was released had returned to the correctional facility to give a presentation to the inmates. At first, Allen-Bey hadn’t planned to attend but his friend, Ronald Simpson-Bey, specifically requested that he be there. “He asked for me, so I went

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