Hello everyone! My name is Tyler Ranner and im excited to have the opportunity to share my story with you all. I hope through me, we can establish connections to help others returning to society. By establishing these connections we can create a network of accountability that will allow our society to flourish with a decreased risk of danger.

For me…I am a felon and was convicted of a sex crime in 2016. I was then sent to prison and finally released in November of 2022. Inside me I was terrified. That long time from society…technological advances…and my stigma. I was so angry during my incarceration to see people come back to prison and then the day before my departure I began to fear that very thing for myself. What if I came back?

It is so easy for me or anyone with a stigma to just give in. To be exactly what society says they are. But something deeper inside me wanted to succeed. The regret for what I had done was far greater and the desire to become something much greater suppressed that stigma.

During my last couple months of my incarceration I was attending a college class and the final project was to create a program to instill change in society. Forging Felonship. The point of this program was to create in society a group where those who were convicted had a chance to meet people who had never been convicted. To use the power of story telling to allow each other a chance to relate their experience and find a way to help each other. To help regrow or even help prevent someone from making a similar mistake. To measure the results I would look at recidivism rates. The chances of someone recommitting a crime. If I could lower these numbers by 1% to begin with I would feel successful.

I never really followed through after prison with this. In the back of my head I wanted to but time was just not possible. It was a dark door and I was afraid to step through. That is where this idea of blogging came to my mind. How about sharing my story….or someone else’s story. Let the world read it…reach out…and change on a broader scale than just one town…or one state.

I changed the name from felonship to fellowship because there are people in need who have not been convicted of a felony. This program shouldn’t be singled to felons…it should aim to help anyone with any issues and allow them to embrace growth and change.

Something inside me just leaps to aid others. So I hope this journey allows myself and others to do the same.