Step One is to discard the notion of rights. All that exists is humanity. When you get held up at gunpoint, yelling for a cop achieves very little, unless you are extremely lucky and there happens to be a cop standing five feet away. Freedom is the condition of understanding that you are basically on your own most of the time, and understanding this is a desirable condition. If you dislike being in prison and want to be free, you have to accept some personal responsibility and go it alone, regardless of whether your friends and family pat you on the back or scream bloody murder.
Freedom means freedom from others.
I'll never forget Vilma Wallace, even though I haven't seen her for 20 years. Sitting at a desk in a big institution, Vilma was free. She owned her flesh, owned every moment of her life. You could see it in her eyes, hear it in her voice. She told no jokes, treated each person like a separate entity, and made it clear to everyone that the institution was an obstacle of no importance, except as an archaic impediment, a consequence of inertia.