Free at last! Free at last!
“Look at
this. I’m walking around with no one hanging onto me! I don’t have any shackles.
No one is telling me what to do, where to go!”
It’s early
in the morning, dark, cold, with a light combination of rain and snow. For you
and me, it would be just plain miserable. But not for Joe. We’re standing in
the parking lot of the Richard A. Handlon Correctional Facility. Joseph
Johnson, formerly Michigan inmate #164659, has just walked out the front doorway
of this prison for good. His first time without handcuffs and shackles in
nearly 40 years! He's free!
“I really
don’t have words…I don’t know what to say,” he whispers to me as I give him a
bear hug. “You don’t have to,” I reply. “Just savor the moment! These are the
moments we live for.”
And that’s
the truth. Before the sun came up, I was in the car, driving through marginal
weather, heading to Ionia, Michigan. I was in town for less than hour…then drove
back home again. But I gotta tell you something: For this 83-year-old man, the thrill of these moments never lessens. What a blessing to walk beside an inmate as he or she takes
those very first steps out of the visiting area and into freedom! No more
restraints. No more clanging gates. No more barking officers. No more noise.
In this
case, the story belongs to Holly. Holly Honig-Josephson is Vice President of
HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS, and our commutations specialist. It was back in 2017, while
preparing an application for a commutation of Joe’s sentence, that she reviewed
the details of his story. Then she saw red!
The kid was
18, in the year 1980, when he and a friend decided they needed some spending
money and used a pellet gun to hold up the operator of an ice cream cart. They
got $27.50 in cash. And, for that, a Flint judge gave Joe a life sentence! That’ll
teach that naughty black kid not to mess with the law!
Holly
befriended Joe and offered her assistance. Her assistance turned into
persistence. She persuaded the chairman of the Michigan Parole Board to review
the case. She drove to the Upper Peninsula to participate in his Parole Board
hearing. She testified at his Public Hearing.
Now, this huge step: Holly
and her husband Tony have graciously opened their home and their hearts for the
next chapter in Joe’s life. Free at last, free at last… !
The words of
Aaron, brother of Moses, come to mind:
“The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace. ”
(Numbers 6:24-26)
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace. ”
(Numbers 6:24-26)
Comments