Client Assistance Program Mobilized to Help with Re-entry of Wrongfully Convicted Client

On January 21, 2015, Mr. Leonard Johnson was released from Angola after more than 38 years.  Walking out with his freedom, but little else to his name, our Client Assistance Program was deployed to help Mr. Johnson return home.

In his first week home our client welfare coordinator worked with Mr. Johnson to access emergency medical treatment – the prison did not even provide him with a days’ worth of medication when he left. Since then, PJI has assisted Mr. Johnson in securing simple documents such as a state-issued photo ID, his birth certificate, and a Social Security Card- plotting a path through the jungle of bureaucracy which is near impossible to figure out after 40 years of being on the outside. PJI also connected him to the Goodwill’s Ex-Offender Reentry Program, which he successfully completed. Mr. Johnson is now working with Goodwill’s job developer to find employment. Most recently, our office arranged transportation for Mr. Johnson to visit his daughter and granddaughter in Jackson, Mississippi. Our office is currently accepting donations through our website or by mail for Mr. Johnson to help him restart his life.

Mr. Johnson is pictured above with his sister on the night of his release. They are holding a photo taken 38 years earlier of the two of them together.