Summary

Brittany and Donel ate lunch in a park and celebrated the feeling of freedom—the breeze, green leaves, children playing in the park. Donel talked about the personal letter he’d received from Obama and his hopes for the future. At the same time, he struggled with survivors’ guilt—guilt over being able to walk free while his friends and men he had formed bonds with in prison remained incarcerated. He also had to adjust to the world after years of incarceration – he had never seen a twist pepper grinder, for example. After his release, Donel had been placed in a ‘halfway home,’ a restrictive shelter for men who have been released from prison. He struggled there because he was not able to engage in his coping mechanism, going for a jog. Now, he had finally been permitted to leave the...