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Parole Is Better Than Prison. But That Doesn't Mean I'm Free.

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After participating in a spree of robberies and assaults that resulted in two deaths, Joe was convicted of murder in 1953, at age 15. At 16, he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. He went on to serve 67 years, 11 months, two weeks and five days in a half dozen facilities, including what was once known as the Pennsylvania Institution for Defective Delinquents. This made him the longest serving prisoner in the country.
Joe could have been released four years earlier — if he was willing to spend the rest of his life on parole. The Supreme Court had struck down automatic life without parole for juveniles in 2012, and the court made it retroactive in 2016. Under those decisions, Joe was re-sentenced to 35-years-to-life in 2017. Given that he had already served 65 years, he was automatically eligible for a parole hearing. But instead of living under the constraints of parole supervision, he chose to stay in prison and pursue legal recourse in hopes that one day he could leave truly free.

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After 68 years behind bars, the longest-serving juvenile lifer in the US embraces freedom

Joe Ligon is pictured in 1963, 10 years into his prison sentence.
The son of Alabama sharecroppers, Ligon entered prison when Dwight Eisenhower was president. During the 68 years that he spent incarcerated in a half dozen penal institutions, the world outside moved on.
At the one-day trial in 1953, Ligon and his co-defendants were referred to as “coloured.” At school, his special education classes were designated for the “orthogenically backward.” He was incarcerated in a facility named the Pennsylvania Institution for Defective Delinquents in the US, the inmates classified by courts “as mentally defective with criminal tendencies.”
Ligon, 83, has never had his own place, operated a cellphone, paid a bill, cast a ballot, earned the minimum wage, lived with a partner, fathered children.

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After 68 years behind bars, the nation's longest-serving juvenile lifer embraces freedom

After 68 years behind bars, the nation's longest-serving juvenile lifer embraces freedom
Karen Heller, The Washington Post
Feb. 19, 2021
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1of12Juvenile offender Joe Ligon has been released after 68 years behind bars in Pennsylvania.Washington Post photo by Michael S. WilliamsonShow MoreShow Less
2of12Joe Ligon, right, and his attorney, Bradley Bridge, stop for coronavirus-related temperature checks in the lobby of Bridge's Philadelphia office building.Washington Post photo by Michael S. WilliamsonShow MoreShow Less
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4of12A giddy Joe Ligon shadowboxes in the parking garage to burn off nervous energy as lawyer Bradley Bridge grabs his suitcase from a trunk filled with his client's legal papers.Washington Post photo by Michael S. WilliamsonShow MoreShow Less

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Joe Ligon was locked up at age 15. Almost seven decades later, he's reentering an unfamiliar world.

Joe Ligon was locked up at age 15. Almost seven decades later, he's reentering an unfamiliar world.
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After 68 years behind bars, the nation's longest-serving juvenile lifer embraces freedom

After 68 years behind bars, the nation's longest-serving juvenile lifer embraces freedom
adn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from adn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.

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