Walking back into the DC Jail still throws me for a loop. Even though I now walk in as a free man, the jangling of keys or the smell of a stale baloney sandwich reminds me of my previous life.

On July 29, 2022, largely because of D.C.’s Second Look Amendment Act, I was released from prison after 26 years of incarceration.

I immediately started working for the Georgetown University Prisons and Justice Initiative and became a justice fellow at Families Against Mandatory Minimums. My experience has been chronicled in a documentary called District of Second Chances, which follows me and two others—Anthony “Pete” Petty and Gene Downing—as we navigate life on the outside after spending decades behind bars for crimes we committed during our youth.

Since the film’s release in 2023, I’ve traveled across the country for screenings and Q&A panels at film festivals in New York and Los Angeles. But back home in D.C., I got to show the film to an audience with whom I feel a special bond.

People currently incarcerated in the DC Jail, some of whom are in the same Prison Scholars program through Georgetown University that I attended, gathered in the jail’s chapel in February to watch the film. I saw myself in their faces. I remembered the burning desire to correct the wrongs I had committed, to demonstrate the changes I had made, and to get a chance to give back. 

“Your value does not diminish based on another’s inability to see your worth,” I told them.

At other screenings, I noticed that people who haven’t been incarcerated are interested in what happens inside prisons: the daily routines, the relationships, the politics, and unfortunately, the violence. But this jailhouse audience was fascinated by what comes after release: the challenges we face in life after prison and the joys of reuniting with family and enjoying a meal at Ben’s Chili Bowl.

After the screening, a woman in the audience raised her hand and described the despair she’d been feeling. She’s staring down a 20-year sentence, and she felt her life was over. But, she added, seeing the documentary offered her hope and the realization that she could use her time to educate and improve herself.

I recognized a man in a wheelchair, who was having obvious difficulty getting around but had managed to attend the screening. He was able-bodied when I knew him while I was incarcerated in 2020. He said he was inspired by my story and the positive work I’ve been doing since my release. Even with a life sentence, as I had, people inside prison need to see that they can take the time to better themselves, the man observed.

Standing in front of my former classmates and mentees, roughly half of whom I’d spent time with in jail, gave meaning to the suffering I endured during the 26 years of my incarceration. As a free man who has been given a second chance, I feel an obligation to remind those currently incarcerated that they are not defined by their worst mistakes.

I don’t take for granted how lucky I’ve been. At 18, I was sentenced to life without parole for murder, but now I have the opportunity to show that, like my former classmates, I am deserving of this second chance. 

But in D.C. and across the country, second chances are threatened by the fear that releasing people like my former classmates will lead to a rise in crime. In D.C., at least 229 people have been released under the Second Look Amendment Act, and only 26 have been rearrested (about 11 percent), according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C.

There are many more people like me inside DC Jail and in prisons throughout the country. Given the opportunity, they will make the most of their second chances. It’s on all of us to see them not as “inmates” or “felons,” but instead focus on their potential for redemption.

Colie “Shaka” Levar Long is a writer, speaker, mentor, criminal justice reform advocate, youth detention specialist, community projects manager, and returning citizen. He serves as a program associate for Georgetown University’s Prisons and Justice Initiative. Sign up to organize a screening of FAMM’s documentary District of Second Chances at districtofsecondchances.com.

This column is produced in collaboration with More Than Our Crimes, a nonprofit dedicated to raising the voices of people locked in federal prisons across the country.