WNYC reported on one prisoner, Amir Varick Amma, who spent nearly two decades in prison under the Rockefeller drug laws. On March 23, at 10:30 a.m., he was released from prison and walked free.
Amma insisted on walking away from Eastern Correctional Facility, the maximum-security prison in Napanoch, NY.
Amma hugs his son, 19-year-old Anthony Williams.
Amma's longtime friend Alex was there to drive him home.
Amma's mother, "Queen" Nazimova Varick, brought these shoes and had a suit made with an Egyptian pattern that features an ankh, which symbolizes life.
Amma's mother says she's glad to never again have to drive to Ulster County to visit her son in prison. She's also glad that she will never have to recite his prison number: 92A1386.
Amma and his mother prepared a few questions about life in prison and Anthony recorded his father's answers
Amma insisted on a stop at Dunkin Donuts for Boston cream, coconut, and glazed donuts -- his first food as a free man.
Amma meets a mentor from prison, Larry White, who served 30 years himself for armed robbery and was released in 2000. He is now working at the Castle, living quarters run by the Fortune Society, an organization that helps formerly imprisoned men and women adjust to life outside of prison.
Amma is entering the Castle, where he will be living for the next few months.
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