by TChris

The consequences of the “lock ‘em up” mentality that pervaded the United States over the last quarter century are now felt by taxpayers as prisons warehouse an increasingly geriatric population. But the consequences of that failed philosophy are most acutely felt by the individuals who endure large parts of their lives behind bars, paying a ridiculous price for their mistakes. Junior Allen, who served 35 years in the Alabama prison system for stealing a $140 television set, is an example of a man who continues to be punished after he paid (or overpaid) his debt to society.

Despite extensive prison records in North Carolina, where he has spent more than half his life as inmate No. 0004604, Allen has been unable to establish his identity in rural Georgia, where he now lives with his sister, or in Alabama, where he was born 65 years ago to sharecropper parents. The monthlong effort to get a birth certificate and photo ID only hints at the new challenge he faces - that of transforming himself from less-than-model inmate to average senior citizen.

Allen was denied parole 25 times. Now, having finally been released, he’d just like to go fishing and find a job--if he could only get ID.