Juvenile Offender Released After 68 Years In Prison Is Amazed By His New World

JUVENILE Offender Released After 68 Years In Prison Is Amazed By His New Outside World

Joseph Ligon was released from the State Correctional Institution Phoenix last week after serving 68 years behind bars for a crime he insists he never committed, jailed for life at just 15 years of age, the oldest juvenile lifer in the country was finally released, and he is now in awe of the new world he is seeing, which didn’t exist before.

He is surrounded by a new skyline towering skyscrapers and has also had to come to terms with the passing of many of his loved ones during his time inside.

Now, 83-years-of-age Joseph told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “I’m looking at all the tall buildings. This is all new to me. This never existed”, and on seeing the Eastern State Penitentiary, where he was once an inmate, which is now a museum and Halloween attraction, he commented, “That don’t suit my tastes”.

Since his release, Philadelphia’s Youth Sentencing & Re-entry Project (YSRP) have been helping Joseph to adjust to his new environment, after almost seven decades of prison life, with Eleanor Myers, a senior advisor, telling MailOnline, “As much as the world has changed since Mr Ligon first went to prison, he has also changed. His experience in coming back is basically as a new man”.

She added, “He is incredibly cheerful and amazed at the changes in Philadelphia since 1953, in particular the tall buildings. He has talked about those in his family who are gone and cannot be together for his homecoming. He seems to miss them especially”.

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