His First Day Out Of Jail After 40 Years: Adjusting To Life Outside

Life Outside

Smartphones, the Internet, job-seeking. For prisoners released after decades behind bars, the modern world is difficult, confusing, and still better than anything ‘on the inside.’

Reporter

Published Jan. 3 2015 6:55AM EST

articles/2015/01/03/his-first-day-out-of-jail-after-40-years-adjusting-to-life-outside/150102-rohrlich-halfway-tease_ufdm90 — Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast

I meet Otis J. the night he arrives at “The Castle,” a West Harlem halfway house for newly-released convicts. Sprung from prison in August after doing 40 years for attempted murder, Otis shows up with a laundry bag containing his life’s belongings.

Justin Rohrlich

Reporter

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His First Day Out Of Jail After 40 Years: Adjusting To Life Outside

Smartphones, the Internet, job-seeking. For prisoners released after decades behind bars, the modern world is difficult, confusing, and still better than anything ‘on the inside.’

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Justin Rohrlich

His First Day Out Of Jail After 40 Years: Adjusting To Life Outside

Smartphones, the Internet, job-seeking. For prisoners released after decades behind bars, the modern world is difficult, confusing, and still better than anything ‘on the inside.’

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Justin Rohrlich