Today we're talking with Rebecca Schuetz who recently spent several months with Demetrius Johnson, a man who served 38 years for a crime he committed at 16. He left prison this fall and is trying to adjust to life in the free world and a changed Houston.
How did you meet Demetrius Johnson? And why did you decide to tell his story?
In 2021, after covering a 150-acre development that was breaking ground in Fifth Ward, I decided it was time I got to know people in the neighborhood beyond the handful of organizers and heads of various community organizations I had gotten to know. So I went around meeting people without any story in mind, and along the way I met Kelvin "Rock" Washington, who told me about Johnson.
When I heard about a year later that Johnson was getting paroled after nearly 40 years in prison, I just couldn't imagine what that transition would be like. I know similar stories have been written before – the nonprofit Epicenter has published an entire book of letters from people sentenced to long sentences as minors – but I personally wanted to learn more, and my editors were gracious enough to okay it as a story.
I can't imagine how much the world and daily life has changed during the four decades time Johnson was in prison. What were some of the things that either stood out to him as being vastly different from what life was like in the '80s or difficult to readjust to?
He had such vivid memories of his life before prison that when he got out, he was asking for the shoes he liked in the '80s and showing off retro dance moves. He also asked his friends to buy him a washboard – something that is not so much of the '80s as it is a sign of what life was like for people with low incomes until surprisingly recently. After decades away, he could very clearly see societal shifts, such as racial integration in his historically minority neighborhood and the openness of same-sex relationships.
Technology was obviously a big adjustment. One surprising thing you have to get up to speed on when encountering social media for the first time is catfishing/romance scams.
But I think the biggest adjustment was actually just going from an environment where he knew how everything worked to one where everyone was always explaining things to him.
You spent months with Johnson while reporting this story. Are there any moments in particular that stand out to you in your memories from that time?
The strength of his emotions that first day stands out – Jon Shapley captured them so well in his photos. I was also struck when we drove to the barber shop and met so many people Johnson knew – it was just such an illustration of the deep roots many people in Fifth Ward share.
And then in the days after he was released, the way he described little things struck me. Like the way he reveled in being able to walk around his home and watch the sun set from different windows, instead of the one window he had in his cell. Or his shock of joy at seeing rain on his way to class. "I had never been riding in a car while it was raining," he said. "It made me feel free."
Read the full story here.
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