I was young, like, for someone to just snatch your freedom from you saying you're going
to do a life sentence...everything just stopped.
It hit me when the door shut, and you know, I went to shake the doors and they ain't open no more
I was like--do I want to stay in jail the rest of my life, or am I
going to learn to fight for myself and prove my innocence?
Shaurn is one of roughly 2500 people since 1989 who've been released from prison in the
US after proving their innocence.
We've all seen stories like his.
They get out of prison, there are tears and hugs and TV cameras.
But that all goes away, and then what?
Turns out...not much.
-Just being wrongfully convicted doesn't entitle you to anything.
People are often surprised to find out that once you're exonerated, there are no programs
to help you re-enter society.
That's John Eldan.
John started a nonprofit called After Innocence.
It helps exonerees get connected to services to help with re-entry, and advocates for more
generous and comprehensive compensation laws.
Many think that wrongful convictions come with a windfall but big payouts are the exception,
not the rule.
-You need a state law that provides for compensation, and 17 states have no such state law at all.
And in most of them there are procedural barriers to getting the compensation.
For example, the state of Missouri will compensate you if you got out of prison based on DNA evidence
but not if you didn't.
Look deeply into any of these statutes and you will find things that are deeply unfair.
Most people would assume that if you were wrongfully convicted, put in prison for something
you didn't do, you can sue the government.
The cold reality is the vast majority of people who can prove that they were imprisoned for
something they did not do do not have a civil lawsuit.
Because a civil lawsuit turns not on your wrongful conviction, but on the bad actions
by a cop, by a detective, by a lab technician, and sometimes, a prosecutor that put you there.
If you can't prove that your wrongful conviction was caused by bad actions of a state officer,
you have no lawsuit.
So, with no money, and no formal programs to help them get back on their feet, exonerees
are left in a really tough spot.
And that's where John comes in.
-How're ya doing?
-How you doing, Jim?
-How are you?
-Hey Gary, it's John Edlan from After Innocence.
-They clearly collected that money and didn't turn it back to you and we'll see what we can do.
-I've also found someone who's a financial planner who's interested in talking to you
if you want to talk to her.
-Let's stay in touch about that, making sure that nobody is left behind on the compensation claims.
-Getting started all over again is tough.
Think about applying for a job or trying to get an apartment and having to try to explain
where you've been or why you have no credit history.
-Once you've been exonerated and you come out to society, it's like, you're on your own.
There's nothing set up for us.
Nothing.
-John quickly realized that there was a need to help provide this unique group of people
with critical services.
-I began to think about - what if we could reach a lot of them very quickly?
That became a goal.
And so I started calling exonerees and offering them assistance in just a few areas, but serious assistance.
One of them is healthcare.
The second area we work in is legal services.
A third area is social service connections in your community.
Job training programs, mental health options, housing assistance.
Whatever it is that may be that already exists in their communities, we want to help them
learn about it and make better use of it.
(phone rings)
-How you doing Shraun? -I'm doing all right, how about yourself?
-I'm alright.
One thing we want to find out is what's going on with your background check.
It may show that the conviction is still on the record, and we want to make sure that
whoever is running your background check is getting information that's accurate.
-24 years of my life, how can you give that back to me?
Can you bring my grandparents back?
Could you bring me back to see my niece, my nephew, my little brother play basketball?
Just priceless.
I could have done something with my life that I would never know now.
The state ain't gonna be here for us.
With John, he want to make sure that we have a fighting chance when we come home.
-We know about the best practices for preventing wrongful convictions, and yet we don't widely
and quickly adopt them.
We know what it would take to root out and find more wrongful convictions, and we don't
do that either.
And then when we discover the person who's been imprisoned for something he or she didn't
do, we turn our backs on them again.
That has to change.
-I ain't see none of my 20s, I ain't see none of my 30s, so -- it was frustrating but I
said you know, I'm gonna take that negative energy and turn it positive.
They ain't never gonna take this smile, even after 24 years I ain't gonna let that happen.
Thanks for watching.
Sometimes the news can feel really negative.
But it's important to remember that there are people like Jon Eldan out there
who are working hard to make a difference.
Subscribe to Freethink for more videos like his.