Celebrating Jail Time

If anyone has the right to be bitter, it’s Calvin Johnson.

In the 1980s the Georgia native was convicted of raping a woman in her home. Even though certain evidence did not match up — someone else’s hair was found at the scene and he did not entirely match the victim’s description of her attacker — he was convicted and served a decade in prison before DNA evidence eventually exonerated him. He was released from prison 10 years ago this week.

Rather than wallowing in bitterness and frustration, Johnson has spent the last decade building the life he was denied behind bars. He is married, has an eight-year-old-daughter, owns a home, works for the MARTA transportation system and loves riding his motorcycle. Amazingly, he looks at his time in prison as a period of growth.

“During all those years of prison, I grew up a lot,” he tells the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “I had a lot of time to mature.”

Johnson also works hard to help other people who are wrongly imprisoned. He is a founding board member of the Georgia Innocence Project and sits on the board of the New York Innocence Project, the organization that helped free him 10 years ago. Both organizations are celebrating the 10-year anniversary of his release this week.

What’s more, Johnson survived prison with his humor intact. “I might be 51 in numbers, but I’m really 35. I was preserved. They had me on ice for 16 years.”