Leroy Grippen thought he was going to prison for 10 years and six months. Thats what his lawyer told him, and thats how it went. When you were sentenced to life in Louisiana, it didnt really mean life in prison. With good behavior, life sentences were almost always commuted after 10 years and six months.

Besides, its not as if Grippen had much of a choice. It was 1970, and as a young Black man facing charges of armed robbery and aggravated rape in the South, he would have almost certainly faced an all-white jury that could convict him and sentence him to death by electrocution.

So Grippen, who had just turned 23, did what his lawyer told him to do. He took the plea deal and went to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola. There, he started counting down the days until he expected to walk free sometime in the summer of 1981.

That day didnt come until Oct. 5, 2021. By then he was 73 and had spent nearly 70% of his life in prison.

By the time the summer of 1981 rolled around, Louisiana had changed the rules. The understanding that people wouldnt really spend life in prison, which was common in many states at the time, had been supplanted by new tough on crime laws. Grippen was abandoned in prison, forgotten along with the rest of the so-called 10/6 lifers.

There is no record of how many of the 10/6 lifers died in prison. Of roughly 65 who are still alive, the overwhelming majority are Black. Now, after spending decades longer in prison than they were told they would, some of them are finally getting out.

Coming home from prison is supposed to be a joyous celebration. Whats your first meal going to be, people ask. What are you most excited for? Wasnt it nice to sleep in a bed in your own room? Grippen was happy to be out of prison, and he was grateful to the people who had made it happen. He had started to give up hope of ever leaving Angola and even contemplated suicide. But he didnt exactly feel free, either.

The family members he was close to before he got locked up are now dead. He has no friends except those he made in prison. After getting out, Grippen was surprised to learn he was required to register as a sex offender. Louisianas sex offender registry didnt exist when he was arrested this was yet another punishment tacked on to his sentence years later.

I still feel like they got me locked down, Grippen, one of the six 10/6ers I met with in Louisiana this fall, said in a November interview. I aint know I was gonna feel this way, but I do. I feel sometimes like Im in a world all by myself. I dont know nobody. I dont know where to go.