Louisiana Parole Project
225 Magazine · 2020
April went into the story expecting to write a profile of a Baton Rouge nonprofit helping people who had spent decades in prison adjust to life after release. The reporting challenged some of her own assumptions about punishment, redemption and second chances — and helped shape the idea that would eventually become Living in the Gray.
The story
The Louisiana Parole Project helps people who have served long prison sentences prepare for and adjust to life after release. April’s reporting looked at the people doing that work, the clients rebuilding their lives and the much harder question underneath it all: What does justice look like when people can change?
What came next
April has said the assignment changed the way she thought about incarceration and second chances. Years later, she would return to the same idea — that two difficult truths can exist at once — in Living in the Gray.