When she went to prison on drug charges, Stephanie George was 26 years old, a mother to three young kids.
Over 17 years behind bars, her grandparents died. Her father died. But the worst came just months before her release.
"I lost my baby son," George says, referring to Will, shot dead on a Pensacola, Fla., street.
"I feel bad because I'm not coming home to all of them, you know," sobs George, now 44. "He was 4 when I left, but I miss him."
She's one of thousands of nonviolent drug offenders sentenced under tough laws that called for decades ā if not life ā in prison.
Police found half a kilo of cocaine (about 1 pound) and more than $10,000 in her attic. With two small-time prior drug offenses, that meant life.
[For more of this story, written by Carrie Johnson and Marisa Penaloza, go to http://www.npr.org/2014/12/16/...-to-a-different-life]
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