LOS ANGELES — Two women in their 80s have returned home to Los Angeles after spending decades incarcerated in California prisons, reuniting with family and community in a homecoming that advocates say underscores the need to end the prolonged imprisonment of elderly people who no longer pose a meaningful threat to public safety. The women were welcomed into one of A New Way of Life’s reentry homes during a surprise celebration organized by the nonprofit, according to a press release issued by the organization.
The women, whose identities are being withheld to preserve the surprise, will be greeted by family, friends, formerly incarcerated community members and ANWOL staff as they move into one of the organization’s reentry homes, the release stated. According to the release, the two women do not yet know a celebration awaits them.
The homecoming arrives just after the Fourth of July weekend, a timing ANWOL says highlights a broader failure in the criminal justice system: the continued incarceration of elderly people long after they pose any meaningful threat to public safety…