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  • The Marshall Project

    How COVID-19 Tested the Family Bonds I Was Building When I Got Out

    After serving more than 21 years for a crime he committed at age 15, Angel Alejandro was reintroducing himself to his family. Then the virus took three relatives.
    by Angel Alejandro Sep 18, 2020 5 minutes

    My release from prison last September was a joyous occasion. It ended 21 and a half years of sitting in a cell and planning all the ways that, if released, I would try to recapture the decades gone by.

    Life Inside Perspectives from those who work and live in the criminal justice system. Sign up to receive "Life Inside" emailed to you every week. Related Stories

    But just as I was beginning to get my feet under me and enjoy my newfound freedom, COVID-19 hit. A series of coronavirus deaths in my family forced me to reflect on how my incarceration had transformed my relationships with loved ones.

    The family that I knew as a teenager, before I entered prison, had grown and changed. Meanwhile, they still knew me as the kid who got locked up instead of the man I am today. But this virus literally closed off

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