This 59-year-old man had been incarcerated nearly two-thirds of his life! In 1983, Alvin Kennard took $50 in cash from a bakery in #Bessemer, #Alabama. He was 22-years-old. On August 29, 2019 at 10:59am he was finally released and given time served. He did 36 hard years in a sweltering, unairconditioned prison for stealing $50.75 in cash. And nobody was hurt. Two years later Mr. Kennard is doing extremely well. Alvin Kennard filed a tax return last year, he tithes at church and hasn’t even been affected by C-19. (Other than the limits on the family gatherings which he loves) Mr. Kennard’s large, supportive family was critical to his successful re-entry. A room was ready in his brother’s home. A niece, who is a Bessemer businessowner, helped with transportation. #Church connections helped him secure employment within six weeks at Town and Country Ford, where he works in the body shop buffing cars. Every so often, he calls me on his lunch break and lets me know things are still going just fine. During the holidays, he texted me photos of him at the staff holiday party, standing next to a huge inflatable polar bear. Imagine returning from Alabama’s hellish prisons to a world where holidays are filled with enormous glowing inflatables. Mr. Kennard embraces it all – with joy. “It’s almost a year I’ve had my job,” he remarked recently. “It’s been a blessing, it’s been wonderful. It’s not about how much money I’m making, it’s about what God allowed me to do.” He loves listening to the birds chatter in the mornings, wandering down to the creek of his childhood and watching turtles and snakes. He’s got a favorite meat-and-three restaurant, Kayla’s, that’s helped him put on much-needed weight. All conversations with #AlvinKennard eventually lead toward #God. No matter how hard I try to give him credit for how hard he worked, how much he suffered, how he deserves a good life, he invokes God and the conversation becomes a #prayer. I wish more #Alabama legislators, judges, and prosecutors could pray with Mr. Kennard. Source: #alabamaappleseed https://www.instagram.com/p/CU7WcMnAp2J/?utm_medium=tumblr
