At 1:30 a.m. on September 1, Jeff Mizanskey woke up in his prison cell at the Jefferson City Correctional Center after a brief nap. The 62-year-old had been in prison for nearly 22 years. But in six hours, he would be a free man. He couldn’t fall back asleep.

The seconds ticked by slowly. Guards came by every 90 minutes or so to shine a light on him and his cellmate. This was procedure, a way to make sure prisoners were still alive. Before, it had always bothered Mizanskey. It didn’t matter today.

As day broke and the prison began to wake, guards and inmates who had known Mizanskey for years came by to wish him well.

“Only two more hours, Mizanskey,” a guard said as Mizanskey walked down the hall.

“You leaving already?” teased a fellow prisoner.

After many hugs and handshakes, Mizanskey, sporting a bushy mustache and gray hair tied back in a ponytail, made his way to a waiting room where he would be formally processed out of the prison. The T-shirt waiting for him was something he couldn’t be happier to wear: a black crewneck with the logo of the marijuana law reform group Show-Me Cannabis — a green and maroon pot leaf over the state of Missouri. Underneath were the words, “I’m Jeff & I’m Free.”

Around 7:30 a.m. the JCCC’s guards walked Mizanskey toward the lobby. When he turned the corner and faced the front door of the prison, he was taken aback.

“There were so many people and cameras everywhere, I almost went back inside,” he says, laughing. “I didn’t expect all those reporters, and I barely recognized my own family because I couldn’t see their faces — they all had their phones in front of their faces!”

Still, it wasn’t difficult to pinpoint his family members — they were all …read more

Source:: Weed Feed