37 years: A Long Road to freedom

Published by Alabama Smart Justice December 12, 2022

By Beth Shelburne

Dark clouds blanketed the sky over Limestone Correctional Facility the day Henry Towns was released, but to him, it was the most exceptionally beautiful day. He exited the front gate and inhaled his first breaths of fresh air in the prison’s parking lot, not exactly Shangri-La, but to Henry it would do just fine. It was May 3, 2022, and he’d been locked up in Alabama’s overcrowded and violent prison system since July 9, 1985: almost 37 straight years. The clouds over the prison weren’t thunderheads but stratocumulus, signs of a clearing sky.

A small cluster of people waited for Henry in the parking lot, and I was among them. Henry’s older sister, Lillian, her son Jimmy. Henry’s son, Tony Ford, drove over from Atlanta. Ronald McKeithen, who served time with Henry at Donaldson Correctional Facility and was released in 2020, was also there. We spotted Henry and his attorney, Greg Yaghmai, headed our way. Henry appeared thin, the blue slacks and burgundy shirt he changed into shortly before exiting the prison hanging off his 6-foot frame.