Sunshine Sentinel

There is a lot to be said for a second chance.

Alice Marie Johnson got one, and she is glad John Bolen has been given the same opportunity to rebuild his life.

Bolen, 49, was granted clemency by President Donald Trump on Oct. 21. He had been in prison since 2007 for being involved in smuggling cocaine from the Bahamas into the United States.

John Bolen | Photo courtesy of Justice Through Clemency

Bolen was arrested in August 2006 and charged with four felony counts. Two men who were arrested with him testified and received seven-year sentences.

Bolen, however, was given four life sentences, despite testimony from a Drug Enforcement Agency agent that he had merely allowed the drug smugglers to use his boat. It appeared Bolen's life was over, with nothing but prison for the remainder of his days.

Bolen’s wife June pleaded for clemency, setting up a Change.org webpage to make the case that he should be freed.

“John was a first-time, non-violent offender and yet, as with so many others, he was handed one of the harshest penalties in our ‘justice’ system, one that should only be reserved for the worst offenders in our society,” June Bolen wrote. “On behalf of our family, I beg for your help and support to bring John home, I beg for light at the end of this dark tunnel.”

John Bolen found a ray of hope when he read Johnson’s memoir of her own involvement in drug dealing and long prison term.

“After Life: My Journey From Incarceration To Freedom,” was published by HarperCollins in 2019. Media personality Kim Kardashian-West wrote the foreword and helped the book gain visibility.

It told how Johnson, who had never used drugs in her life, became involved in a drug conspiracy after developing a serious gambling problem, losing her job and dealing with the loss of her son in a scooter accident.

She was charged with eight criminal counts in 1996 and ended up behind bars for more than two decades. After being hailed as a model prisoner who was determined to set her life right, Trump commuted her sentence in 2018 and she was released. He granted her a full pardon in August 2020.

Her book received high praise and drew attention to her efforts to assist other long-serving inmates. Johnson founded the Taking Action for Good Foundation and serves as its CEO.

June Bolen reached out to Johnson to say her husband had enjoyed the book and noticed great parallels in their lives. Reading it had been a very emotional experience for him.

“I wanted to know who John Bolen was,” Johnson told Sunshine Sentinel. “He just pulled at my heart because he was like me, a first-time non-violent offender.”

She said Bolen made a serious mistake but he also deserved another opportunity to be free.

“He was not a drug dealer. He made a very bad decision that cost him his life,” Johnson said. “I really started to advocate for him. I really wanted to see his life restored.”

Bolen made a case for his release in an essay on the CAN-DO Justice through Clemency website.

“I am a non-violent, first-time offender with a life sentence for my role in a conspiracy to smuggle drugs by allowing my boat to be used,” he wrote. “I live in shame, guilt and sorrow for this terrible mistake I made.”

He has been an entrepreneur since he was 5, he wrote, and after the devastating 2004 hurricane season, he found himself short of money and willing to join a drug-smuggling conspiracy to save his fishing business.

“I rationalized and justified my behavior, thinking I wasn’t doing anything that bad, I was only allowing my boat to be used while I looked the other way,” he wrote. “I replay this day over and over in my head. I had options and choices but I lost sight of the value of good honest hard work and instead I compromised my integrity and my honesty. I regret so badly this terrible mistake I made. Words truly cannot describe how sorry I am for my actions.”

Once he was sent to prison with four life terms staring him in the face, Bolen said he joined the residential Challenge Program and learned the eight attitudes of success: honesty, objectivity, willingness, humility, open-mindedness, gratitude, responsibility and caring.

They were, he said, “simple, yet so life-changing. The irony is that had I embraced and lived these attitudes in the free world, I would have never become involved in criminal activity. Now I am in service to others in the Bureau of Prisons' skills program as a mentor and mental health companion for those with mental health issues and brain injuries. It is rewarding to see others achieve the same personal change and growth that I have.”

Bolen said he wanted another chance to be free to make up for lost time with his wife, son, mother and grandmother.

“They have always encouraged me to chase my dreams, and I cannot wait to support them in chasing theirs,” he wrote. “I cannot undo my past and I am truly very sorry for what I have done. I do feel I deserved punishment for my actions, but I don’t feel I deserve to die in prison for my bad choices and being a first-time and last-time offender.”

On Oct. 20, Bolen went to sleep in his cell in the Federal Correctional Institution, Coleman Medium, in central Florida. The next day, he was told Trump had granted him clemency, and he would be released immediately.

June Bolen called Johnson to share the good news.

“We were both crying for his release,” Johnson said. “He was like me, he went to bed on a Tuesday night not knowing it would be his last night in prison.”

Bolen was one of five people who had their sentences commuted by the president. The others were Lenora Logan, Rashella Reed, Charles Tanner and Curtis McDonald. Johnson said she appreciates President Trump’s willingness to listen to her and others and consider releasing people from prison who want another chance at life.

”He really listens,” she said. Johnson couldn’t vote for him in 2016 but this year was given a speaking role at the 2020 Republican National Convention.

Johnson also had been advocating for Logan, who was released from prison in 2018 but was on probation.

“Both of these people I’ve been advocating for their clemency,” she said. “It was a surprise they got it but I have been working for them. I was really relieved to see John Bolen relieved of that life sentence.”

Johnson has never met the Bolens in person but looks forward to doing so at some point. She does offer him some advice, based on her own life.

“Having been in prison so long, once you’ve spent so much time, as John and I did, more than a decade in prison, take it slow adjusting to the changes in society,” she said. “Take it slow and enjoy your life. Live every moment as it comes. Don’t try to move too fast through it.”