(l-r) Sharufa Walker, MiAngel Cody, Mayor Brandon Scott, Gwen Levi, Founder and Executive Director The Ladies Of Hope Ministries(THE LOHM) Topeka K. Sam, Deputy Mayor for Equity, Health and Human Services Faith Leach and Levi’s attorney Sapna Mirchandani. (Photo by James Fields)

By Demetrius Dillard
Special to the AFRO

Gwendolyn Levi, a Baltimore woman who made national headlines for being sent back to jail for missing phone calls from law enforcement officials while attending a computer class, is still embracing her newfound freedom.

It has been about three-and-a-half weeks since Levi was granted compassionate release by U.S. District Judge Deborah C. Chasanow, and the 76-year-old couldn’t be happier. 

Before she was taken back to jail after being labeled an “escapee” for not answering her phone while on home confinement, Levi was highly involved in criminal justice reform. After Chasanow ordered Levi’s release on July 6, social justice advocacy has taken an even more prominent role in her life.

Mayor Brandon Scott said he was overjoyed after learning of Levi’s compassionate release, and said in a statement that he was looking forward to welcoming her to City Hall. 

On June 29, the two finally met in the downtown building. Levi, delighted to meet with Scott, expressed some of the changes she would like to see in the city and various ways she could work with the Mayor’s Office to facilitate re-entry for individuals like herself.

“The invite was fine, but just to know that took the time to acknowledge my plight, make a comment about it and to recognize that he could speak out about it was amazing to me,” Levi said.

“I wanted to be able to thank him more so than anything else, and that’s what he allowed me to do. It was a very, very good meeting.”

In accordance with many of Levi’s goals as a criminal justice reform advocate, Scott announced the release of a comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan last week. 

Since taking office, criminal justice reform and violence reduction have been among Scott’s highest priorities, and the newly unveiled plan aims to introduce a public health approach to violence, solicit community engagement and inter-agency coordination, and identify measures to ensure accountability.

“We’re going to be creating an entire re-entry network to focus on all the different types of folks who will be returning home in Baltimore, and getting plans and things in place, everything they need to be successful,” Scott said of the initiative.

Levi lauded the efforts of the Mayor’s Office and programs like the Maryland Justice Project and No Struggle, No Success, highlighting the available resources for individuals returning from prison.

“We have to make sure the public knows and make sure that people coming home know there are resources and there are going to be resources that the mayor is developing now,” Levi said to Scott, who sat across the table from her.

“I’m really interested in making sure that we get these community organizations to join in with you.”

Levi, one of the 24,000 former federal prisoners who were released to home confinement through the Cares Act in 2020, resides in West Baltimore with her 95-year-old mother. Prior to her compassionate release earlier this month, she served 16 years of what was originally a 33-year prison sentence for her role in a drug conspiracy. 

Since returning home in June 2020, Levi has maximized her time as a productive citizen of Baltimore, taking courses administered by the Maryland Justice Project, volunteering with a number of social justice organizations, and directing much of her efforts and knowledge to bettering local youth.

“It feels wonderful. I feel blessed and humbled that I have been allowed this opportunity to come home because it wasn’t guaranteed,” Levi told the AFRO.

“Now that I am home, I’m working on trying to help the others that I left behind.”

Among the items Levi discussed with the mayor were the creation of a one-stop resource center for seniors that would specialize in training programs, housing and more.

Based on Levi’s experience and observations with the criminal justice system, Black women are the predominant demographic in female prisons and face many of the same racial disparities Black men do. And now that Levi is free, she “more committed than ever to trying to prevent others from having their freedom snatched away for little reason.”

In a recent letter Levi penned, she made an earnest plea to President Joe Biden to use his executive privilege to commute the sentences of the more than 4,000 individuals on home confinement.

She and many others were told when they left prison under the Cares Act that they would remain home for the rest of their sentences.

However, for the past several months, Levi said, “there has been a cloud hanging over our heads” In the final days of the Trump administration, after the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel issued a legal opinion saying that when the pandemic state of emergency period expires, those serving home confinement must return to federal prison.

“Those of us in home confinement are stunned and scared. We had hoped that after the election, the new Biden administration would stop such a cruel and unnecessary action from going forward,” says Levi’s letter, which was published in the Washington Post.

“President Biden, please act now to keep these people home.”

Levi returning home on compassionate release was considered a monumental victory for not her and her loved ones, but for the city of Baltimore. However, Levi’s story of triumph and resilience is only the beginning of a long road toward justice, equity and upward social mobility, especially for Black victims of the criminal justice system.

In conclusion, Scott said it’s time for city and community leaders to “go to the work” and do “all the work that’s necessary to make sure things like this don’t continue to happen, but more importantly, as you’ve heard Ms. Gwen and I talk about, that we are creating a system that is actually rehabilitating people and not trying to simply take people’s freedom away.”

Likewise, Levi said “those programs joining with administrations like our mayor’s – we can get some things done. I’m assured of that and I want to be a part of that.”

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