From the prison house to the White House: Alice Marie Johnson's journey

Alice Marie Johnson wore a coat of many colors Monday night as she stood before friends at Aliceville Baptist Church. Johnson was released from a life-sentence that she had been serving at Federal Correctional Institution, Aliceville five years ago after then-president Donald Trump granted her clemency.

"Since I left you, the Lord has done what he said he would do. He took me to high places. I've been to the State of the Union. I've been to the White House and you could say I went from the prison house to the White House," Johnson said to the crowd, which included many people who had visited her in prison.

More: Woman released from Aliceville prison thanks Trump for commuting sentence

"My story is truly a modern-day Joseph story," she said. "Even though I was in prison, the Lord was with me and he gave me favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. I have sat next to kings. I have flown on Air Force One. I've been to the United Nations. I've been honored as a women's rights defender for the work I have done with women."

Her story began less nobly. Johnson was arrested in 1993 and convicted in 1996 on eight federal criminal counts related to a Memphis, Tennessee-based drug trafficking ring. Her charges were severe enough that, under then mandatory sentencing laws, she was given life plus 25 years and was sent to Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas. She was later transferred to Federal Correctional Institution, Aliceville.

Johnson did not claim she was innocent. She said she was offered a deal, in which she would serve three years, but she elected to go to trial, having no idea that if she was convicted she could be sentenced to life in prison.

"I’m not bitter," Johnson said. "It was the laws that were on the book, the mandatory minimum and things like conspiracy where you can be drawn into something and be given the lion’s share if you exercise your right to go to trial. Many things have changed under the laws over the years. Had I been sentenced today, I would not have gotten a life sentence."

"Ignorance of the law is no justification because I truly was ignorant, but I made myself educated when I came to prison. I studied to find out why I would get such a horrible sentence. It’s really called an unexecuted sentence of death. That’s really what a life sentence is called."

Johnson recalls her children visiting her in prison. She was 41 years old when she was convicted and sentenced. She had four living children, a fifth had died in an accident before her incarceration. They were all teenaged or older when she went to prison and the impact on them was severe. Her youngest became involved in criminal activity and was incarcerated.

"I remember my daughter coming out to visit me and I was broken that day when she told me coming here to visit you is like visiting a graveyard," Johnson said. "We can come and visit the place where your body is, but we can never take you home."

A change for good

Prison changed Johnson for good. Chaplain Rachel Floyd knew her in Carswell and later reconnected after Johnson was transferred to Aliceville.

"I became a chaplain (at Carswell) back in 2009, so I have known her 14 years. In those 14 years, I have watched a woman who is just amazing, filled with hope, had a life sentence and yet she never lived that way," Floyd said. "She lived inside those prison walls as if tomorrow was the day she was walking out. She never acted like she was in prison. She lived above reproach and what a testimony ... to say this is not the end. God is not finished and what a story it has been."

FCI Aliceville Chaplain David Carroll confirmed Floyd's assessment of Johnson.

"She was a humble lady who loved the Lord with all her heart. Every day she lived like she was going home tomorrow," Carroll said.

Johnson made it her mission in prison to encourage others who were struggling. In doing that for other inmates, she found that her life changed as well. Johnson would pray with other women in prison, they would celebrate milestones in their families, and they would share in the griefs.

"They are my family and my friends. You can’t spend 21 years incarcerated with anyone and not be impacted. We lived life together," Johnson said. "There is something about encouraging others. I began to encourage myself from having encouraged others."

Johnson did everything she could while inside the prison to live a free life, which included forgiving people who had wronged her, and maintaining her personal appearance.

"Even when I was in prison I made a decision, I’m not going to walk in unforgiveness," Johnson said. "As I started praying for everyone who had wronged me, it lifted that burden up off of me. I became free while I was in prison. I found my mission and my purpose in prison."

"I would have my hair done and, as they say, fix myself up. They would say, "Mrs. Alice, what are you getting ready for?" I would always say, "I'm getting ready for the cameras" because I believed that the way the Lord was going to release me was not going to be because I desired anything but it was going to be for his glory."

The way the Lord would work for Johnson was truly unusual. Johnson petitioned the Obama administration for clemency in 2014, but she was denied. In 2016, she wrote an opinion piece for CNN, asking for forgiveness and another chance. Her case eventually came to the attention of celebrity Kim Kardashian who was married at the time to Kayne West, a noted supporter of Donald Trump. Kardashian presented the case to Trump who granted clemency, permitting Johnson to leave prison after 21 years served.

"We’d been praying with Alice because we felt like God had promised her she was not going to do a life sentence. We were just waiting to see how God was going to do it. I never dreamed he would use the means he did to make that happen. It was a totally Joseph story going from the prison to the White House," said Carroll.

Johnson had been 41 years old when she entered the prison system and was 63 when she emerged. She is now 68 and has returned to the prison to speak at a graduation ceremony for women who completed an 18-month program known as the Federal Bureau of Prisons Life Connections Pilot Program. She spoke at the graduation ceremony Tuesday.

"Going back in here now with the women who have graduated from the Life Connections Program is very meaningful for me. Some of them have never completed anything. This is a big commitment to complete an 18 month course. It’s something they can feel they have accomplished and they can show their families and community they are preparing themselves for a better life," Johnson said.

The graduation speech fits perfectly with what Johnson has committed her life to since her release from prison. She promised those who remained inside that she would be a voice for them and has been faithful to that promise, working to get prison reforms instituted and making sure that the women in the prison system have an advocate for them on the outside.

"My main message is never give up hope. Even though you came in broken, you are more than being repaired, you are being rebuilt. It is no accident you are here. I remember when I came into prison, someone told me to bloom where you are planted. God knows where you are. I want them to know that no matter where they are at, God knows where they’re at," Johnson said.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alice Marie Johnson celebrates freedom from prison in Aliceville