COVID-19 has led many Americans to rethink prison. But a habitual offender law has condemned hundreds of people who never physically hurt anyone to grow old and die behind bars.

John MacNeil was convicted by the state of Massachusetts of second-degree murder. He was given a life sentence. He escaped. He was caught. Through an incredible feat of jailhouse lawyering, he somehow got himself paroled and exiled to Canada. Then he came home.