It’s the simple pleasures in life that matter the most to Tony Lewis Sr., a former drug kingpin freed after 34 years in federal prison. Lewis, of Northwest D.C., is entering his second week of freedom, thanks to criminal justice reform and his son Tony Lewis Jr., who was 9 years old when his dad was sent away but who never stopped fighting to get him out.
“The first nine years of my life was filled with so much love and support and safety and time spent with my dad and my mom, and I’ve always understood how much my parents love me,” Lewis Jr. said. “He deserved to be held accountable for his actions, but life without parole was not a fair sentence for him … my dad deserved a second chance,”
Lewis Jr. is a federal employee for the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for D.C. working in community supervision in the probation and parole systems. He’s also the author of the book “Slugg: A Boy’s Life in the Age of Mass Incarceration.”
“I’m just … always so proud of him every day. I tell him every day,” Lewis Sr. said about his son, who ensured that his incarcerated father was at the center of his family’s life for three decades, staying in touch with constant phone calls, letters, card and visits.
Now at 60 years old, Lewis Sr. relishes every day he’s not in prison.
He was sentenced to life without parole for drug dealing.
“Oh, it feels wonderful, man. It feels just magnificent, just spending time with my son and my two beautiful granddaughters, my daughter-in-law, my two sisters and a few nephews and cousins. You know, being away all this time, I just can’t even describe the joy it is,” Lewis Sr. said.
Freedom pic.twitter.com/prHJFbmuTb
— Tony Lewis Jr. (@mrtonylewisjr) March 25, 2023
Lewis now enjoys exercising with his son and visiting the school of his granddaughters Sophie, 6, and Isabella, 9.
“My main pleasure … is spending time with my son and my granddaughters. We’ve been taking them to school together … picking them up from school together. They’ve introduced me to their teachers with this right here …’Oh, excuse me? This is my Pop Pop … he just got out of jail yesterday.’ I was like, oh, oh, and the teacher be like, ‘what?'” Lewis Sr. said.
Lewis Sr. is out of prison in no small part to the First Step Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2018. It requires the federal Bureau of Prisons to assess the risk of recidivism of inmates with a view to providing a second chance.
Exactly one week after being freed, Lewis Sr. found a job.
“Yeah, it’s amazing. I just got a job today man, and I’m thankful for that … construction management … and I’m ready to get started, hopefully next week. So, I’m happy,” Lewis Sr. said.
Lewis Sr. is intent on giving back, sorry for the harms of his past drug-dealing, and he is determined to help young people of D.C. find a straight and narrow path of lawfulness.
“We want the best for our young people … the gun violence and the carjackings and the robberies, people can’t live in fear like what this city has become and the DMV as a whole,” Lewis Sr. said. “We got to do better because that same cell that they just released me out, released me from after 34 years, that cell is going to be filled, and young people, don’t be the one that they fill it with … it means a lot for me to say this and I’m going to keep on saying it,” Lewis Sr. said.
