Otis Johnson's Adjustment to Life After 44 Years in Prison
Otis Johnson left a very different world behind when he was jailed in 1970. After spending a sizeable portion of his life behind bars, this man got a rude awakening when he wandered around Times Square for the first time.
While taking in the dazzling displays, Otis Johnson seemed to realise just how much he had missed out on while spending 44 years locked up. He was left wondering whether the smartphone-clutching passersby were secret CIA agents due to the headphone wires draped around their neck, completely unaware of Apple's ascension to tech titans.
However, considering Johnson was jailed in 1970 and therefore completely bypassed the digital revolution, it's no wonder really.
The former martial arts teacher never confessed to the crime and maintained his innocence, previously telling Dazed: "Why would a man shoot at a police officer and then stand on the corner talking to people with the same clothes on?"
Upon his release from prison in 2014, Johnson claimed he was handed an ID, documents discussing his criminal case history, two bus tickets, and $40 (£32.04).
"Prison affected me a lot," he told Al Jazeera 12 months after he gained freedom. "My re-entry was a little bit hard at first, because things have changed."
When Johnson was first locked up, the first mobile phone hadn't even been invented yet, and he was a few decades off the invention of the iPhone. It's understandable that he was taken aback to see neon billboards plastered across Times Square, and for suspecting people glued to their gadgets might be government agents.
Taking in the extraordinary sights at the tech-drenched tourist hotspot for the first time, Johnson exclaimed: "On the windows?! I ain't never seen anything like this before! Look! On the windows?"
He shared more of his observations: "I was looking at the atmosphere, the new things that were happening and I seen that the majority of people were talking to themselves."
Johnson continued, "Then I look closely and they seemed to have things in their ears. I don't know with those things, the phone things...iPhones they call them or something like that?"
He added, "I thought, 'What, everybody became CIA or agents and stuff like that?' Because that's the only thing I can think of if somebody walking around with wires in the ears."
Johnson said he was baffled by the fact that people could 'walk and talk on their phone without even looking where they're going'.
He also noted the changes in the cost of making a call on a pay phone, which had shot up by 75 percent. "I remember this when I first got out," he smiled. "I was gonna make a call - then I seen the $1 thing. It was what, 25 cents when I was out?"
The supermarket aisles in the US were adorned with a lot more products than they were in the late 1960s, which also came as a surprise to Johnson. "I eat different things now because I'm looking at all this crazy stuff they got," he said, "The funny dinners, different coloured drinks."
He was relieved to see that Skippy's peanut butter still had a place on the shelves, a condiment which he fondly remembered from his younger years. "Being in society is a good feeling, a very good feeling. Being inside the prison, you only can go outside at certain times. So I like being in the sun and also observing people. It's nice. It's nice to be free."
Hearing Johnson's perspective might make you think twice about your massive amount of screen time, that's for sure.
