The world has changed considerably since Johnson was arrested, she noted, telling “CBS This Morning,” “There are so much new buildings, and I noticed people on the phone a lot."
She’s finally home.
Alice Marie Johnson has been reunited with her family after spending 21 years in prison for a non-violent drug offense, the only of which she had ever committed.
Video shows a touching moment as Johnson runs to her relatives, who cheered as they finally embraced their loved one after more than two decades.
"I am feeling no handcuffs, nothing on me," Johnson, clutching flowers given to her by her family, said through tears to reporters. “I'm free to hug my family."
After the heartwarming reunion, Johnson and her family spent their first day together catching up before Johnson enjoyed a night’s sleep on her own terms.
"I woke up without a bunk bed over my head, so that was great,” she told CBS News.
The world has changed considerably since Johnson was arrested, she noted, telling "CBS This Morning," “There are so much new buildings, and I noticed people on the phone a lot."
But life as a whole is whatever Johnson now wants to make of it, and she isn’t taking one moment for granted.
“I’m just so thankful," she said. "I feel like my life is starting over again."
The great-grandmother’s emotional homecoming came after Kim Kardashian West lobbied for President Trump to commute her life sentence, which advocates said was an exorbitant sentence given Johnson’s lack of criminal history and the nature of the crime.
One week after meeting with Kardashian West, Trump signed a commutation for Johnson.
"Ms. Johnson has accepted responsibility for her past behavior and has been a model prisoner over the past two decades," the White House said in a statement. "Despite receiving a life sentence, Alice worked hard to rehabilitate herself in prison, and act as a mentor to her fellow inmates."
The White House noted it "will always be very tough on crime," but "believes that those who have paid their debt to society and worked hard to better themselves while in prison deserve a second chance."
Kardashian West apparently got to deliver the news to Johnson personally that she would be going home.
“Telling her for the first time and hearing her screams while crying together is a moment I will never forget,” she wrote on Twitter.
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