Life in prison for stealing $20: how The Division is taking apart brutal criminal sentences

Part two: The New Orleans' civil rights division reckons with a case involving an egregious sentence - and a policy that has punished the city's poorest for decades

As Maurice Lewis was granted his freedom at the end of last year, he wept before a judge. God bless you," he told her. I'll never do this again. Thank you for putting me back with my family."

Lewis, a 57-year-old man, had been sentenced to life without parole in 1998. He had spent the last 23 years at Angola prison, serving his punishment by laboring on the fields, sweeping the prison hospital wards, and cleaning toilets at Louisiana's state legislature.