Meanwhile, about 6,000 federal prisoners are to be released in November 2015. The United States Sentencing Commission has implemented early releases for some drug offenders.

Prison reform has become a major focus point for the White House during US President Barack Obama’s final year in office. In a recent speech at Rutgers University, he highlighted the need for prisoner re-entry programmes focused on education, job training and housing, and recounted success stories of formerly incarcerated citizens who had escaped the cycle of recidivism that plagues many inmates.

“It’s not too late,” Obama said. “There are people who have gone through tough times, they’ve made mistakes, but with a little bit of help, they can get on the right path.”

But while initiatives to reduce the sentences for drug offenders and nonviolent crimes are under way, the elderly prison demographic is beginning to emerge as another group in need of legislation reform.

In 2014, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the overall US prison population fell to its lowest level since 2005.

However, the data also shows that from 1999 to 2014, the number of state and federal prisoners aged 55 and older grew by 250 percent, while those younger than 55 grew by only 8 percent. Elderly prisoners were only 3 percent of the total prison population in 1999. But by 2014, that number had grown to 10 percent.

The justice department sees the nearly quarter-million elderly prisoners as a top issue year after year, not least because housing and feeding an aging population is expensive. But the number of senior citizens released from prisons remains small.

Upon release from prison, Johnson was handed an ID, documents outlining his criminal case history, $40 and two bus tickets. Having lost all family connections while serving his sentence, Johnson now relies on Fortune Society, a nonprofit that provides housing and services to ex-prisoners in Harlem.

Each day, he navigates the world as best as he can. He involves himself with a local mosque. He practices tai chi and meditates. He attempts to pursue his dream of opening up a shelter for women, though with his lack of credit history securing the funds for such a project has proven close to impossible. He walks the streets of New York, observing people around him. He returns to Fortune Society by 9pm each night, heeding his curfew.

With the current focus on reform, Johnson hopes that re-entry for ex-prisoners, including those having served for decades, will be streamlined to effectively address their needs. Whether freedom can prove liberating, rather than overwhelming, for those convicts who have grayed behind bars, remains to be seen.