The changes Gilbert Mendez made to his life during his 30 years behind bars are all the more remarkable given that he spent the vast majority of that time serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

After dissociating from a prison gang, Mendez went more than two decades without any serious prison infractions. He earned his GED in 2012. He got sober. After a brief relapse in 2019, Mendez self-reported the incident and has remained alcohol-free ever since. He did all that without any real hope of getting in front of a parole board, much less getting out.