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In the five years since the State versus Blake decision, which overturned a Washington drug possession law, only a fraction of eligible convictions have been vacated.

Cascade PBS Multimedia Journalist Jaelynn Grisso gives us a closer look at what the decision meant for those affected.

[singing] I can hear our heart beat.

[singing] I can hear our heart beat.

Moving at the rhythm of a freedom song.

Moving at the rhythm of a freedom song.

Let me pause there.

Can I pause?

In 2021, Faraji Bhakti sat in prison holding tightly to his yoga practice as a lifeline.

He was not only locked up but locked down in the midst of the pandemic, when he heard the news.

I found the journal from February 14th, 2021.

The first line in that journal is saying, I'm being forced to go to the hole for quarantine.

For 14 days.

I'm quite upset and I don't want to be here, And 11 days later, a law came out and four months later I was home.

Months later, after his drug posession charge was vacated, he was released into the arms of his now adult kids, after 14 years.

That experience of leaving when my children were six, seven and eight and now being able to return into their arms, and they're 20, 21 and 22 was pretty a big contrast.

Bhakti left prison three years early due to his convictions being overturned.

Currently, about 155,000 convictions have been vacated since the 2021 Blake decision.

Early efforts focused on those like Bhakti who would be resentenced.

According to the Office of Public Defense, there's no one left serving time for only felony drug possession.

But the overall progress has been slow.

Estimates vary, but only a quarter to half of the eligible charges have been vacated.

A few years in, the Blake Administrative Vacate Unit was created to work with the courts who request assistance to process paperwork on these cases.

That's helped to vacate thousands more convictions.

We've worked with Edmonds Municipal Court, with Grays Harbor County District Court, with Whatcom County District Court.

In total, I think we've vacated something approaching 10 or 11,000 cases.

Once these charges are vacated, many can get refunds for their court costs.

But it's a complicated extra step, so only 6% of eligible people have received their refunds.

A state official estimates the other 94% of people are owed about $33 million, collectively.

Bhakti is among those waiting for a refund.

He estimates he could qualify for up to $10,000.

In the five years since he's been out, Bhakti says he's learned how to navigate a seemingly new world.

I didn't know what the world was going to be like.

I didn't have any clothes or any things to reintegrate into, but I had my yoga practice and that's all I needed.

He now spends his time teaching yoga to others, in community spaces and in prisons, including the one he was held in himself.

He says Blake granted him and others relief, but it should only be the beginning.

This law, in this change of the law, should not be the first and last law that changes in Washington state in order for folks to get relief for past crimes that they may have done when their brain wasn't even fully developed.

And if I'm sitting in prison for something that I did when I was 17, 20, 24, and I'm 50 now, where does that give me room to evolve?

[singing] I can feel my heart beat.

In Tacoma, Jaelynn Grisso, Cascade PBS I'm Paris Jackson.

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