(CNN) Josephine Ledesma was a first-time nonviolent drug offender who never even used or sold drugs but still received a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison during the 1990s. She served more than 24 years in federal prison before receiving clemency from President Barack Obama in 2016. She now has a good job and is devoted to, as she says in her own words, “making up for all the time my children did not get to spend with me by being the best grandmother in the world.”