In 2012, California voters became the first U.S. citizens to scale back sentences of the currently incarcerated by voting to amend “Three Strikes” – one of the harshest sentencing laws in the nation. Within days, the reintegration of thousands of “lifers” was underway. The Return weaves narratives of those on the front lines of this unprecedented shift, yielding an illuminating meta-narrative of historic reform. At a moment of national reckoning on mass incarceration, what can California’s experiment teach the nation?