19 YEARS OLD 120-YEAR SENTENCE 25 YEARS SERVED.

UPDATE — SEPTEMBER 2026: Nathan's application for executive clemency is currently pending with Colorado Governor Jared Polis...

Hi There and thank you for taking the time to read my brothers story.

Hi, my name is Allysa Faith Jordan, and I am asking for your help bringing my older brother, Nathan Christian Jordan, home after 25 years in prison.

My brother is currently serving a 120-year sentence in Colorado for offenses he committed at 19 years old. No one was physically injured, but Nathan understands that his actions caused fear and harm. We are not asking anyone to excuse what happened.

We are asking whether a person should be permanently defined by the worst decisions he made as a deeply traumatized teenager, and whether 25 years of punishment, accountability, rehabilitation, and profound personal change can finally be enough.

Please Read our Story:

The Child He Was Before He Became a Prisoner

Nathan and I spent much of our childhood moving between foster care and different homes with our mother, who suffered from severe alcoholism caused by PTSD from severe childhood sexual and psychological abuse.

When we were placed in foster care, Nathan and I were usually kept together. When we weren't, Nathan would run away trying to find me.

He was my older brother and my protector.

In 1993, my father came into the picture and took custody of me while Nathan and I were in foster care. Nathan knew I was finally somewhere safe, but he could not leave our mother behind.

He went back to her.

He was still a child himself, but he tried to take care of her while they were living on the streets. He begged, borrowed and stole to survive and to provide for her. Eventually, Nathan was caught stealing and entered the juvenile justice system.

Then, when Nathan was 16 years old, our mother died.

She died the day before he was supposed to be released from juvenile custody into her care.

He was still released into his dead mothers custody. (READ THAT AGAIN)!

Nathan walked out alone.

No parent waiting for him. No stable home. No grief counseling. No adult standing there to help a sixteen-year-old boy understand what he was supposed to do next.

His grief turned into recklessness and self-destruction.

Understanding that does not excuse the harm Nathan later caused.

But understanding is not the same thing as excusing.

It is the context for how a traumatized child became a deeply troubled teenager and, eventually, a 19-year-old who made decisions that would alter the rest of his life.

The Crime and the Sentence

At 19, Nathan committed serious crimes.

He was convicted in two Colorado cases and sentenced under Colorado's habitual criminal law to a combined 120 years in prison.

Nathan has never asked us to pretend those crimes didn't happen. He understands that his actions frightened people and caused harm.

Accountability matters.

But so does proportionality.

Nathan entered prison at an age when most young adults are only beginning to understand who they are.

His sentence ensured that unless something extraordinary happened, he would spend essentially his entire adult life there.

Colorado's laws have changed in significant ways since Nathan was sentenced, including changes involving habitual criminal sentencing and the treatment of certain escape convictions used as habitual predicates.

Those changes did not provide Nathan retroactive relief.

The courts have not been able to give Nathan another chance.

So now we are asking for clemency.

Who Nathan Became

Prison could have frozen Nathan at nineteen.

It didn't.

Nathan changed anyway.

Over approximately 25 years of incarceration, Nathan has earned his GED, completed two associate degrees, completed extensive educational and rehabilitative programming, and earned more than 25 certificates.

He taught himself to speak Spanish fluently.

He walked away from gang involvement more than a decade ago and has spent years mentoring younger incarcerated men about rehabilitation, fitness, staying away from drugs, repairing family relationships and doing what it takes to someday go home.

He has become deeply involved in his faith and continues taking faith-based classes and attending Mass.

Nathan has spent decades doing the work of becoming someone different from the teenager who entered prison.

He did that without knowing whether anyone outside those walls would ever give him the opportunity to prove it mattered.

Our Fight for Clemency

This may be the most important opportunity Nathan has ever had to have his sentence reconsidered.

I originally created this fundraiser several years ago, and then life, legal setbacks, and another painful round of waiting caused me to step away from it.

I am reopening it now because Nathan's clemency application is currently pending with Governor Polis's office, and I do not want to look back on this moment wondering whether there was more I could have done.

We have launched a renewed advocacy effort, reaching out to Colorado legislators, criminal justice organizations, legal advocates, community members and others who may be willing to look at Nathan's case. We are also building a public letter-writing campaign and working to bring his story to a much wider audience.

After 25 years, this is not the moment for me to be quiet.

So I am asking for help again.

For more than two decades, our family has fought for Nathan.

We have pursued legal avenues. We have found pro bono attorneys. We have tried to bring attention to his sentence. We have gathered records, built community support and continued preparing for the possibility that someday he could come home.

Nathan's application for executive clemency is currently pending with Colorado Governor Jared Polis.

This may be the most important opportunity Nathan has ever had to have his sentence reconsidered.

We are not asking anyone to erase the 19-year-old Nathan was.

We are asking that the man he spent the next 25 years becoming be considered too.

If Nathan Comes Home

Nathan would not walk out of prison alone.

I have made sure that every home I have ever lived in has had an extra bedroom for him whenever he comes home.

Over the years, an extraordinary community has formed around Nathan and our family.

He would have permanent housing, transportation, therapeutic support, education and vocational opportunities, employment connections and family surrounding him from the moment he walks through the gate.

Our support network includes therapists, business owners, skilled tradespeople, outdoor professionals, family members and longtime friends across multiple states who have offered their time, skills and resources to help Nathan successfully rebuild his life.

This time, if Nathan is released, someone will be waiting for him.

A lot of us will.

I Cannot Do This Alone Anymore

I have spent my entire adult life fighting for my brother.

Nathan spent my childhood protecting me.

I have spent my adulthood fighting for him.

Right now, that fight means advocating for his clemency application, getting his story in front of people who may be able to help, maintaining communication with Nathan, pursuing legal and advocacy resources, and preparing for the enormous transition he will face if he is finally given the opportunity to come home.

Funds raised through this campaign will help support those efforts, including communication and commissary expenses, advocacy and outreach, travel and potential legal expenses associated with Nathan's case.

If Nathan is granted clemency, remaining funds will help with the practical realities of rebuilding a life after approximately 25 years of incarceration: identification and documents, clothing, a phone, transportation, medical care and insurance, counseling, vocational support, housing and the everyday necessities most of us accumulate gradually over a lifetime.

I will manage the funds raised through this campaign on Nathan's behalf and use them for his advocacy and reentry needs.

If you cannot donate, sharing Nathan's story matters just as much.

Read about him. Share his story. Write a letter. Help us put his name in front of someone who may be willing to look at his case.

Nathan is not asking the world to forget what he did at nineteen.

He is asking for the opportunity to show the world who he became afterward.

Twenty-five years later, we are still waiting for him.

Thank you for helping us bring Nathan home.

Allysa Faith Jordan

Sister of Nathan Christian Jordan

https://www.freenathanjordan.com