Collins

After having spent most of her adult life in prison for her role in a 1994 murder, Ginger Collins, 37, is preparing to re-enter the community. Having been granted parole in October, Collins is on schedule for release in May.

“She’s doing so good,” says her mother, Donna. “She looks so good.”

Collins, who suffers from mental illness, was sentenced to 65 years for her participation in the murder of Roger B. Oliver Jr. Although she had been diagnosed as a teenager, she was not taking medications at the time of the murder.

“I stayed in my bed, in my room, and I’d look out the window and it just looked like a plastic model,” she told The Providence Journal in a July profile. “I was so sick that I didn’t realize what I was doing or where I was.”

During her time at the Adult Correctional Institutions, Collins has been successfully treated for her illness, prison officials say. Described as a model inmate, she will be released in May to a secure residential facility. She will be required to find employment.

As part of the plan to release her, Collins early this month was moved to a minimum security unit at the ACI.

Her mother was reached while Christmas shopping with Ginger’s father, John. Donna said the Parole Board’s decision and Ginger’s transfer to minimum security have capped an emotional period for the family.

“It’s Christmas, it’s birthday, it’s everything. It’s like being born again.”

— Journal Staff Writer G. Wayne Miller

gwmiller@projo.com