![]() As she started to run out of savings, someone suggested she start a nonprofit. As newly released inmates stepped off buses near Skid Row 19 years ago, Burton was waiting to greet and offer them a sanctuary to begin their life anew. She bought a small bungalow in South Los Angeles and started A New Way of Life. Later, while working at a job as a home care worker, she devised a plan inspired by the CLARE Foundation, and after a year had saved $12,000 to make that plan a reality. Walls are painted bright colors - prison grays and greens are purposely avoided. It was like another world.” Every bedroom in the shelters has a bed and dresser for each of its formerly incarcerated women. “It was like having the best waitress and waiters come and serve you your food, and when you’re finished with one part of your meal, they take the plate away and they take the fork and knife away, and then they bring you clean ones. “I had get-well help served to me like in a buffet at a restaurant,” she remembers. She was accepted - and instantly thunderstruck by the disparity in services afforded her in this upscale community, compared to those available in her neighborhood. The only job you’ll ever have is in a prison.’”Ī friend told Burton about the CLARE Foundation recovery center in Santa Monica. And he said, ‘There’s no jobs for you out there. “He said, ‘I’ll see you in a little while,’” Burton recalls. It was a chance, pejorative comment from a correctional officer on her sixth (and last) release from prison that sparked her evolution into an agent of change. cards, which are destroyed when entering prison. Securing employment and housing, which are among the requirements to regain custody of their kids, is made even more difficult without necessary documents like state-issued I.D. Hundreds of categories of jobs, as well as many public housing agencies, are off limits to those with records. Most states make it nearly impossible for felons to make it back on their feet. Unceremoniously dropped off in Los Angeles’ Skid Row, Burton had no tools or resources to make it in a world without bars. Her catch-and-release tale was similar to those of millions around the country. Burton retreated onto despair, turning to drugs to dissociate herself from the trauma of her tragedies.Īfter becoming an alcoholic and crack addict, Burton became trapped in a vicious cycle of incarceration. Fifteen years later, Burton’s life was shattered when her 5-year-old son was run over and killed by a van driven by an off-duty police officer. ![]() ![]() A Christmas Eve gang rape resulted in her first child at the age of 14. First it was her aunt’s boyfriend, then an older male neighbor whom she met selling cookies for the Woodcraft Rangers, a group similar to the Girl Scouts. “If it weren’t for this I’d be on the streetīefore Burton could become an angel, however, she had go through hell. Far more than a housing agency, it has evolved into an inspiration for change and a beacon of hope to women who have been largely discarded by society. Since its founding in 1998, A New Way of Life has provided shelter and services to thousands of formerly incarcerated women and children. In it, Burton, 66, documents how she overcame six felony convictions and incarcerations to create and run one of America’s most successful social programs. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women. A 2010 CNN Hero, Burton has written a book chronicling her remarkable life, Becoming Ms. Yet to thousands of people, she has been a savior. One bed in each room is usually left free for the sudden arrival of a released inmate or space for visiting kids.Ĭhances are you’ve never heard of Susan Burton. Burton reveals that the grays and greens of prison are purposely avoided. “We need to get pictures on the wall,” she mutters to herself.Įvery room has a bed and dresser for each of its occupants, usually two to four in a room, and the walls are painted bright colors. You gotta go get the worm!’īurton moves on and walks into an empty, freshly painted room. “You ain’t trying to catch the worm, huh?” Burton says to a woman still in bed. She knocks on a bedroom door that’s half ajar and peers inside. She is giving a visitor a tour of one of her five Los Angeles houses that provide havens for women returning to society from California’s prisons. Is everybody decent!?” Susan Burton yells as she ascends a flight of stairs. Susan Burton overcame six felony convictions and incarcerations to create and run one of America’s most successful social programs.
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