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“The result is that these collateral consequences become a life sentence harsher than whatever sentence a court actually imposed upon conviction.” American Bar Association president William C. Many of these restrictions are permanent, forever preventing those who’ve already served their time from reaching their potential in the workforce, as parents, and as productive citizens. Sixty-five million Americans with a criminal record face a total of 45,000 collateral consequences that restrict everything from employment, professional licensing, child custody rights, housing, student aid, voting and even the ability to visit an incarcerated loved one. Each chapter begins with facts about different aspects of our criminal justice system, and the sprawling prison-industrial-complex, that are impacting generations of American families. One of the great strengths of the book is how it weaves staggering facts and statistics about mass incarceration into Susan Burton’s deeply personal story. I'm actually, this year, 20 years sober.(Sept 2017) This book is extraordinary – as is the woman who wrote it. And I began to heal and get stronger, and after 100 days of treatment I returned to South L.A., continued my recovery. And as I got stronger and I became healthier and more mentally clear, I began to inspect and analyze what was going on - the difference in Santa Monica and South L.A. I also began to realize that people in Santa Monica didn't go to jail for possession of drugs like we did in South L.A. What I saw and experienced in Santa Monica was a community that was really well-resourced.
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I finally made it out to CLARE Foundation and I began the road to recovery. So he gave me the name of the agency - it was called CLARE Foundation - and I called it the next morning. And over a cheap can of beer a friend of mine, Joe, told me about a place in Santa Monica that could help me. I had reached a place that I could no longer contain the sorrow, the grief, the pain of all of those years of my life, and I was seeking some relief and help. The Salt This Bakery Offers A Second Chance For Women After Prison Long before I ever got incarcerated, I should've been able to access services that help me deal with the grief and the loss of my son, that help me deal with the trauma, the abuse that I experienced as a child. On needing therapy but not having access to it And I went to prison over and over and over again until I found help. I began to smoke it, and that sent me to prison. The war on drugs about to take hold of all of the communities across the country and South L.A., Watts, is one of those communities that was hard-hit where crack became so plentiful. Burton, I'm sorry that you've lost your son." I mean, never.īetween the sadness, the rage, the anger, the loss, I began to drink heavily, and that escalates into drug use. I drink for the loss of my son, but I also drink because this police department never even acknowledged - never even said "Ms. I fall into a depression and an anger and a rage and I begin to drink. And the doctor comes out and tells me that my son is deceased and I ask, "Can I see him?" And I go in and my son is laying there with a little blood kind of dripping out of his nostril, and he's dead. So he hit my son, killed him, and never even got out of the car.Īll of a sudden there are just seemed like hundreds of police all around, and at the hospital hundreds of police walking back and forth. The car happened to be driven by a LAPD detective. Slowly, she began to rebuild her own life - then she turned her attention to others in Watts, the Los Angeles neighborhood she had grown up in.
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After her sixth release, she finally received the addiction treatment and counseling she so desperately needed. And each time the task became more and more and more daunting."īurton's prison sentences were all drug related. "Each time I left prison I left with the resolve to get my life together, to get a job, to get back on track. You lose all of your identity and then its given back one day and you're ill-equipped to actually embrace it and work it," Burton says. "One of the things about incarceration is that you're deprived. It's an experience she lived through six times, once for each of the prison terms she served. Susan Burton knows just how hard it is to get back on track after being released from prison. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Becoming Ms.