Morning meditation is important to start every day on a positive note.

Susan Burton

Categorized in : Day Every Day Positive Morning

One of the things about incarceration is that you're deprived. 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.

day you identity work

I can remember, as a child, the happy days of us all piling into the car and going to the drive-in. And that was a weekly routine for my father. He was a proud black man, and that all sort of vanished as America began to export jobs.

man car black father

Most incarcerated women have stories that are similar to mine. They suffered great trauma as children.

mine great women children

I knew I wasn't born to be caged and chained up.

knew up caged born

The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery other than in prisons - but it was a lie that you regained your freedom once you left the prison gates.

lie you constitution freedom

There are so many bright people who just need an opportunity to help others and pay it forward.

help-others help opportunity people

Nothing good could ever have come of my life if I hadn't been able to get therapy and overcome my addictions.

my-life nothing good life

Education, hard work, dedication, a support system, and knowing my life had value - these were what had made all the difference.

hard-work education work life

Our ancestors went through so much in a fight for us to vote. So I believe that we should engage in all civic participation. It's healthy engagement.

fight i-believe vote believe

A New Way of Life is a safe house that women can come to after they're released from prison in South Los Angeles. It's a place for women to detox the trauma, the torture of incarceration, be welcomed and embraced and live and begin their new path to - if it's recovery or receiving mental health services, go back to school, get their children back.

women health life children

Each time I left prison, I left with the resolve to get my life together, to get a job, to get back on track. And each time, the task became more and more and more daunting.

my-life together time life

I went to pick my son up from school and walked him back and was in the house preparing dinner, and he came in the house and gave me this flower of chrysanthemum that was full of ants. And he went back out to play and ran out into the street and got hit by a car. The car happened to be driven by a LAPD detective.

me car flower son

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.

child me long son

It's important the sheriff and the D.A. work with the community to realize real-world solutions. If they make decisions in silos, it will fall short.

short community work fall

Insulin is a crisis medication.

insulin medication crisis

After six prison commitments, at the end of those, I was more broken than when I went into the system.

end more prison broken

We keep a woman in prison for decade after decade at a cost of $60,000 a year, and then give them $200 when they hit the gates for release. And, adios. People have to get their IDs, Social Security cards. They have to get clothing, housing, apply for benefits and services, and it's impossible to do with 200 bucks.

woman prison impossible people

We continue to work on policy to end discrimination against people with criminal records.

end discrimination work people

Telling your story is transformative. For both the storyteller and their audience, a new bridge to understanding is created.

bridge new story understanding

Unless we address those that are leaving prisons, we can't begin to repair the damage of mass incarceration and make our communities whole and healthy once again.

repair make leaving healthy