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.

34.(Sept 2017) This book is extraordinary – as is the woman who wrote it.Burton not only humanizes the deleterious impact of mass incarceration, it also points the way to the kind of structural and policy changes that will offer formerly incarcerated people the possibility of a life of meaning and dignity. Her organization, A New Way of Life, operates five safe homes in Los Angeles that supply a lifeline to hundreds of formerly incarcerated women and their children-setting them on the track to education and employment rather than returns to prison. Once clean, Susan dedicated her life to supporting women facing similar struggles. On her own, she eventually found a private drug rehabilitation facility. She cycled in and out of prison for over fifteen years never was she offered therapy or treatment for addiction. As a resident of South Los Angeles, a black community under siege in the War on Drugs, it was but a matter of time before Susan was arrested. Consumed by grief and without access to professional help, Susan self-medicated, becoming addicted first to cocaine, then crack. 'Susan Burton's world changed in an instant when her five-year-old son was killed by a van driving down their street. Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-304). Hidden Bibliographic Details Varying Form of Title: Women drug addicts - United States - Biography. Abused women - United States - Biography.

African American women social reformers - United States - Biography. Women prisoners - United States - Biography. Women ex-convicts - United States - Biography. Saved in: Bibliographic Details Author / Creator:īurton, Susan.

Becoming ms burton