1. Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women is the story of Susan Burton, a woman who overcame many obstacles and tragedies, spent time in prison, and became a leading figure in the justice reform movement. Burton takes readers along on her journey during which she realized that a racialized structure of control has infected America for decades. She details her abuse, her struggles, her addiction, and eventual recovery.
Self-loathing and shaming started early in Susan’s life. She was sexually abused as a child. She recalls sitting in the back seat of the car as her mother drove her aunt to Camarillo where she would pick up her boyfriend, Curly, who abused her (Burton 2017; 12). When her aunt …show more content…
However, “this wasn’t, in actuality, a war on drugs,” it was a war on black people (74). Crack hit the streets rather suddenly. It was cheaper and easier to use than cocaine and happened to be “one of the most addictive drugs in the world” (71, 72). The irony, however, is that President Reagan and the CIA were behind the explosion of crack in America. It was all a big cover-up being used to pay for America’s role in the Contra War in Nicaragua (72, 73). Reagan ranted and raved about the War on Drugs, started the ridiculously ineffective “Just Say No” campaign, and significantly increased the budgets of many federal law enforcement agencies; it was pure hypocrisy (73). The populations of jails and prisons increased exponentially all across the country, becoming incredibly overcrowded. The War on Drugs makes it nearly impossible for people like Susan Burton and the many women she has helped to break the cycle. A profoundly flawed criminal justice system, systemic racism, redlining, education policy, and poverty are surely all to blame (8). It is a system that survives on a culture of power, a system that runs on the “idea that punishment was always the answer and was always deserved, that getting tough would solve everything” (123). Rather than investing in social programs that could help those affected by crime and poverty rates, the government consistently expands the role of the criminal justice …show more content…
Formerly incarcerated felons are often “excluded from public housing,” “denied private housing,” cannot rent an apartment, and struggle to receive any welfare benefits from the government (153). She soon came to the realization that “if you got locked up, you get locked out” (154). Susan wanted to fix the system, make it easier for ex-offenders to find a place to live and work (168). She started attending meeting after meeting, learning, listening, and sharing. She began working with the Community Coalition and Saul Sarabia. They worked to create an “Ex-Offender Task Force” and get rid of the stigma that surrounds formerly incarcerated people (162). Saul taught her about the issues that mass incarceration creates for the children of ex-offenders, and worked to fix that, too. She learned that the system aims to prevent children from living with and being raised by relatives; it wants to keep them in group homes and private foster agencies, which receive a mass amount of money from the government (166). She worked with “All of Us or None,” an organization that fights for the rights of formerly and currently incarcerated people. She was appointed as a commissioner of the Gender Responsive Strategies Commission by Governor Arnold
Self-loathing and shaming started early in Susan’s life. She was sexually abused as a child. She recalls sitting in the back seat of the car as her mother drove her aunt to Camarillo where she would pick up her boyfriend, Curly, who abused her (Burton 2017; 12). When her aunt …show more content…
However, “this wasn’t, in actuality, a war on drugs,” it was a war on black people (74). Crack hit the streets rather suddenly. It was cheaper and easier to use than cocaine and happened to be “one of the most addictive drugs in the world” (71, 72). The irony, however, is that President Reagan and the CIA were behind the explosion of crack in America. It was all a big cover-up being used to pay for America’s role in the Contra War in Nicaragua (72, 73). Reagan ranted and raved about the War on Drugs, started the ridiculously ineffective “Just Say No” campaign, and significantly increased the budgets of many federal law enforcement agencies; it was pure hypocrisy (73). The populations of jails and prisons increased exponentially all across the country, becoming incredibly overcrowded. The War on Drugs makes it nearly impossible for people like Susan Burton and the many women she has helped to break the cycle. A profoundly flawed criminal justice system, systemic racism, redlining, education policy, and poverty are surely all to blame (8). It is a system that survives on a culture of power, a system that runs on the “idea that punishment was always the answer and was always deserved, that getting tough would solve everything” (123). Rather than investing in social programs that could help those affected by crime and poverty rates, the government consistently expands the role of the criminal justice …show more content…
Formerly incarcerated felons are often “excluded from public housing,” “denied private housing,” cannot rent an apartment, and struggle to receive any welfare benefits from the government (153). She soon came to the realization that “if you got locked up, you get locked out” (154). Susan wanted to fix the system, make it easier for ex-offenders to find a place to live and work (168). She started attending meeting after meeting, learning, listening, and sharing. She began working with the Community Coalition and Saul Sarabia. They worked to create an “Ex-Offender Task Force” and get rid of the stigma that surrounds formerly incarcerated people (162). Saul taught her about the issues that mass incarceration creates for the children of ex-offenders, and worked to fix that, too. She learned that the system aims to prevent children from living with and being raised by relatives; it wants to keep them in group homes and private foster agencies, which receive a mass amount of money from the government (166). She worked with “All of Us or None,” an organization that fights for the rights of formerly and currently incarcerated people. She was appointed as a commissioner of the Gender Responsive Strategies Commission by Governor Arnold