September 2022 Edition

Culture & News

A New Way of Life

Susan Burton is an author and the founder of A New Way of Life: Reentry Project, located in Los Angeles, California. She advocates for recovery and prison reform for incarcerated women and those newly released. Her reentry project assists women and their children with support services to help make the transition from prison to a new way of life. It also has a 78% success rate.

Ms. Burton understands the unique challenges these women face when released from prison, because she has walked in their shoes. In 1981, she lost her 5 year-old son to a car accident and in grief turned to drug abuse. She found herself in a cycle of drug addiction and frequent imprisonment. A turning point was reached when she had the experience of a recovery home program that in her words was “humane” and thought this approach should exist in other communities. I look forward to reading her book: Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women (2017). Watch the video of her at the end of this newsletter.            

*Notice: The above article “A New Way of Life” was originally published in the January 2020 Edition. To view the full edition click here.

Art/Film/Literature News

Sadie Sprocket Builds a Rocket

Sadie Sprocket dreams of traveling to Mars. Will she be able to make her dream a reality? Learn more about her journey in the book: Sadie Sprocket Builds a Rocket by Sue Fliess (2021, 40 pages, kindle edition). This book has a great rhyming storyline and fun illustrations. And it concludes with Sadie’s notebook of facts about Mars and women in space. A delightful read! 

Book Quote:

“This space-bound girl with smarts and skill would soon make history.”
(kindle loc. 10)

Business/Non-Profit News

Read in 40 Hours or Less

Ms. Rosa Higgs is an educator and creator of Read in 40 Hours or Less, a phonics based approach to increase reading proficiency for children and adults. She has already seen the program’s success in hundreds of children who live in Oakland, California, increasing their reading proficiency by 3-4 grade levels.

77-Year-Old Educator Makes History, Helps Black Children in Oakland Improve Their Reading Proficiency By 3 or 4 Grade Levels

Book Review

Becoming Ms. Burton

Susan Burton is an extraordinary individual, who is not only a survivor, but an overcomer. She experienced much hardship and trauma in the first part of her life and cycled in and out of the prison system. She battled long and hard with substance abuse and alcoholism–and won! Her reentry non-profit, A New Way of Life, assists women and their children with support services to help make the transition from prison to a new way of life. Read more about her journey in the book: Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women by Susan Burton & Cari Lynn (2017, hardcover, 281 pages). The book has two main sections: the first half chronicles her early life and introduction to the criminal justice system. The second half covers her work in the non-profit community. She has lobbied for reform legislation and had success with California’s Proposition 47 becoming law.

The book is well written and has engaging chapter titles, such as: Incarceration Nation and A Tale of Two Systems. Each chapter’s title page includes statistics and quick facts about incarceration in the U.S. For example, Chapter 22: Women and Prison states: “The majority of offenses committed by women are non-violent drug and property crimes, motivated by poverty and addiction…” (p. 170). It covers topics that include: the War on Drugs (crack cocaine epidemic), drug addiction, loss of voting rights for the formerly incarcerated, and recovery programs. A powerful memoir from a woman who has passed through the fire and then returned to save others!

Book Quotes:

“Crack had come to town mysteriously and seemingly overnight. One day it didn’t exist, the next it did” (p. 71).

“It didn’t take long before the Crips and the Bloods sold to gangs in other cities, swiftly helping crack terrorize its way into poor Black neighborhoods across the country” (p. 73).

“From the moment I entered the system, I was flagged for the criminal side, while my White bunkie was flagged for the civil side, even though our crimes were the same. The fact was, we both needed treatment, and help” (p. 101).

“You are anointed to do what you’re doing,” she said (p. 223).

*Book Content Warning: domestic violence, child abuse-prostitution, sexual violence

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