Susan Burton is influencing generations with her past. Burton, who was in and out of prison six times over two decades, has not been afraid to share her experience. The 72-year-old recently appeared on Forbes’ 50 over 50 list of women who have impacted the world.
Burton’s arrest came after a traumatic life in Los Angeles marked by terrible pain, poverty, and abuse, as well as the sudden passing of her son, which propelled her into addiction.
When she eventually obtained therapy, her political awakening began, and she became an exceptional advocate for reform.
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In 1998, Burton established A New Way of Life (ANWOL) to assist formerly incarcerated people in finding accommodation and reuniting with relatives.
It began as a single reentry home and has evolved into a comprehensive program that has assisted over 1,500 formerly incarcerated women in finding housing. It has also reunited over 400 women with their children and provided pro bono legal services to over 3,400 community members with conviction histories.
In the U.S., about two-thirds of people who are released from prison are rearrested within three years and half are reincarcerated, according to data cited by Forbes.
“Well, it’s striking to me how we can spend $75,000 a year to lock a woman like me up, and then we send her back to the community with $200, no ID, no Social Security card, nowhere to live, and expect her to make it. It’s impossible,” Burton told the Ford Foundation.
“In 1998, I founded A New Way of Life Reentry Project following my experience in the criminal justice system, with the goal of helping others break the cycle of incarceration. I would go to the bus station where I knew women were leaving behind a life of incarceration and entering the community. I’d meet them there and offer them a bed and a place to live in my house,” she said.
“More and more began to come, and we created a community of women helping and supporting each other. Many were recovering from substance misuse or the effects of incarceration or early childhood trauma, and in this community we all got better. We all thrived.”
To promote the ANWOL reentry model across the country, Burton, then 66 years old, launched the Sisterhood Alliance for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) Housing Network in 2018 and that has helped it to offer reentry services to thousands of people.
The rates of incarceration for women in the U.S. have risen more than 700 percent since 1980, with an over 70 percent recidivism rate, as noted by Burton.
Describing this as devastating for the communities these women come from, Burton indicated that A New Way of Life has a recidivism rate of about one percent. For less than one-third of the price of jail, she said the team helps a woman regain custody of her children, start her own business, enroll in college, find employment, open a savings account, get back on her feet, and learn the value of herself and her place in the community—all of which Burton claims to be measures of success.
She declared, “My hopes and dreams are to create a national network of safe homes for women to have a place to come back into their community.”
