Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women

by Susan Burton

I was driving down La Brea, not far from where K.K. was killed, when my cell phone rang. A voice said, “Are you sitting down? You’ve been named a Top Ten CNN Hero.”

The majority of offenses committed by women are nonviolent drug and property crimes, motivated by poverty and addiction. Most women offenders are under thirty years old, and are disproportionately low-income, black, and didn’t complete high school. The lifetime likelihood of imprisonment for white women is 1 in 118; for black women, it’s 1 in 19.

Over 70 percent of Americans in prison cannot read above a fourth-grade level. When inmates are provided literacy help, the rate of recidivism drops to a 16 percent chance of returning to prison—as opposed to a 70 percent chance for those who receive no reading help.

People and their families are more likely to live in poverty and be hungry if they have been incarcerated. Just 3 percent of federal spending goes toward nutrition programs. The average Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit per person is about $29.25 per week.

Part of Clinton’s flawed Welfare Reform Act was a seemingly random stipulation that anyone convicted of a drug felony was banned for life from receiving food stamps. Not only did this continue punishing those who’d served their time, but it let their children go hungry. Also, it arbitrarily singled out drug offenders while still permitting food stamp benefits for those with any other conviction, such as armed robbery, rape, or murder.

Most women are behind bars for social or victimless crimes—while the real victims, which the flawed system perpetuates, are the children. The number of children under age eighteen with a mother in prison has more than doubled since 1991. Approximately 10 million American children have or have had a parent in prison.

What would later become a formal fundraising gala in a downtown hotel ballroom began as a gathering in the living room.

New Life Mission, does the same for single some with children. I started giving money when. I attended their fundraising luncheon.

It cost up to $75,000 to incarcerate a woman for one year—but, after her release, zero was invested in reuniting her with her children and providing support for the family.

Approximately 90 percent of women imprisoned for killing someone close to them had been abused by that person.