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It’s so much easier for people to understand the trauma of physical abuse than emotional abuse, but your book doesn’t shy away from that complexity.

Burton, you emphasize the damage you endured from your mother’s emotional abuse. Event after event after event, we’ll rebuild their lives, but it’s not an overnight deal, it’s a process. But I explain to them that the circumstances of their life didn’t happen in one day, that there was event after event after event, and the rebuilding of their lives is taking care of one thing at a time. We have a therapist who comes every week. SB: For one, we have individualized therapy that they can tap into. WLA: What kind of tools for healing post-traumatic stress do you share with women you work with? But I put it into perspective that right now, I just have to do this one thing. Sometimes if I look at the whole totality of what’s on my shoulders, it can be daunting. SB: I have days where the responsibility of all that’s happening can be really, really heavy. WLA: Do you have days when you aren’t able to put others first when you feel shut down by rage or grief? How do you get through those moments? SB: No, my main goal was to help other women not go back to prison, that was what was most important to me. WLA: As someone who didn’t grow up with a lot of boundaries, were you worried that not having boundaries between home and work could be a problem for you?

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I understood the need and the lack of services and what having a safe place could be in terms of supporting women to sustain their sobriety and learn how to live after incarceration. SB: It seemed like the natural next step for me. WLA: When you felt called to help women with reentry, did you struggle with the idea of opening your own home to women, or did that seem natural to you? Having the ability to get the support to help you to find that place and sustain it is what’s so imperative, and that’s why A New Way of Life is there for women who need to find that place, and sustain their sobriety after incarceration. Alcoholism and drug addiction stand in the way of that. SB: I think that inside of all of us, there is this desire to be the best that we can be. Have you found a way to get other women to that point, or is it something they just have to come to in their own time? WLA: There was a point in the mid-90s when you felt ready to become sober and process your past. I felt like with all that I’ve done, there’s no disputing my rehabilitation. Susan Burton: I felt like I would get the pardon.

WitnessLA: This was your second application for a pardon. We spoke with Burton about her pardon and her journey.

#Susan burton rehab santa monica full

Susan Burton speaking to the LA County Board of Supervisors on 8/13/19/via WLAĪfter the California Supreme Court determined Burton was eligible earlier this month, Governor Gavin Newsom issued her a full pardon on August 8, 2019. According to the most recent information from the organization, A New Way of Life has offered support to more than 1,100 women, and reunited more than 300 mothers with their children. The Watts-based nonprofit now has eight “safe homes” in Los Angeles County, where women undergoing the process of reentry are able to find support with such post-prison challenges as family reunification, recovery from trauma, finding employment and securing stable housing. In 1998, her organization, A New Way of Life Reentry Project was born. Observing the lack of resources available to women upon reentry from prison, Burton began taking recently-released women into her own home. Finally, in 1997, Burton was able to find lasting sobriety at a rehab center in Santa Monica. Burton tried to manage her grief and rage with drugs, which led to stays in prison on and off for 15 years. In 1981, her five-year-old son was hit and killed by a car driven by an off-duty LAPD officer. Raised in the Aliso Village public housing project in Boyle Heights, she endured years of emotional and sexual abuse throughout her youth. Susan Burton speaking at A New Way of Life’s yearly gala on November 2018/viaWLAīut Burton’s path to accomplishment and a life of service was a difficult one, with much grief and trauma.