Hi everybody welcome. We'll get
started in just a few minutes.
Once everybody is entered.
Again, welcome everybody.
Thank you so much for coming today.
I'm Jody Segal and I need are
one book program on campus and
I would like to welcome you to
our 2021 one book presentation.
I'm so grateful you're all here when we
hosted our one book author one year ago,
I had no idea that today I'd be.
Visiting with you from my desk and over zoom,
but one of the positives of course of
having their college online is that
you're all able to attend from across
the region and across the country.
I think we have people here from
California and Massachusetts, I know.
So before we get started,
we are honored to have Calyx Jackson
who is our Office of Diversity,
Equity and Inclusion,
Native American peer Navigator should
lead us in a land acknowledgement.
So thank you Calyx.
I would like to thank the Muckleshoot
Tribe for sharing these lens with us.
I think the gratitude often expressed
in land acknowledgements is often thanks
given from politeness and a place
of expectation and expectation that.
The college will be here whether
we give thanks or not,
whether the native peoples want
us here or not.
I would like to express that I
do not have that expectation and
I understand the faith,
forgiveness,
effort and flexibility it takes to
share these lands,
especially with those who are part
of the system.
That is not only hurt your ancestors,
but continues to work against you
in present day.
I would like to spread this thanks
to the tribes to occupy these lands.
Before being put on reservations or have
last lost their tribal status as a whole.
I encourage you all to think about
what I've said so far in regards
to the land you are occupying
wherever you're tuned in from.
Lastly,
I would like to thank the land
itself and her creatures.
They are living things not to
be owned which coexist with,
and a form a relationship with well.
Formally,
we may recognize the Muckleshoot
for giving us these lands and
gave land acknowledgements to
bring light to their suffering.
Extending that thanks and
recognition to the land itself,
the land has experienced these
same pains and so much more.
Without that same respect,
these lands are directly connected
to the history of the Muckleshoot
and should be treated as such.
So my last words are said with my things.
With the spring coming,
I am both wishing for and cultivating
growth for native peoples to college.
These and these lands.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Calyx.
So. Another I've also been fortunate to
attend many meetings this year that have also
opened with a black labor acknowledgment.
I think it's particularly important to
acknowledge the unpaid and involuntary labor.
Of black Americans through
enslavement and through prison when
we have a talk on incarceration.
So this country was built on the unpaid
and involuntary labor of millions of
enslaved black people during reconstruction.
Free black people were incarcerated
at rates far outnumbering whites
and forced into for profit labor.
According to the Vera Institute for Justice,
which is an organization devoted to reform
of the criminal legal system by the 1870s,
almost all of the people under criminal
custody of the Southern states.
For 95% were Black State penal
authorities deployed these imprisoned
people to help rebuild the South.
They rented out convicted people
to private companies through a
system of convict leasing.
And finally,
according to the Equal Justice Initiative,
as recently as 2010,
the Federal Court held that quote prisoners
have no enforceable right to be paid
for their work under the Constitution.
It's important to consider that finding
in the context of mass incarceration
under which black Americans are
more than five times as likely to
be incarcerated as white Americans,
and that most recent statistic
comes from Pew Research, 2020.
So before I introduce Miss Partner,
I want to thank many people.
My book succeeds on our campus because
it's a very collaborative effort.
So first I would like to thank Doctor
Suzanne Johnson for her support of the
one book program and her belief that
important books and ideas should be shared,
discussed, and learned from as a community.
I think last years one book committee members
for helping to select this year's books.
So Amanda Chin,
Amanda Schaefer, Beleqsa Tamaami.
Benjamin Lealofi, Marcie Sims,
Erica Nelson, Jamie Haney,
Mark Barrington.
As well as Deans Jennifer
Dysart and Jamie Fitzgerald.
Thank you also to GDEC and ODEI
always for partnering with one book
and for hosting us today as part of
the Diversity educational series.
Thank you to student life and
student government for supporting and
collaborating on different Green Rivers.
One book program from the very start.
Thank you to the Green River
College Foundation for your support
of the one book program.
Thank you to the Green River College
reentry group for your work building
pathways and support for system
impacted students at our college.
And thank you to the faculty who used
the one book in your classes and to every
student who reads joins in this conversation.
And while I'm thinking of
it for any students,
if you want to read the book,
if you don't have it,
you're not reading it in class.
Please email us at the library after this
talk and we can email you a copy of the book.
So to shift gears,
the highlight of one book for me
is always the visit of the author
and this year particularly excited
to introduce author and activist,
Miss Susan Burton.
Following the tragic accidental
death of her five year old son
Susan Burton's world collapsed.
Her loss snapped the final
tether of resilience burdened
by a past of pain and trauma.
She descended into an emotional abyss
of darkness and despair that she was not
offered the resources needed to heal.
Without support,
she turned to drugs and alcohol,
which led to nearly 20 years,
revolving through cycles of incarceration.
Drawn on her personal experiences.
Miss Burton founded a new way of
Life Reentry Project in 1998,
dedicating her life to helping others
break the cycle of incarceration.
A new way of life provides resources
such as housing, case management,
employment, legal services,
leadership,
development and community organizing
on behalf of and along with
people who struggle to rebuild
their lives after incarceration.
Miss Burton is widely recognized
as a leader in the National
Criminal Justice reform movement.
She's a past Soros Justice Fellow
of Women's Policy Institute Fellow
and Community fellow under the
California Wellness Foundation's
Violence Prevention Initiative.
She served on the states Little Hoover
Commission and this is California and
the Gender Responsive Strategies Task Force.
In recognition of her leadership,
Miss Burton was appointed by Los
Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley.
Thomas is a member of the
Ellee County Civil brand.
Mission for institutional inspections.
In this role,
she's authorized to inspect Los
Angeles County correctional facilities
and advocate for the health and well
being of individuals house there.
Miss Burton is a co-founder of all of Us,
or none and the formerly incarcerated
and convicted people's movement,
both national grassroots civil
rights movements comprised of
formerly incarcerated individuals,
their families and communities alike.
In collaboration with UCLA's
critical Race Studies program,
she launched the employment
Rights Reentry Legal Clinic,
which has grown to be the largest
of its kind in Southern California.
Miss Burton has earned numerous
awards and honors for her work.
In 2010, she was named to CNN Top 10.
Zero and received the prestigious
Citizen Activist Award from the Kennedy.
the Harvard Kennedy School of government.
She is a recipient of both the
Encore Purpose Prize and the James
Irvine Foundation Leadership Award
and in 2015 on the 50th anniversary
of Selma and the Voting Rights Act,
Susan Burton was named by the
Latimes is one of 18 new civil
rights leaders in the Nation.
Released in 2017,
her memoir becoming Miss Burton,
received a 2018 NAACP Image Award
for Outstanding Literary Work in the
category of Biography and autobiography,
becoming Miss Burton is also
the recipient of the inaugural
Goddard Riverside Stephen Russo
Book Prize for Social Justice.
The new Mail of Life's mission is to
advance multidimensional solutions
to the effects of incarceration since
its founding more than two thousand
women and children have found safety
and support in 10 reentry homes,
the most recent of which opened
last November.
I believe over 300 women have been
reunited with their children through
a household goods distribution
center more than 3500.
Formerly homeless individuals have
been able to acquire items needed
to establish their own homes.
Since its inception in 2007,
the new Way of Life's legal Department
has provided pro bono services to
assist thousands seeking relief from
the burden of criminal histories.
Those services have helped enhance
job opportunities by expunging
criminal records and offering
access to occupational licenses.
As a result of Labor leadership
building activities,
hundreds more have been educated and
empowered to speak and advocacy around
issues that directly affect their lives.
Susan Burton is leading an initiative
to develop a replication model
to assist other communities with
providing culturally authentic reentry
supports to assist individuals with
histories of incarceration and are
convictions that we're pleased today
to be joined by Miss Yvonne Curtis,
who is Director of Arms around you,
which is a King County organization
currently working with Miss Burton.
So after her presentation was Burton will
be joined by being over college faculty
member or English instructor Mark Burton,
who is also a former University behind
bars instructor and by Shonda Tate,
who serves on the Advisory Board of the
Freedom Education Project of Puget Sound.
There was a speaker on our
campus earlier this year.
They'll moderate A Q&A with Miss Burton.
So you can type your questions
into the Q&A in zoom.
Or you can also use the feature to
raise your hand if you'd prefer
to ask you question yourself.
And with that,
I'm absolutely thrilled to
introduce you to Miss Susan Burton.
Thank you.
Um?
I want to thank you Jody after.
During the energy introduction,
I felt like I was coming home.
I felt like I was home and,
um, listen to Calyx.
You know, I can say I understand Haley.
But we keep going. We keep standing.
We keep moving, we working.
So today I want to thank Jody and Green
River College and all of those who made
it possible for me to be here today.
I am just totally honored.
I I just got off the phone with well
I got off another zone with the.
Office of Natural at the Office
of National National Drug Policy.
An I need it. I need it to hear Calitz.
I needed to hear your introduction
after that call, but they're trying to.
They're trying to change some things.
This is a strange way to me
about how they go about it,
but I'm there putting in my life you words,
and that's what we do.
I was I was able to meet with
Jody and Margana the office of.
Of the version and at a diversity
and equity this morning.
And it was an honor to meet with
them and talk to them about what's
going on in Green River College and.
What's being built literally as we
speak in and I just want to want to
thank everybody for that work also.
So it's been quite a journey for me.
In my lifetime, and as I as I
listened to the introduction.
That that was made, you know it brings it,
brings tears and and and and water to my
eyes until my heart to hear the description
because it wasn't always like that.
Uh, it it you know you fight in the
struggle so hard to like trying to
find a way up and out and for all of
those that are are here and listening.
I just want to encourage you to stay
your Rd if you're given a dream or
insight or direction or A cause.
It's not.
It's not the easiest thing to hang onto,
but I want to encourage you to
stay here your Rd.
Our state stay committed
and focused on that and,
and that's what I've done over the years.
So in in my book becoming Miss Burton,
I write about um.
About my life and in my father's
life and and my mother,
who my mother and father who came to
California from the South, running from um.
A Jim Crow running from the after
effects of slavery and racism and.
Oppression and they landed in
a place called Deliso Village.
That a place that was designed and
planned for all of those fleeing the South,
to land into it.
It wasn't the best place or the
healthiest place for for for me to.
For for freedom, to live
tand to raise a family and many,
many many things happened in early.
So Bella said just **** that happened.
But yeah, I I continued, I stood,
I stand I I kept moving and I kept learning.
Well I begin to learn how to navigate
trauma and navigate experiences that.
A child really shouldn't have.
Um And.
Um?
I can say that was threaded through
my entire life from I guess the time
I learned to walk and talk till.
The time the first handcuffs were put on me.
Um?
So I was able to navigate it and kind
of stay stay afloat until my son KK
that Jody talked about an introduction.
He was he was five years old.
He was killed by a.
LAPD Detective and my world just shattered.
Um? I could no longer.
Bear the pain, the grief and the
trauma that had been threaded through
my life and I began to drink.
An I drank to drown the grief
I drank to kill the pain and
that led to substance use.
And you know it's kind of ironic.
I'm very sad,
and it's not so much sad for me,
but sad for this country.
Bad. After losing a child.
And not having resources.
That the solution are that the way they
would deal with me would be to lock me up.
But that's the way they deal with my.
My way of addressing grief. And.
It's kind of dizzying when I think that too.
How I was treated.
Yeah, I wasn't locked up one time.
I was locked up six times and
every time it was clear that I
had a substance use problem.
And you would date tag and a court system
with smart judges and smart lawyers
that someone would figure out that.
A person like me, was it a bad person?
But I was. A second grieving person
that I had a substance problem.
I didn't have a criminal problem.
I had a hurt in a paying problem.
And the best that they could come up
with was the snap chains around my legs,
snapped chains around my wrist chain
me to the next woman and March us off.
To the strange place.
Tipper form labor.
I remember 1 morning we were we woke up
about 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning I guess
about four in the morning I believe,
and I guess that's the same way.
Yeah I will. It's the way I read about
slaves being taken out of Africa.
Early in the morning, raids,
putting them on a ship for me,
I was put on a bus.
And I was drove down the highway,
taken off the bus and change
stripped out of my clothes.
My body examined put into a room,
locked in a cage,
and then classified to come out and work.
And if I didn't work.
I would get another day in prison.
So what I wanna what I wanna say.
To you there has not been a generation.
In my entire family.
That has not been worked
as a slave by this country.
Not one generation when I
reflect back on where we are.
And how we been treated.
The way we didn't criminalize.
Locked up. And use for labor.
So that's chilling in his heart,
ranging for me.
Uh, and there's probably.
Oh folks, listening right now.
That you might reflect on.
Your generations. And if and when?
Your labor wasn't exploited. By this country.
So after my 6 prison sentence.
I found a place.
That helped me with the grief.
Woody um with the grief with
the drug addiction with trauma.
Yeah, I had threaded through my
entire life from like I said at the
time I was able to walk and talk.
Till that very moment and I began to heal.
It's pretty. It's pretty pretty.
It was pretty shocking to me.
So I lived and grew up in South LA.
Anne. There is a freeway called the
10 Freeway and five miles down.
The 10 freeway.
Is this place called Santa
Monica next to the beach?
And in Santa Monica.
There's this place.
Call Claire in a clear.
They gave me all I needed to be able to heal,
stand up, recover from drugs and alcohol.
In heel also from the the shaman,
the blame that we as farming
incarcerated people face.
I know that we that we internalize Anne,
Anne, Anne and be shamed
about what happened to us,
how we were incarcerated.
And feeling a little less
than and less worthy.
But I emerged after 100 days of treatment.
So you think of six prison sentences.
Dad, I was shipped away to prison.
And I got 100 days.
I've support at Claire.
And that just just began to start my
life on a whole different journey.
Um and I worked.
I I left clear after 100 days
I found work in the community.
I saved my money and I put
that money into a house.
After reflecting on what happened
to me at Claire Foundation.
And what should have happened?
In my own community.
After watching the way people
in Santa Monica was treated.
You know they got a court car.
They got sent to a diversion program.
They were sent to community services
for the same things that I was in
prison for and and Needless to say,
now this is a white upper class
community beach community.
Lots of resources,
lots of money and and so forth,
but they get treated completely different.
I get criminalize. They get.
Invested in. So I began to think. Why?
Why wouldn't anybody invest in me?
You know, in our meeting this morning.
We were talking about.
Investing education.
In incarcerated and formerly
incarcerated people.
And my thought is, aren't we,
aren't I? Isn't this community?
Aren't these people?
Worth an investment?
I mean, a judge could've
gave me a piece of paper.
And said take this to a AA meeting.
No University or college.
Can give someone an admission slip.
And say we want you to have a education.
An education changes the entire trajectory.
Of a person's life.
You know we want to invest in you.
So why wasn't I worked in investment?
Why was it always you know punishment?
Exclusion when does there
become an inclusion?
So the history of this country.
The over incarceration of women,
especially black women.
Is outrageous.
And it's shameful.
And I believe that those in position.
Kid make an investment.
And what might seem like the least of us.
But we show up with that
investment to do the most.
And I've seen it over and over and
over and over again in my work.
So I left after that investment
of 100 days of healing.
Therapy, medical, dental services.
Exposure to recovery.
Today I'm 20, three years sober.
And I'm showing other people
how to maintain their surprise.
And I'm proud of my sobriety.
I'm proud that I've broken
the chains of incarceration,
not only offer me,
but offer thousands of other women.
What I learned is what I
realized I didn't learn it.
I just realized I could not take
back the years of pain and suffering.
But I could help other women.
Not spending years of pain and
suffering and support them when
they come back to the community.
I couldn't bring KK back.
But I can help other women.
To get their child back.
And and that's what I can do,
so that's what I do.
So after after 100 days there,
I came back to the community.
I save my money.
I got a house.
I opened up the doors to that
house in South LA for women who
were being released from jails
and prisons and I welcome them in.
I go down to the bus station downtown
Skid Row where we get off a bus.
We get off that bus.
We don't have anywhere to go.
We don't have any ID.
We have a hot $200 minus R.
I bought so we might have $1.60 in in
our pocket and we don't have nowhere to go.
We just been tortured we just been.
Labor exploited,
we've just been stripped.
We've just been been traumatized
and we're trying to make away.
So I got out of the bus station.
I meet my friend and I say hey garage,
I got a house.
Would you like to come in and live
there and in a minute the house was
full and we were a House of women
thriving women helping women and we
were breaking the cycle of incarceration,
addiction getting our children back.
It was just like miracles
happening that after all of the
hardship all of the pain,
all of the suffering.
We were recovering.
We were cut recovering.
We were growing. We were standing up.
We were getting better, you know?
Oh my God, it's been such a such a journey.
What I want to do is just share
an example from the book with
you all about this one woman.
Who? Who is just like me.
Had some problems and changes.
She went through and could not find support
in the community and ended up in prison.
So her name is Ingrid.
So English life change in a single
day outside a Dollar General store.
Having scrounge up money to
buy Pampers and baby formula,
she took her screaming toddler.
Enter the store.
Made a bottle in the checkbox check
outline but left her sleeping baby
her sleeping infant in the car.
The windows rolled open for
air no more than 10 minutes.
Later, when she returned to the car,
the police was there.
She was arrested for child
endangerment so the baby was unharmed.
The police impounded the diapers.
The baby formula in the car and
despite English please that the
children were hungry and needed
changing because of our history.
She was guilty before ever standing trial.
She was sentenced to three years
in prison and lost custody.
All three of her daughters.
I was signing why she blamed
everything on herself.
How frazzled she been.
Sleep deprived and looking back.
Perhaps she had postpartum depression.
OK,
I thought.
Would have Ingrid been a person
at me of means.
Had Ingrid been in Santa Monica.
Had she been in a different.
Better neighborhood.
Had she not been black?
Would he have been sentenced
to three years in prison?
I wish she had been given help.
Center parenting classes and therapy
resources that existed for certain
people but not for others. Did I?
did I need to ask the question?
English stories could have.
And should have been different.
Same with my own story.
And the stories are most
of the thousands of women.
And children.
Who come to the doors of a new way of life?
Seeking safety,
productivity meaning ever fillman.
So I keep asking the question,
why are black Americans incarcerated and
nearly six times the rates are whites?
Why are prison sentences for African
Americans disproportionately
that disproportionately higher?
Once released,
while you face a lifetime of
Discrimina Tori practices and
policies that that prevent
you from having a better life.
Nearly 20 years ago,
before I begin looking at the
big picture before I feel fully
recognized there was a big picture,
I set out to offer a different
type of refuge and support.
I wish I'd had a House of
women helping women.
I came at it only with the GE D
earned in prison without mentors.
Without funding all I had was
my life experience.
All I knew is there had to be a better way.
Now every day in South LA,
around 100 newly every year.
I'm sorry around 100 newly released women.
And their children Kolanu way
of life home a state where more
than half of the women.
After the people.
Well, we can. The prison our program
is offered a mere 4% recidivism rate.
We we assist women with
completing their education.
Finding jobs. We help women
regain custody of their children.
We provide 12 step programs,
counseling, peer support groups,
all for less than 1/3 of
costs of incarceration.
Our annual cost for women at a new
way of life is 16,000 compared to
up to 60,000 to incarcerated woman.
But something bigger than I ever could
could have imagined happened as we
began telling our stories and talking
about what was going on around us.
I found my voice.
I could know that no longer shake
my head helplessly and ask the
same questions over and over again.
I could no longer carry the shame
and the blame and the guilt
that this nation placed upon me.
It was time to change the answers
to do that meant tackling
many institutional barriers.
The loss of policy and the attitudes
that created mass incarceration
and that continue to punish people
long after they serve their time.
The 13th Amendment of the
Constitution abolished slavery.
Other than it then, the,
other than in prisons.
But it was a lie that you regain freedom.
Once he left the prison gates.
Upon the release and for the
rest of your life,
you faced a massive wall of nose.
the American Bar Association
documented 45,000.
Legal sanctions.
Every strictures imposed upon
people with a criminal record and
Erim penetratable barrier denying
access to employment, student loans,
housing and public assistance.
Custody of your children.
The right to vote and in many places,
the former incarcerated are even
blocked from bidding from visiting
their loved ones in prison.
The minute I picked up a supposedly
free Ingrid.
These collateral consequences
stared her square in the face.
Our highest priority was to
get our kids back,
but before we could do that.
An attempt to regain
custody of her daughters,
we had to get her set up
in permanent housing,
but she had no money to cover rent.
So first we had to find employment.
Of course,
only a limited number of jobs existed for
someone with a conviction like Ingrid.
So you starting to get the picture.
By design.
English hopes and dreams.
Was all but snuffed out?
And her children lives thrown
into permanent disarray.
That day she made a faulty decision.
Outside the Dollar General store.
This isn't a problem that's
going to go away all on its own.
United States has the largest prison
population in the world, and most of
these prisoners will be released one day.
Annually, 650,000 people are
released in this nation every year.
I realized that formally incarcerated
people had no voice and no one seemed
to be willing to speak for us.
Work with us.
I'll give us opportunity.
Give us breaks.
As I build a new way of life is
sometimes felt like a Underground
Railroad was taking shape.
We, the people of the community,
weren't going to let each other far.
We were wet rescue each other.
And deliver a lasting freedom.
We would do all that we could so women
like Ingrid could get their lives back
and make better lives for their children.
Your network I've cultivated over the
past two decades we began chipping away
at what once seemed nearly impossible.
We found English a job.
Working closely with the Department
of Children and Family Services.
I would proof of our resident at and
her residence at a new way of life.
Eager was approved to have her children
on weekends while she pursued the longer
private process of regaining full custody.
She was putting money into a savings
account and working with housing
agencies to find a permanent residence.
She looked at me one day with
the sparkle having returned her
eye and she said Miss Burton.
I feel like I'm moving my life along.
So this was our 2017 when I wrote this
prologue to the book in the book Anne.
What I want to say to you is that.
Um Ingrid has.
Um?
Dad and Oliver children back out of the
apartment and children Family Services.
She had to advocate strongly through all
of the time, then holding her children,
but she she did it.
She got all of her children back.
She's in market rate up housing.
Uh, that's not easy for California.
I don't think it's easy for Seattle either.
Based on,
uh,
Miss Eva until we have working
without their rent,
I.
But because she got a hand up.
Because she got the opportunity
for her life to Excel.
For her life to have meaning and purpose.
You know she's able to live with dignity,
principles and respect.
So she she is actually.
She runs our civic engagement
Department at a new way of life.
So now, um, she was released under what
we had here called Proposition 47.
It was a bill that we got passed an um,
I actually, it was a ballot measure that
got that got passed and we were able to.
She was able to come home early.
What I didn't write that write about
in the book is that when she got home,
her daughter had been passed around
through the foster care system and
her daughter was five months pregnant,
so she had to deal with that too.
But she's a grandma now. And again,
all of our children are back with her.
She's our civic engagement.
She runs a Department at a new way of life.
It's up is Honor is a pleasure.
She's a asset to me.
You know, I don't know what I'd do without,
you know I can't run this and Matt, Matt too.
So we need people stepping up.
People who have been there and done that.
And at an all day I I know when
I was getting released from
prison all I wanted was a chance.
And we have so many people that wanna
be a bigger and greater part of
the community when they come back.
What I also want to share with you I got
an opportunity to go back to go to college.
So I went to Southwest Community College.
An I took some child development classes.
I took some psychology classes,
some English classes,
although my English might not be alright.
Take more in the class to get my
English all the way back on track,
but I know you understand what
I'm talking about.
Oh, but I got a chance to go back
to Community College when I when I
started a new way of life 20 years ago,
there was no attention at all.
Mass incarceration was not a word that
was being used and people hadn't realized.
The harm they had done two communities.
Do the mechanism of prisons.
So I think now we're realizing some of that,
and now we are having the
opportunity to repair some of that.
And again,
I'm just thrilled and delighted
that Green River College is one of
those places who that are thinking
and trying to figure out.
You know what's next?
How do we be apart of the repair of
communities and the repair of the lives
of the community members who are coming home?
You know?
They made a mistake, maybe,
but we're finding out now that
many people incarcerated are there
because you know our system is wrong.
Uh, and many people could be diverted
other places if they had means,
uh, instead of punished.
So we're we're really looking at that,
and, uh, and grappling with it,
but I'm so happy to see that
Green River College.
Is stepping into a place that
they're looking at what part,
what role they can play in and
rebuilding lives and communities.
Um and um?
You know arms around you is up there,
and then I'm gonna finish my talk
with this after I wrote my book,
I went around 2:00.
I think about 30 different states.
64 prisons. And I did book talks
with women Anne and wrote and
signed their books and communicated
with them and encourage them to
fight for their lives because.
That's what we have to do.
We have to fight for our lives.
We have to fight for the right
to be the best that we can be.
An an an an after I went around
to all these prisons.
I would I would ask people
who's been here more than once
and I would ask them to stand.
And then I'd say who been here more
than twice and I'd go all the way up
to five or six 7 times and by the
time I finished asking women that
3/4 of the prison was withstanding.
And I know that my own story was
I had nowhere to go to recover
from drug addiction to recover
from the trauma of incarceration,
to recovery,
to recover from the history of
of all of the childhood traumas
and and hardships that I face.
So I wanted to.
I wanted to figure out what I
could do for all these places,
but I am only one woman and
so I came up with it.
A training program called Safe
and the training program trains
people in their respective
communities to replicate our model.
Our model works, it's not cookie cutter.
It's not to say that you
can only live here so long.
It's not to say everybody is not
an individual, we all individual.
And it's supposed to point people to
dream again and pursue their dreams and.
Avon Curtis,
an uh her her staff came down to one
of the trainings and Oh my God she.
Replicated,
she said she want to replicate
so she's a part of so Seattle.
Our Seattle is a part of the replication
project and she started with one house,
but I'm sure she'll have
houses all across Seattle.
Matter of fact,
in the way of life now has 10 houses.
A man in her,
her door staff is is really,
really really on top of it and I know
that should have many places that I.
I hope that her and Green River
college arms around you and Green River
College will put their arms around.
A couple of people up in the school and
up in the college and an get that going.
But you know, it's a honor.
It's a privilege.
To be a part of.
Breaking the cycles of addiction,
slavery,
incarceration and supporting people
to be the best that they can be.
I again I wanna thank um.
I want to thank you all for inviting
me and having me here to just
say a few words about the book.
I would encourage anyone out there listening.
The step into your own dream and purpose.
Don't be a scared. Don't be.
Don't be frightened by the work.
Don't be a don't think it can happen.
I feel like if if you receive a
dream from the from the universe.
What you do is you go after that
dream and give that and give
that reality of the dream back
to the universe are back to God.
I say God gives me the dreams
and inspiration and the courage
and the energy to to do the work
that that allows a dream too.
To be realized in my life
just gets bigger than me.
And, um, I'm so happy for that, so.
Um, I just want to come again.
Thank everyone.
Media services.
We can't do the zones without you,
so let me thank you too for doing
all the TA to put this together and
send the links and what have you.
So I think I'm gonna close there and
then we're gonna go to the panel.
That right?
Spartan thanks so much for sharing your
gifts and your time with us today.
And can I shut out?
Yes to Carleson Enrique for helping us
sustain the zoom, but special thanks
to you for your incredible work.
Your incredible book which I'm using in
my class and leaves again next quarter.
It's inspiring and my students are
really moved by your experience.
I'm here with my my peer.
She wanted to date and we're going to
sort of answer some of the questions
that have been posted ahead of time,
so I'll pass the mic to shawnda.
Yeah, hey. First of all,
I just want to say it's great
to see you again and I know
you probably don't Remember Me,
but I met you before down an Anna
conference an that the formula,
incarcerated, convicted people movement
and you were on a panel there and I'm
a member of the National Council for
formerly incarcerated Women and Girls.
And so I followed your work alot.
Ann and I spoke with you very
briefly because there was a lot
of people at that conference.
But I just want to thank you for the work
that you do an and I don't have a question,
I just want to honor and and show
appreciation because I know it is
because of women like you in the
representation that you have in our
communities that I can go forward
in the work that I do in the work
that I'm I'm a community organizer
and I work with my reentry.
Manager for hiring IT pros program that
operates inside the women's facility
an so women coming out helping them
get connected with higher Ed and re
entry services when they come out of prison,
but also trying to organize formerly
incarcerated women to use their political
voice so that can be changed so they can.
We can be empowered to,
in effect,
change in our systems so that we
can change some of the laws that
impact us in our communities.
Because I do see this time and again,
and because I am a survivor, an iama,
formerly incarcerated woman,
who's you know I did seven years on a
10 year prison sentence for drugs myself,
and so this is the same thing that I've
seen in my own community and in my own life.
Personal experiences and so it's like I said,
it's an honor and a pleasure to
be here and to see you again.
Y'all get in to the questions.
And so we'll start with.
There was a.
There's some in the Q&A that are live
questions, so I'll start with those Q&A.
And one is from Claire Lyons in your book.
There's a judge who chooses not to send.
Send you to the insurer School for Girls.
Have you experienced other acts
of kindness kindness like this
in the criminal justice system?
No so um.
I was 13 years old.
And I was, um, having some.
Some differences with my mom.
And in the household,
I was being really abused,
but I didn't know how to talk about that.
So I would run away.
And that judge, I guess,
felt something because they
recommended that which they always
recommend that people get locked up.
But that judge looked at me a 13
year old girl and said I'm not
gonna put her in that environment.
And that was a pass that I got.
Uh, from the judge and I don't know,
you know, I guess that was the past that.
And I'm here,
but but the judge did not send me away,
but I was a little girl.
I was young. I was. I was a teenager.
I was just a teenager there.
All yeah.
Combat the system. You know.
After you know I kind of got it
together, got back in school.
Well it was rocky all the way through
my life but no, but that just did.
Not see me to Ventura School for Girls.
Yeah. OK.
The music mark.
Struggling with that mute,
so I will ask the next question this burden.
From one of our from one of our colleagues
when you entered Community College,
what were some of the challenges
you faced adjusting to or working
within the culture of academia?
Was there anything intimidating or
surprising to you in that environment?
There was a. So you know I had started
a new way of life when I went to.
Southwest College and I realized that I
needed to to understand more and understand
the terminologies and I had to I I
just know I need to go back to school.
I was like I'm like I'm way over my head so.
So, so, uh. I didn't have.
Um, I didn't have a hard time adjusting.
To go and just go,
but what I did find after I.
Started getting about it about it my
4th year of going out 'cause I was.
I was only able to take two
classes per semester.
And after about the 4th year.
Um, I began to. Have challenges with.
Not thinking the way the professor
wanted me to think, and being vocal about it.
That's not that that one good.
Um, so it was actually some of
my English classes and I was
beginning to become a advocaten.
I was beginning to really be vocal
about what my thoughts were about
whatever was being presented an
so I ended up stopping school.
Saying I would hire somebody
with the English degree.
I didn't need to get it myself.
But I got challenged with that teacher or
a couple of teachers wanting me to, um.
Think it makes sense out of what?
The the context of their materials.
When I didn't think like that and it
didn't work like that, I felt like for me.
That was the only struggle.
OK, alright, so the next question,
is there anything that ordinary
people outside of justice system
do to help those coming out of
incarceration or substance abuse?
Yeah, there's all types of things
that people can do, and, um.
Uh, there's material things
that can be that can be done.
There's you know, psychological
and hard things that can be done.
You know there's jobs that people need
like Avon there with arms around you.
She's in the area, you might can
donate to Avon to support her work.
You know she barely got the doors open there.
She's gonna need support.
You know women coming home need clothing.
Women need coming home needs a need.
All types of needs and there
are a lot of needs.
Getting any one person do that.
It takes community.
It takes everyone.
So I would say to to folks in the
area to reach out to our arms around
you and to just support support them.
However, you can, however,
you're able to.
You know you could do drives for hygiene
you didn't go to her donate Now button.
You can you can in touch with her
and letter an ask her what she
might need and so so it's arms
around u.org is her her website.
OK, cool and so another question
is do you have any advice for?
Currently improving part with after long
sentence is anywhere from 8 to 24 years.
Um? These are for people who are coming
out after 8 to 24 years or people who
are working with people after 8 to 24
years after serving after serving 8
to 24 years long sentences basically.
Yeah. But I should be nice to yourself.
Very kind to yourself. Yeah, allow you can't.
Many times people want to make up
for all the years they've been gone.
You can't make up for those years what you
can do is make the most out of the time
you have now and the time in front of you.
So give yourself time.
Don't be trying to catch up, just you know,
um, stop and smell the roses stop and
taste the candy stop and you know,
allow yourself to be present
right now and to get through your
days and get through your time.
Get through, you know whatever
you're trying to accomplish.
Be nice to yourself.
Don't beat yourself up.
Miss Burton, can you address some of
the employment issues that people face
when they release and what we can do or
what what's currently happening too?
Make it easier for people to find
employment, meaningful employment. So, um.
We were we were talking about the farming
incarcerated in convicted people's movement,
which I'm a founding member and
a steering committee member.
4444 within that group. So we launched.
Ban the box. Back in 2003.
And it kind of took off and then
the box means that on a initial
employment application,
you can ask the question.
Have you ever been convicted?
About about about a felony or misdemeanor,
so that kind of took off, but still.
Uh, even with band,
even with ban the box there.
Still you can ask the question upon hiring.
So what I can say is that folks.
Boxing can stop trying to punish
people and let them serve their time.
Let them be through once
they paid their debt,
you know.
So what we doing with the former
incarcerating convicted people's movement
are is that we're working on a national
project for automatic expungements Oh,
and that will explains Peoples records
automatically after a period of time,
so we're hoping to.
To help to to solve some of that
through automatic expungements,
but I think that that that
what we all need to do is to.
Jess. Stop punishing people.
You know, just stop punishing people.
Stop feeling like we gotta pay for the rest
of your rest of our lives for a mistake.
You know are for a action.
I mean, I don't think anyone of us.
Any one of us? Oh can say that.
At some point I our houses haven't
been made of glass. I made mistakes.
There's some of us get caught
and some of us get punished.
Some of us get caught and some
of us don't get punished.
Um, so we didn't just need to
level level level ground and say,
OK, you done, you're done.
What?
I see Avon has put her information
in the chat for people who want to
access where she is and how to you.
She got her direct email and
arms around you so if people
want to contact Avon, please do.
Alright, I'm gonna go with one
another question, um? If you weren't
doing what you were doing today,
what do you think you will be doing?
So. Oh, that's a scary question. Um?
Before I did this. I always suffered.
It wasn't until I began to do this that
my life throughout my life even thrive.
And I found purpose.
I found passion. I found dignity.
So I think that my journey through all
that I went through prepared me to do this.
And that's how I make sense of it all.
And I can't imagine what
else I would be doing.
But I know what I did before I
was doing this and I don't ever
ever want to do that again.
So I don't know I seeking a person,
vacate their record without legal assistance.
I don't know that's a legal
question and attorneys always tell
me I can't give legal advice.
Uh, you're not letting me Susan.
You're not a licensed attorney.
You can't give legal advice,
but I would say you should get in touch
with the an attorney to find that out are.
You could research it somewhere,
but I don't know if a person
can vacate that record are.
Or or or. Steal their record or any of
those mechanisms without an attorney.
OK, so so another question that was
posed in the email earlier is that how
can everyday people and communities
fight against the war on drugs?
Um? So one way. Is voting.
They have so many ballot
initiatives that come up.
That you can pass your vote to create
different ways and different laws.
So voting is really really important. Um,
I mean, you can contact your local elected.
And let your local elected.
Now that you want to,
you want them to create some other approach
to substance use outside of criminalization.
There's so much we can do with
our voice with our emails.
With our phones we can.
We can let people know what we want.
To happen, and it's important if you're,
I think if you're, you know,
get the urge to do something
and it's something good.
Something to improve the community.
You follow that, that urge,
and that's all that I did.
As I followed the earth.
I followed the desire to do something good.
With a question in the.
Chat from a student says are you
happy with where you are in life now?
Is there anything you would change?
I am happy with the way I am now.
And, um. Can you talk about the
challenge of finding your true self?
Um um? It's a journey and it it never.
You know. So far I haven't gotten there,
but I feel like I'm clearly on the path.
So there's work. There's books to read.
I write in the book about
this book called Feelings.
Buried alive never died.
I read the path of least least resistance.
I read a new pair of glasses.
I'm reading all the time to help to evolve,
so it's like the onion peeling,
but I feel like I'm gonna.
I feel like at least is peeling.
I'm just not smelling onion this feeling so.
An I think it takes us to be.
Pretty courageous. Tonight.
Fall into the ways that are
most convenient for us.
And to stay focus on.
Are true courcelle.
So now I'm in this practice of really
listening to my body to direct me.
I use my mind too,
but feelings come up in my
body that tell me things
too and I listen to that.
Alright, um there.
Is there any more questions?
I'm not seeing any more questions in there.
Add a question for me. Go ahead, Ivan.
She can unmute and ask if that's what the.
Uh, if you want to unmute,
let's have a conversation.
Let's do that.
Hey hello hello thank you Susan.
I don't really have a question.
I mean I you know I'm just I'm
just really encouraged to.
You know, just be apart of a safe
be apart of the new way of life.
Be apart of you know our testimonies and.
You know it's it's an honor.
It's a pleasure to just be able to
have a mentor that allows you to
just be you and and and do what
needs to be done to help the women
reacclimate themselves in the community.
I mean, as Miss Burton had mentioned, we,
you know we were just opening the House,
but we definitely keep ourselves open
for support and encouragement to the
Community and want to be able to give back.
I too have the lived experience and you know,
it's all of us or none.
And we know that in order to make
this a success in a continued success,
we have to have people like Miss
Burton and people in the community
to help us to florist and help
the women get themselves solid.
You know, I,
my model is you can't keep it
unless you give it away,
and so I remain teachable.
I remain open.
I keep my mind on the learning
curve so that I can to consistently
heal from the root cause.
And the trauma that I was
impacted by I don't know.
Miss Burton kind of question what
I have for you I don't know maybe.
We have monthly I save network.
We have a.
We have monthly cause to try to
support because the work is not
easy but we have monthly cost.
So you'll probably have something right?
Yeah I was I was trying.
I wanted to see what you came up
with on that last question question.
When you that was that was closed
on what would you be doing you
know and I'm like take your time.
Take your time on answering that
one 'cause I I can't.
I can't imagine what I'd be doing.
'cause you know I I have like these.
To live one life of suffering,
one life of trauma and pain and
hurt and hardship.
And then I have this other life of
life and given life and watching life
and and being a part of cultivating
life and and so forth so so I have these two.
I'm like I don't wanna go back there right?
We do it and when I when I when
I finally got sober I thought.
Like that the day after couple
of days before I got sober,
I just vision,
you know like am I gonna die like this?
Am I going to die?
Hurting and in pain and full of of of.
Alright, just just just heart
heart aching hearts yet so yeah,
that was I've never been asked that question.
Whoever asked that question you
gave me something new I was like,
whoa that questions opened up for
for for a lot of us on this platform
because that question had me
raising a question mark over here.
Like you know, wow,
you know it takes you back to what?
What if you know but we're focused on the
what now and we're so excited and grateful.
We are so we are so grateful
to Green River College to you.
Should Wanda. I'm trying to reach
out and make that connection to you.
I said I said mark an email so mark look
for the email to make that connection.
But thank you Miss Burton and thank
you to Green River College to you Jody.
I mean this was amazing.
This was powerful. This one.
Yes, you know Avon.
I heard about the work that you're doing up.
There were arms around you through if and
some of the referrals through the IF project.
Because I work with ethanol,
also organizing formerly incarcerated
women and advocacy out here and
working with getting ready to start
working with Carolyn Prison Elan
1426 and Seattle well and so yeah,
I'm I'm sure we're gonna be we're
gonna be crossing paths in this word
because this is the work that we all do.
And in community as well, you know, anyway.
But there are some other questions
I want to get to,
but I'm sure I'll be in contact.
One of them is from a Adam.
I'm saying I don't want to say
this name wrong gurtej Gray wall.
Do you believe that there is any
way to avoid drug problems in
the youth and communities?
So I have to believe there's
ways to avoid drug problems.
I don't know what those ways are.
But there there used to be.
I mean that you know there was a time when.
Youth were. Driving and playing ball
and you know well in my time we had
a team post where we would hang
out and there were no drugs there.
There was just a nice place to be
that was President Kennedy created
all of those places and they had
youth jobs and you use activities.
But I have to believe that there's
a way for are used to be happy and
whole without drugs. I have those.
Those are those answers now.
But we have to believe.
Wanna go ahead, Mark?
Yeah, so we have a question says.
Is there any way to reform the system
so that it actually becomes reform
system instead of disciplinary system?
So that people who have been
convicted can rehabilitate and be
prepared to come back into society.
And maybe this last point is
the way to sort of wrap it up.
Do you see that as a future?
After all, the crude discrimination
starts to move through our country.
Do you see that movement or we are
we are going to movement of reform?
Every storm, but I don't know that
I could say this system as it as
it is as it is can be reformed.
I believe that we have to create something
new and different and apart from him.
It's really ingrained in the
history of slavery in this country,
and it is, and I don't know,
you know, that you can take that.
The foundational piece out of a
system that's already connected
and ingrained and rooted in it.
So, um. Lot of work to do.
Let's do the workout.
It's a lot of work to do.
Can I ask a follow up to that
Miss Burden I'm thinking about?
13th the film where we
talk about how people are.
They're doing, sort of homed
attainment where people are being,
you know, having the bracelets on
their ankles that monitor them
as a way to use social control,
which doesn't seem to me
like reform or freedom, or.
Just a different way for.
Those in power to continue to.
Make reservation yeah yeah
lost out in the communities.
That's not, you know I I mean.
What I can say, I would have rather
had a bracelet on. Then change.
But I still wouldn't have been free.
Thank you.
So, so I would like to um, say, um?
You know we are. In this work,
um, as a survivor and a victim,
you know, I mean, uh, excuse me as a
survivor in the person who's cause,
harm in community and in ways, right?
I take responsibility for that.
But also knowing that.
You know, we criminalize poverty in
our communities and that we don't.
We had this thinking of.
You know that.
Sending people to prison is going
to rehabilitate them right?
And that they're going to be offered
the services and you know and that.
I guess what I guess I'm kind of
trying to say it's kind of similar
to what you were talking about.
The two stories of the way of the
way that you live your life and that
the story of you were had experience.
All this trauma in this pain,
and then that you know this.
This story of where you now you have
this success and you know redemption
and coming through the community
work that you do is also kind of
the is is similar parallels right?
And when we're talking about
the stories of you know how?
The story of two Americas right and
how you know there's a story of where
in this part of America where people are,
you know?
You know,
this underclass of people who have,
you know, been exposed to all this.
These trauma and violence in this,
but they should be able to access
services and these things,
and to be able to build themselves up.
But also that this other part of America
where there are these privileged
people who have been protected.
You know that they don't.
They haven't had to experience like in
the same ways that these other folks have.
And so.
Trying to reconcile those two things
in my mind and in a person who's been
impacted and going through this work,
how do you?
How do you?
The way to go for for people
to reconcile those things,
if that makes sense to you.
Yeah, it doesn't make sense,
and I was really attracted back
to Gerald Bradford's question.
Um, about finding your true self.
You know, and he asked,
when did you realize that, um?
And I think that it goes back to us, really.
Uh, finding being brave enough.
Are connected to connect with
our higher self and I hire Cali.
And when you do that,
the rest doesn't matter.
You know, I mean,
it might affect you in some way,
but it doesn't.
You know it doesn't knock you down.
It doesn't harm you.
It does can cause you the type of harm that.
Happens when you are not in your true self.
When you don't know your real meaning
of who you are and I wanna go and
tell Gerald I think it's is when I found.
Community and purpose that I begin
to realize. Dad. It wasn't nothing.
That was outside of me that I lacked.
Everything that I had was right
with me in community and in me.
I don't know if that makes sense yesterday.
OK, yeah, everything you know
everything we need inside we have
inside ourselves to be successful.
Yeah, and I I think is from you
know we lose it along the way
or it gets damaged or something.
But we have to go back to it.
So yeah, it's like that.
That's inner locus of control.
In Miss Burton,
there's a question in the in the.
In the chat I'm going to try to condense it,
but the last point my colleague
makes is that what should we
proactively be looking for as we
vote voted new laws and support new
initiatives so as to help prevent
and what could be what could be next.
So I guess I'm maybe if I reframe that.
Is there a limit litmus test that you apply
to ballots and such that come up are you?
Is there a way you can sort of 'cause
sometimes laws have been passed that
do more harm than good, when maybe
their intent was to do good initially?
Maybe not, but.
How do you what service test
you apply to some of the reform
steps that are coming up?
Well,
we have to really look past the commercial
and we have to read through what the
ballot measures actually for real doing.
So if it says like we had a
ballot measure that said.
A safe safety for communities.
Our safety for victims,
but it wasn't it wasn't.
It wasn't calling me a victim, you know.
It was calling me a person that had
been victimized and then incarcerated.
And then I had to go to the board.
It really stretched out the amount of
opportunities I had to get released
after decades and decades in prison.
So what what,
what I would say there's I can't give you
a real like clear cookie cutter answer.
What I'm saying is.
You need to read and understand what
that ballot measure is actually doing
and weigh the pros and cons of it and
make your own conscious decision but
but but you need to do the reading.
Get with the groups to understand
that get analysis of it,
not just the the the what's in the book,
but beyond the book.
Task and follow question did does the
National Council ever sort of identified?
Laws are initiatives that would benefit.
People who are system impacted and say hey,
here's a good one. Is there? Not saying.
Jean is at your corner.
OK for the National Council.
Say that again, say that again in March.
I'm just wondering if if groups groups
who I supported his mission and vision
sort of seemed to align with what
I hope for for the United States.
Do they ever get behind a bill or or, or say,
hey people should be voting for this or
that because it will help the movement.
The National Council you know,
and and so I'm I'm not directly.
Involved with the work that
happens on the East Coast, right?
I'm stationed here in Washington,
member of the National Council.
But as a member of National Council,
we there's a repository.
Policies that we keep up with so that we
try to reflect through different states,
right?
So if something is happening here in
Washington and we want to see this
getting passed here in Washington, right?
So like service chocolate in pregnant women,
right?
So we're trying to get those
things passed or clemency.
Clemency access across the nation,
right?
So there are different kinds of reforms.
I know that there were there's things
that works with the National Council
right now that they're working
with the Biden administration right
now to repeal the 1994 crime bill.
And so you know,
I'm not directly involved at
the higher admin levels because,
you know, I'm not Andrew James and
the amazing person that she is.
You know, in doing this work,
but I am a Member, you know.
And so collectively we.
Get together,
we talk about how we could work as
a national organization to try to
affect movement processes in our
individual communities as well.
Somebody just said free her campaign.
That's national campaign talking
about freeing women.
But as the former incarcerated convicted
people's movement, we've been like.
I don't want to say knocking down states,
but we've been actually going to
States and we've been working on
reinstating people's rights to vote,
so people might not know that
in a lot of places.
If you have a conviction you can't vote,
so we just.
Queen stated that in Florida in
California we passed Proposition 17
that allowed people reinstated the right
to vote for people who were on parole.
You know, if I come out on parole,
I can work. I can.
I can go to school, but I can't vote.
That doesn't make any sense of voting.
Is good is good.
Civic engagement,
civic activities is good
citizenship and we should be.
We should be stopping people from voting.
So, uh, and then some things around,
a jury not having to be
anatomist in Louisiana.
We worked on that, but we do it.
All of this different type of work in
different States and we do put out,
you know,
when we're working in the States,
we we,
we engage and we get communities
engaged and we educate communities.
So yes.
Absolutely nothing from.
So had I I was down there in Orlando
at that conference, and you know.
And we were phone banking and door knocking
and organizing for a permanent member for.
Yeah yeah yeah.
I mean, we feel people in we,
we put him up in hotels,
we went, we went.
We brought people from all over
the nation come to Florida to
work on that amendment form.
So one of our students has a question.
Ty asks excessive.
Parole creates tremendous hurdles
as far as rebuild Tatian do you find
this difficult for House members?
And how do you navigate?
Guess how do your House members
navigate parole in order to.
For themselves so.
So in my assessment,
parole is a waste of taxpayer money.
Uh, it's a total waste.
So what we do is that you know
we do have working relationships
with different offices and the
officers know us and respect us.
Uh, and so they don't get as much
of flag as as some of the other
people that's on probation or parole.
Because I have established
history and relationship with
the parole agents and offices,
but it's a it's a it's a drain
parole and probation is a drain
on taxpayer taxpayer money. Yeah.
There's another question, um? Posed.
Read yeah, you right about that.
It's a job security for folks, yeah?
What kinds of access to financial
resources does a new way of
life provide to their clients?
What is your vision or understanding
of how poverty and financial
constraints limit or provide
community to different folks?
And how can we do better?
Is there a way that room River
Community College could be
apart of making that possible?
Um?
Read that again. Say that again.
Yeah, what kind? So what kinds of
access to financial resources does
new way of life provides the clients?
What is the vision or understanding of how
poverty and financial constraints limit
or provide opportunity to different folks?
And how can we do better in wet can
cream reduced to be to make it possible?
Yeah, so um, we have leadership courses that,
in a way of life that allow people to
begin to broaden their their their
the information in their view about
the world and what the world does.
We have financial classes also that
teach about poverty in about what
sections of towns that people get.
We go to a grocery store in South
LA and then we go to.
A grocery store Pacific Power says,
and we looked and we compare what's
available to us and what's available
to them at the same point price point.
And we make those type of compare sums.
We grow food here at in the way of life
and we begin to understand you know
what food really looks like and tastes
like when it's prepared correctly.
An when it's grown correctly.
We we so when women come in,
we offer them up.
Or the opportunity to enroll in
school or get jobs.
So we just got an opportunity for
someone just called us and said.
And these things kind of happen
pretty regularly.
This is take note of this Avon someone
called that we've been working with for
awhile and they said we can hire 10 women.
Add $20.00 an hour.
Part, I mean, uh,
this is like transitional employment.
We can't,
we can hire 10 women at $20
hour and they can each get on.
150 hours so you know somebody
coming home that's a little start to
understand how to pay so so so we felt
we fill those 10 slots pretty quickly,
but we have employment employment.
They are a staff that does
employment and education ANAN.
I'm in Green River College,
I don't I don't know what
you have to offer up.
Offer up whatever you have to offer up.
Will will take it and then
I ain't gonna take it too.
So you know I I'm really really really.
My goal is to build out and
stabilize a national network of
reentry houses so I know if I need
it 'cause she's just getting started.
I won't turn it away, but what I want to say.
I know Eva Avon needs it 'cause
she's just getting started and I
know how rough that can be but yeah.
And then the other thing I want
to say to everyone.
We require our residents to pay
30% of their income for rent.
So we take them to sign up for
GR and they get $200.
So I think 6680 is 30% of
their $210 or something,
but we want people to be able to have.
Actually put in something.
And have a by hand.
I mean $60.00 ain't a lot to us but it.
I'd be a lot to them, so that's
their buying for the month.
In prison, you don't pay rent.
In the real world,
you pay rent and we want to create
real world responsibilities form.
If they can't get rent 'cause some
people can't get Giard then they
don't pay anything and that's OK.
**** it to speak briefly about
what Green River can offer in our
scenario South of us that I'd like
to replicate as a prison called Larch
and a Community College called Clark,
and they basically created a
scholarship for people at large
so that when they exit large,
they're coming to Clark with a
scholarship already in place.
Which would is phenomenal,
and something I'd like to sort of
see happening River eventually,
but we do have scholarships available
to students and financial aid and
financial aid does not mean money
that you pay back necessarily or not.
I'm not an expert,
so as an attorney's not being an
attorney or financial aid expert,
I won't speak to that.
But there are ways that students
can come to Green River and other
community colleges in the area and
find education without without having
to pay out of pocket necessarily.
There's a lot of sources of of
ways to fund your education.
Yeah, yeah, I mean,
there are so many things that
I could think about.
Green River College doing.
To enhance and to support both
coming in to get an education uh,
you know from you know book stipends too.
Maybe transportation support all of
these things and I think that you
know what I. What I saw is that.
Somehow, the more we get, the more we get.
You know,
the more Green River gives you know,
the more it will get to be able to give an.
I mean, it really feels good.
I mean, institutionally or personally,
when you know that.
You were doing something.
That is good, and that can change.
Change a life and change the world.
Yeah, and I think Green River
has the opportunity to do that.
I have nothing further.
I think there's somebody who
Michaela we're going to allow.
Cables might be upset.
She can ask answer ask question.
Hello.
Hi I just want to say I'm a
part of marks English 126 class
and so I decided to come in and
watch 'cause this is something
that is very important to me.
As far as I mean across the whole
board I have two nieces that are half
black themselves an I am a white young
woman an I see a lot of people of color,
friends, family that face a lot of
just just not justice.
Alot of just it's not right to me at all I'm.
I feel very strongly about this,
so I just had a question.
It's kind of a broad question,
but as a person in my position,
who is, uh, you know,
is of the white community?
What can I do on my end to kind
of push forward some of these,
you know,
like reforms are offering
women in prison of color.
You know what can I do for them to be like,
hey,
you know here is some you know,
like here is some resources to get you
some help or you know what can I do.
In my position? You know why I feel like?
In a sense I'm more Ferd,
which is so sad to say, but I think I'm
more heard because of my, you know, color.
What can I do to kind of help in that sense?
Yeah, so it since you have marked class, you
might could tap into helping to make this.
This this reentry program come alive.
You could be a student advocate for this
Richard Reentry program to come alive,
but the other things that
you could do sometimes.
I mean if it's safe for you to call out
when you see racism in place and play,
you know, just just just just name it,
name it in and and and.
Usually when you shine a light on it,
it kind of evaporates and goes away.
But you could become a client advocate.
I mean student advocate.
For this reentry program and be a part of
making it come alive and making a fair.
Perfect no. Yeah, I just I like I said I
have two nieces that are half black and I
see their dad face a lot of differences.
Hit him himself right now he is
serving a sentence and it's something
that should not be something that's
happening for him at something that
you know he's down a dark path.
Alot of things happen kind
of like and your sense.
He's a grieving man that just did
not get the help he deserved.
So you know I just want to be that
that voice in the sense of you know
from the white community because
it isn't fair and you know I think
after this last year a lot of the
pushes we've had in a lot of ways.
I just really want to.
You know, see what I can do to kind of be,
you know, an advocate for that.
So thank you so much.
I do so you won't get you in contact.
Mark and you won't be working with
him on on that reentry program.
I would love to do that.
Actually I would really love to do that,
great. Thank you so much.
All right, there was another
question and it says,
do you think all the prisons need to
be transformed into healing centers,
education and career training sites?
So, um. I don't think that the.
Healing centers uh?
Could be put into a prison.
So I had the opportunity to
travel with Frank Geary. On, um,
look at prisons and prison architecture.
Ah, and we went all over the world.
Um Ann, and looked at the way in
which prisons were constructed.
I went to studio an looked at architecture,
talk to other architectures.
There's a. A documentary that
we did called building justice.
And, um,
what I learned is that the way
in which prisons are instructed,
constructed the architect,
the architecture of prisons.
Are there made to punish people?
They are made in a way to harm and
close off an clothes off and not be
a place of motivation and healing.
They are created to harm you.
So you can't put anything to heal in
a place that was constructed to harm.
And that's really, really.
I was shocked.
I was shocked when I went when
I learned that,
and now when I walk in the
places I'm always looking at the
architecture of it to figure out
what is my body gonna fill in it.
But what's with the body feels
in those places is intentional.
And that's really sad.
Yeah.
By design, right? Like I think about
my brief experience teaching in
sidewalk inside now would feel the
weight of it as it's it's oppressive.
It's by design. I mean I'm looking
behind you an you have light coming in
from three sides and shining everywhere.
That was intentional.
The darkness and the coldness
inside of a prison is intentional.
And the walls there are as much to keep us.
Who are the free people out as it is
to keep the imprisoned people in?
Yeah yeah. And and the cement,
the steel that the texture is.
The lack of texture.
All of that is intentional.
No. In his last few minutes,
I'd encourage anybody who has a
question to either post it in the chat
or to ask to have your mic unmuted.
OK, so the question is.
Thank you, Miss Burton.
First, I want to thank you. Miss Burton.
Could you maybe talk more about the
role of mentoring positive influence
in people's lives and maybe share some
of your experience shared in your book
about the bondsman friend of yours,
that that as a mentor, positive
influence continued to show up for you?
I forget his name, but the story in your
book was something that spoke to me.
Thanks again, Spartan.
Yeah, that's George. Oh yeah, he.
Yeah he just um he just. Start over.
Kovit and so he got infected with
covid trying to help his brother,
who had called it in the brother died.
George was someone who always.
Would tell me how smart I was,
how my memory captured everything,
and how I remember numbers,
and he encouraged me to go go to school.
I could.
See it, I was just too rattled to go,
but he was someone who I met when I was very,
very young. And he always, um.
He always encouraged me.
He always saw the good in me.
Oh, and um.
It's great, we're still friends,
so we've been friends for over 50 years now.
Someone employed by the by the
DLC is asked how they can be be.
Connected to the work and how they can help.
How you speak to a DLC employee?
Yeah, so I guess a DLC employee
you see so much that happened then.
I mean you have the ability to make
sure that the classes going forward.
Make sure people have access
to come in and be with to come
in and do their their work.
You can push the administration to do.
More classes, more more.
Recovery or what have you.
And then you can always
just be nice to people.
I'm not saying cross boundaries.
Because we don't ever
want to cross boundaries.
But you can always just be nice to people.
I mean sometimes even when it's
hard to be nice to people,
you still be nice to people.
Sometimes it's hard for
me to be nice to people,
but I still just know that the best
route is for me to take the High Road.
And I want to thank them for that question.
Yeah. There's another question, um,
and this is coming from a person,
Jesses mom, wife and recovering
addict and student and is blessed with
accepting the dream of becoming a nurse.
After 40 Machine wants to go further
trying to find purpose in life and to
keep going with being a nurse or NP and
offering my care to newly released women.
Be something that would help heal people.
I've been a caretaker for my grandmother and
my husband was in tragic tragic accident.
And now my father may need help.
How do I integrate my work so that I can
help more people with medical direction?
So, um, Avon is probably gonna
run into this because?
Um people coming out of incarceration
needs different type of medical services,
so you might want to volunteer
some services to help people learn
to navigate the health system.
It's it's.
It's hard for us to
navigate the health system,
but when people need to be enrolled
in the medical benefits when people
need to understand what type of a.
Of a specialty services they might need
and how to get to the certain part of a
clinic within a hospital and what have you.
I'm sure that your expertise
would come in really,
really handy.
I mean, we have one person that all she does
is help people with medical appointments.
I help people understand.
And translate with the doctors and
what the clinics are telling them.
So I think that would be a great
of great help.
Yeah.
OK, cool in this is the last question I see
in their Q&A from your point point of view,
what is the biggest problem nowadays?
Oh, actually, just another
question that just came up.
What is your biggest problem
nowadays in society?
So I think that the culture of punishment.
And the culture of retribution.
In our society is very, very uh.
Very, you know, um,
drives a lot of what's happening.
Drives the racism that drives
depression that drives the.
The class is on the.
On agreed and everything.
So I think that that's
kind of the much of the.
The death in the heart of of what?
What happens here in our country
and in our communities is then.
The need for retribution and punishment and.
Yeah.
Thanks Miss Burton.
We have one more question.
Are there any mentoring or communities
I could join here in Washington
to support or help this community
as a black woman I submerge
myself in advocacy and activism.
I have come to a dead end when it comes
to helping those who are incarcerated
and those reentering society.
So I can maybe have even maybe
even can speak to that also, but.
And then and then and then the
program you're starting at
Green Green River College too.
There could be some support and
advocacy and help with that.
And the work she wanted us.
Yeah yeah, yeah.
'cause we out here connection.
Yeah I would say my first connection
was I reached out to University
beyond bars and said I'd like to
volunteer and there are people who
go inside and instead and at study
Hall and help people with their
homework that's available through
University on bars or freedom
Education project Puget Sound,
which is at the women's prison.
Those are opportunities to be in direct.
Connection with people who are incarcerated,
but there's lots of ways to
reach people on the outside also.
Absolutely, there's.
I think someone is wonderful. I think.
I think I was also for us helping.
That that we can't get discouraged.
Um, as we as we begin the role of
helping and supporting and mentoring.
We can't just be discouraged when something
doesn't actually turn out exactly the
way we think it should turn out better.
That exactly the way it should turn out.
We just have to keep going
and keep going to the next.
And that's what I've done and what I found
is my successes out way outweigh my.
The failures are the disappointment.
I think one of the things that happens
is sometimes we just look at the.
The disappointment comes bigger in
the success and enjoy the success
in which others.
So I just, you know,
look at all of it and and and and don't
mean into when I think somebody should've
went right and they wouldn't laugh.
It's OK,
they'll come back around,
and then they'll go right then.
And I'll be waiting on him so.
I think Sarah wants to ask a question.
I didn't want to ask a question,
I just wanted to say thank you so much and
you're amazing and we're so blessed to have
you and I just wanted to recognize KK.
Also, he touches my heart every time I
think of you and when I read your book
or when I listen to one of your stories,
he's right here and I just wanted to
thank you so much. Yeah, you're welcome.
And then I have a daughter.
Tony and Tony was 10. When, um.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry Tony was 15, he was.
She was ten when he was born in 15
when he died an an and you know Tony
not only lost a brother that day.
She lost her mom that day.
Yeah, but you know,
we've we've come back around full
circle and we're really doing, you know.
Well and we had a lot of healing
and mending to do also.
Yeah, it's a lot of healing.
Bless her too. Thank you.
You're welcome, Sir.
Thank you.
I think there was some problem.
Turn it over to Jody.
Yeah, I think that was the
end of our questions for now,
or at least ones people are asking.
Just thank you so very much for
presenting to our community today.
Really honored to have you.
And you give us a lot to think about always.
It was great to be here in a.
You know I wanna thank you Ann.
I wanna date Alex.
Or starting this often.
You for bringing it and how you had me choked
up with the introduction in the beginning.
Thank you so much, Joey Mark, thank you.
I really, you know, enjoy our conversations.
An shahand Hydra. So how do I?
How do you say a job to Towanda, Towanda?
Messed up.
Thank you too and media services of course,
but thank you so much Jody.
It's been such a.
A pleasure working with you.
I miss.
I think you're real quiet storm.
Jelly.
Yeah, but I've loved it.
I'm loving it. Thank you for wonderful.
Alright thank you all so much for one fine.
I have one final question for you.
Miss Miss Burn because I am
so in all of you in the work.
Like I said in the representation
that you bring to the community.
How do I get so?
I also work in other spaces where your voice
in your presence would be great to hear.
So I'ma alumni of Evergreen State College
recently graduated with my BA there.
A man I would like to connect
you there and so you can be.
You can be heard and I know that would be
great to hear and receive you at Evergreen.
So so my email is Susan at a new way of life,
but you can get it from Jody,
Jody and pass it.
Yeah, yeah, Susan,
at new way of life is is my email
OK or you can just always go to
the new wave like website and
then there's a there's a.
A questionnaire around around
speaking and what have you and
you can go on there and use it
to OK OK, I appreciate you.
Thank you so very much and thank
you all for attending alright?