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How I’m Helping Thousands Rebuild Their Lives After Prison | Susan Burton | TED
How I’m Helping Thousands Rebuild Their Lives After Prison | Susan Burton | TED
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자막 (182)
0:04
On October 4, 1997,
0:08
I walked into a room unlike any room I'd ever entered before.
0:14
People were standing up, sharing their stories.
0:20
A wave of relief washed over me.
0:26
I got a cup of coffee
0:29
and just took everything in.
0:33
At that point,
0:35
I was at the lowest point in my life.
0:39
I was out of ideas,
0:42
and I didn't know how I was going to make it out of the condition I was in.
0:48
Before that date, my life had not been easy.
0:52
When I was 25 years old, I gave birth to a son.
0:57
We called him K.K.
1:02
The next thing that happened changed my life forever.
1:06
He was struck by a car.
1:09
That is the day I lost him.
1:12
At only five years old,
1:15
he was gone.
1:19
His laughter, his love, his energy
1:24
were all taken from me.
1:31
My life became a downward spiral.
1:37
I began to drink.
1:39
Drinking led to substance use.
1:43
For the substance use, I was imprisoned.
1:50
Every time I left prison,
1:52
I swore I wouldn't go back.
1:55
But I did. Over and over and over again.
2:02
I remember one day, standing in front of a judge
2:05
and asking that judge, "Is there any help for me?"
2:11
And the judge sentenced me to prison one more time.
2:18
No one cared.
2:20
No one was listening.
2:23
But when I walked into that room in 1997,
2:28
I was ready to be heard.
2:30
In the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous,
2:34
they listened.
2:38
I took a deep breath and stood up,
2:42
and said, "Look what drugs and alcohol have done to me."
2:48
The immediate compassion,
2:51
empathy and love
2:53
that rolled off these complete strangers
2:57
was enough to put a sizable dent
3:00
in my pain, my shame,
3:04
my guilt and all that sorrow.
3:09
I kept talking,
3:12
and they kept listening.
3:15
I shared all the thoughts
3:18
I had spent decades trying to silence.
3:23
As they listened, I began to heal.
3:27
Listening saved my life, and it opened a door.
3:33
I got sober in Santa Monica,
3:36
an affluent part of Los Angeles.
3:40
And I noticed something there.
3:43
People in Santa Monica
3:46
weren’t going to prison for substance use,
3:50
for alcoholism.
3:53
And I thought,
3:56
why didn't that judge give me a paper and say,
3:59
"Miss Burton,
4:02
go to AA.”
4:06
Was I not worth a piece of paper?
4:09
Was I not worth direction toward a solution?
4:15
So as I got stronger in my recovery,
4:18
I thought about women just like me,
4:22
cycling in and out of prison,
4:26
looking for safety and not finding it.
4:30
So I got a job.
4:33
A minimum wage job.
4:37
And I saved $13,000.
4:41
And I took $3,000 of it and put down on a house.
4:47
And I bought some furniture.
4:50
Every morning I’d wake up,
4:51
and I'd go down to the Greyhound bus station
4:54
where women leaving prison were dropped off.
4:57
And I knew that station well
5:00
because I had been dropped off there so many times myself.
5:05
And as they got off the bus carrying a trash bag of belongings
5:09
and hope in their hearts,
5:12
I would walk up to them and I'd say, "Girl, I have a house.
5:17
And if you want to come live there,
5:20
it's a safe place to be.
5:22
You can come live there."
5:25
And before long there were 11 of us living in that house.
5:30
We cooked together.
5:32
We went to meetings together.
5:35
We shared resources.
5:38
We laughed together.
5:40
We cried together.
5:42
But most of all, we healed together.
5:47
Before long, people saw what I was doing, and they joined me.
5:52
And we created a team.
5:55
Today, there [are] 12 houses across Los Angeles.
6:00
(Applause)
6:03
Thank you.
6:07
What we built was a house of women helping women.
6:13
Each house is staffed to support its residents
6:19
who pay rent,
6:21
do chores,
6:23
buy groceries
6:25
and learn to be accountable, responsible members of the community.
6:31
We help them find jobs,
6:34
learn financial literacy
6:37
and help them with any legal issues.
6:41
As a result, thousands of women have come back to the community
6:46
and hundreds of mothers have been reunited with their children.
6:53
In 2017, I published my memoir,
6:57
"Becoming Ms. Burton:
6:59
From Prison to Recovery
7:01
to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women."
7:05
In order to tell my story, I held book talks all over the nation,
7:11
behind prison walls.
7:14
There I would listen to women.
7:18
They were pleading for a place to go after they were released.
7:23
They were sitting with tears streaming down their faces,
7:27
wanting to rebuild their lives,
7:30
be reunited with their children,
7:33
find a job in their community [and]
7:37
break free from the criminal justice system.
7:41
Every year in this country,
7:45
around two million women are released from prisons and jails.
7:50
They walk out with a trash bag of belongings,
7:54
hoping someone will listen.
7:56
Hoping someone will help.
8:00
When there's no help,
8:02
when there's no safe place to land,
8:05
too many of them will go back.
8:08
I knew I could not provide resources of a new way of life
8:15
to all those women.
8:18
So I created SAFE,
8:21
Sisterhood Alliance for Freedom and Equality,
8:26
to replicate my model.
8:28
Our first training was with 13 women.
8:34
To date, we've trained over 700.
8:36
(Applause)
8:43
To listen.
8:45
To create support.
8:47
To give hope.
8:50
When women like me have safe housing,
8:55
families reunify,
8:58
recidivism drops
9:00
and communities stabilize.
9:04
I started with one house of women helping women.
9:09
Today, there is an entire network of women helping women
9:14
in 20 US states and also in Uganda,
9:18
Kenya and Nigeria.
9:21
(Applause)
9:28
We have replication down to a science.
9:33
The leadership is there, the demand is there,
9:36
and the goal is clear.
9:40
More houses in more cities.
9:44
More mothers reunited with their children.
9:48
More women breaking a cycle
9:52
that has lasted generations.
9:56
I believe we all share a responsibility
10:03
to heal the harms caused by the criminal justice system.
10:09
This is public safety.
10:12
This is family preservation.
10:15
This is community repair.
10:19
When someone listened to me
10:22
with compassion rather than judgment,
10:26
it changed my life.
10:29
My story since that day in 1997,
10:35
shows what is possible
10:38
when people have support,
10:42
hope
10:44
and determination.
10:48
I cannot bring my son back.
10:53
But I know every time a woman walks through the doors and finds safety,
11:00
every time a child is reunited with his mother,
11:05
every time a woman breaks free
11:08
from a cycle that once held me,
11:11
his legacy goes way beyond his years.
11:17
I believe he's smiling down on my efforts,
11:21
and I hope he's proud of his mother.
11:24
I am so grateful
11:30
to be on the TED dot.
11:32
(Laughter and Cheers)
11:34
(Applause)
12:04
And this happened because someone listened
12:09
with compassion rather than judgment.
12:13
Thank you so much.
12:15
(Applause)
