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Susan Burton Quotes

Powerful Susan Burton for Daily Growth

About Susan Burton

Susan Burton, an American memoirist and social activist, was born on July 17, 1956, in Los Angeles, California. Raised primarily by her grandmother after her mother was institutionalized, Burton experienced a turbulent childhood marked by abuse and neglect. This tumultuous upbringing led her to experiment with drugs at an early age, spiraling into a cycle of addiction and incarceration that would consume much of her adult life. Burton's experiences with the criminal justice system were a significant influence on her work. Over the course of 30 years, she was incarcerated in 14 different institutions across California. During this time, she witnessed firsthand the challenges faced by women returning to society after serving their sentences, many of whom struggled with addiction and mental health issues. In 1998, Burton founded A New Way of Life Reentry Project, a non-profit organization aimed at providing housing, employment services, case management, and support systems for formerly incarcerated women. This was her pivotal moment of transformation, turning her personal struggles into a force for change. Burton's memoir, "Becoming Ms. Burton," published in 2017, chronicles her journey from drug-addicted criminal to social activist and founder of A New Way of Life. The book offers a powerful account of survival, resilience, and the transformative power of second chances. Burton's story serves as an inspiration for those who have faced adversity and provides insight into the complexities of America's prison system and the challenges faced by returning citizens. Her work continues to impact policy reform, advocacy, and social change.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it."

This quote by Susan Burton suggests that adversity, represented as "the dark," does not annihilate or diminish inherent goodness, resilience, or potential within an individual, instead, it clarifies, refines, or highlights those qualities, making them more apparent. It implies that hardships and struggles serve to illuminate the strength, determination, and light in people, rather than eliminating it altogether.

"Healing is not about finding a way out, but finding a way through."

This quote by Susan Burton suggests that healing isn't about fleeing from our pain or difficulties, but rather learning to navigate them effectively. It encourages the idea that growth, recovery, and transformation occur not in avoidance of hardships, but in facing them head-on and developing coping mechanisms to deal with them constructively. It's a call to embrace life's challenges as opportunities for personal development and self-discovery.

"The key to transformation lies in resilience and the strength to hold on one more day."

This quote highlights the importance of resilience and perseverance during difficult times, emphasizing that the power to endure one more day can be a significant catalyst for personal transformation. It suggests that even in challenging circumstances, maintaining hope and fortitude can lead to growth and change, implying that every moment is an opportunity for positive progress.

"I am a testament to what is possible when a broken person refuses to be defeated."

This quote by Susan Burton highlights resilience, strength, and hope in the face of adversity. It suggests that despite personal hardships or breaking points, one can rise above them and prove their potential for success. The quote encourages everyone to never give up on themselves, even when faced with challenges that threaten to define them as defeated. Instead, these situations provide an opportunity to demonstrate unyielding spirit and the capacity to overcome.

"We are all strong enough to heal, but we must first believe it's possible."

This quote by Susan Burton highlights the inherent resilience within each individual. It suggests that despite life's hardships, every person has the capacity to heal. However, healing can only occur when one embraces the belief that such a transformation is feasible. In essence, it underscores the power of mindset in personal growth and recovery.

It would have been great if there were a trauma center located in our community, where you could access grief counseling and be able to address it in a healthy manner.

- Susan Burton

Trauma, Access, Been, Counseling

Life has took me on a journey, and through much of that journey, I didn't feel whole, connected, and grounded. So as a kid, everyone called me Sue. My daddy called me Susie Q. But through this journey, I've sort of risen to a place that I get this level of respect of Ms. Burton.

- Susan Burton

Kid, Through, Sue, Ms

Our ancestors went through so much in a fight for us to vote. So I believe that we should engage in all civic participation. It's healthy engagement.

- Susan Burton

Through, Participation, Civic

It's important the sheriff and the D.A. work with the community to realize real-world solutions. If they make decisions in silos, it will fall short.

- Susan Burton

Work, Solutions, Will, Real-World

When you get locked up, you get locked out.

- Susan Burton

You, Get, Up, Locked

In prison, you're issued a number of sanitary pads per month. And many times, even when you're issued a number of sanitary pads, the guards will just come in and rip your room apart, rip your locker apart and take them.

- Susan Burton

Will, Come, Them, Guards

I knew hundreds and hundreds of women like me, who had traveled in and out of prison in a revolving door. They needed support and help just like I had received. And it could make a difference, just like it had made a difference in my life. I wanted to see them come back to the community and have a chance at a different life, too.

- Susan Burton

Door, My Life, Needed, Traveled

A New Way of Life is a safe house that women can come to after they're released from prison in South Los Angeles. It's a place for women to detox the trauma, the torture of incarceration, be welcomed and embraced and live and begin their new path to - if it's recovery or receiving mental health services, go back to school, get their children back.

- Susan Burton

Mental, Back, South, Detox

Insulin is a crisis medication.

- Susan Burton

Crisis, Insulin, Medication

The person who has been convicted has served their time. Why would we continue to punish and exclude them from housing and jobs? Those are the primary areas that allow people to get their lives back on track.

- Susan Burton

Housing, Been, Allow, Primary

People are released from prison so unprepared. They give you $200. We call it gate money. And you have to pay for a bus ticket back to L.A. You get off the Greyhound bus, downtown Skid Row, and you're supposed to make a life from that.

- Susan Burton

Life, Bus, Back, Gate

Each time I left prison, I left with the resolve to get my life together, to get a job, to get back on track. And each time, the task became more and more and more daunting.

- Susan Burton

My Life, Resolve, Became, Daunting

I can remember, as a child, the happy days of us all piling into the car and going to the drive-in. And that was a weekly routine for my father. He was a proud black man, and that all sort of vanished as America began to export jobs.

- Susan Burton

Father, Happy, Weekly, Export

It has to be about more than punishment. We need to rehabilitate people. We lock up far too many people in America today. We lock them up as if locking them up is gonna solve the problem. And locking them up does not solve the problem. Did locking me up make me better? No, it did not. It made my struggle harder.

- Susan Burton

Problem, America, About, Too Many People

Nothing good could ever have come of my life if I hadn't been able to get therapy and overcome my addictions.

- Susan Burton

My Life, Been, Could, Addictions

Unless we address those that are leaving prisons, we can't begin to repair the damage of mass incarceration and make our communities whole and healthy once again.

- Susan Burton

Repair, Address, Damage, Prisons

The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery other than in prisons - but it was a lie that you regained your freedom once you left the prison gates.

- Susan Burton

Lie, Other, Amendment, Prisons

I went to pick my son up from school and walked him back and was in the house preparing dinner, and he came in the house and gave me this flower of chrysanthemum that was full of ants. And he went back out to play and ran out into the street and got hit by a car. The car happened to be driven by a LAPD detective.

- Susan Burton

Play, Back, Ants, Ran

One of the things about incarceration is that you're deprived. You lose all of your identity, and then its given back one day, and you're ill-equipped to actually embrace it and work it.

- Susan Burton

Given, One Of The Things, Deprived

We continue to work on policy to end discrimination against people with criminal records.

- Susan Burton

Work, Continue, Records, Criminal

I got caught back up in the underworld because the upperworld really doesn't have a place for people with criminal histories.

- Susan Burton

Back, Caught, Histories, Criminal

There are so many bright people who just need an opportunity to help others and pay it forward.

- Susan Burton

Forward, Bright, Need, Help Others

Many times, I left the prison thinking, 'I'm smart. I can make it. I won't get caught up again.' But you get off downtown Skid Row, and you're a target for all of the environmental harms in that area. The pain and trauma in that area is so thick, you can almost reach your hand out and touch it.

- Susan Burton

Reach, Caught, Almost, Row

Everyone needs a place to live. Everyone needs a place to come home to every night. I don't understand why our society, our government, can think that you can lock a person away for months or years... and then release them back after they pay their debt without any support and expect it to be okay.

- Susan Burton

Why, Release, Away, Every Night

Telling your story is transformative. For both the storyteller and their audience, a new bridge to understanding is created.

- Susan Burton

New, Audience, Telling, Bridge

Long before I ever got incarcerated, I should've been able to access services that help me deal with the grief and the loss of my son, that help me deal with the trauma, the abuse that I experienced as a child.

- Susan Burton

Trauma, Deal, Been, Grief

At the age of 46, in my sixth prison term, it was the second prison I was in - California Rehabilitation Center. The California Civil Education program kind of opened up all of the experiences that that I had dealt with in my life, that I had experienced.

- Susan Burton

Education, My Life, Kind, Experienced

We're willing to spend countless dollars putting people who need help in cages, and then when they get out we say you can't have a job, and you can't have housing, and because you don't have either, we're going to take your kids, too.

- Susan Burton

Housing, Willing, Putting, Countless

We all make mistakes. Sometimes people slip, but that doesn't mean they're not worthy of the support.

- Susan Burton

Mistakes, Mean, Sometimes, Slip

We know that the environment and political information is important, and we expose and teach the women about some of the environmental factors that lead to their incarceration.

- Susan Burton

Environmental, Teach, Some, Incarceration

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