Becoming Ms. Burton

Susan Burton and Cari Lynn’s social justice memoir, Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women (2017), follows Burton’s journey from a prison inmate to a leading campaigner for justice system reform. Winner of the NAACP Image Award for Biography/Autobiography in 2018, the book is widely praised by critics. Burton served many years in prison and struggled to get back on track after her release. She dedicates her life to helping women in similar situations and campaigning for the dignified treatment of female inmates. Becoming Ms. Burton is her first book.

Becoming Ms. Burton opens with the problems affecting women in the US prison system. Burton explains that most women in US prisons are victims before they’re perpetrators. Most of these women suffer sexual and/or physical abuse, and many of them are black or from other marginalized groups. After spending more than fifteen years in and out of US prisons, Burton understands these statistics better than most, and she has dedicated her life to addressing them.

Burton explores the rehabilitation and support services available to incarcerated women, concluding that they are unfit for purpose. She notes that many women find themselves released from prison without so much as a house key or identification; it is incredibly difficult for these women to reintegrate into society. Vulnerable to predators, many of these women return to the brutal lives they left because they have nowhere else to go.



The lack of support begins many years before someone enters the prison system, Burton asserts. She uses her own childhood as an example. She remembers living in a crumbling house, infested with rats, and having no food on the table. When the police came to visit, it was always to interrogate her father about some alleged crime or another. The police and the social services ignored the poverty and child neglect unfolding all around them.

Burton felt like she had no value and wasn’t worth any better treatment. She also learned to distrust police officers and undermine authority figures, because they didn’t uphold justice. She was also angry with her mother, whom she felt was too proud to ask for help when her father left. With no support and no options, Burton fell into drugs, alcohol abuse, and prostitution.

As a teenager, there was only one officer of the law Burton could trust— George, a bail bondsman. Burton recalls how he was the only man who showed faith in her, and who believed she could be anyone she wanted to be. When someone knocked down and killed Burton’s small son, leaving her feeling hopeless, George was the person who convinced her that life is worth fighting for. Later, incarcerated for crimes, including drugs and forgery, George’s words stick with her.



After focusing on her early life, Burton considers what happened when she tried to rebuild her life after incarceration. She was eventually admitted into a private drug treatment facility and found a stable job. Knowing how lucky she was to have these opportunities, she wants to ensure that more women have the same chances when they leave prison.

Now, Burton opens and manages safe homes and safe spaces for incarcerated women. Her program, A New Way of Life, helps women overcome the typical obstacles they face when they walk out of prison. These obstacles include drug habits, lack of employment opportunities, homelessness, and weak support family support systems. Significantly, Burton notes that her program costs the justice system far less than women repeatedly moving in and out of prison.

Although the program currently operates only in Los Angeles, Burton hopes to expand her service offerings across the U.S. She liaises with other re-entry programs across the U.S. and together they deliver as many vital services as they can. Thanks to these programs, many women are finding new lives after prison, and they are reinventing themselves.



Becoming Ms. Burton emphasizes the impact a criminal record on an individual, and how the consequences follow her forever. Ex-cons can’t access many job or educational opportunities. They struggle with poverty, anxiety, and depression; life after prison feels overwhelming. Families, Burton says, are needlessly torn apart by America’s broken judicial system.

Burton strongly advocates for better education and increased opportunities for these women. She believes that educating and rehabilitating offenders is more effective and cost-efficient than sending them to jail. Additionally, tackling the roots of the problems affecting local communities—such as drugs, poverty, and neglect—will reduce the number of offenders at the outset.

Crucially, Burton wants women to understand that they are not defined by their incarceration. It is possible to build a new life—everyone deserves that. Incarceration is nothing to be ashamed of; it doesn’t make someone a “bad” person. Becoming Ms. Burton will appeal to both casual readers looking for more information on the topic and the incarcerated.