Susan Burton, founder of A New Way of Life in Los Angeles, is working to restore voting rights to formerly incarcerated individuals. Through one-on-one advising and voter registration assistance, Burton helps ensure that former prisoners are aware they can vote once off parole. She also offers an educational program on disenfranchisement issues. Burton advocates for the Democracy Restoration Act to restore voting rights to over 4 million Americans. Her organization provides housing, counseling, employment assistance and legal services to help women rebuild their lives after prison.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 28, 2010
Susan Burton Restores Political Voice to LA Former Prisoners
through ‘A New Way of Life’ Reentry Project
Burton’s Effective One-to-One Campaign Helps Build Support for
Democracy Restoration Act
As Election Day approaches, the disenfranchisement of more than 4 million citizens is
thrown into sharp relief. The denial of voting rights to formerly incarcerated women and
men takes a tremendous toll on the individuals, their communities and our democracy.
In Los Angeles, home of the highest reentry population in the country, Susan Burton,
founder of a New Way of Life, is patiently advising former prisoners that they have the
right to vote once they are off parole.
On a national level, the Washington, D.C.-based, The Sentencing Project, is organizing
people across the country to call Congress on November 1, urging their representatives
to support the Democracy Restoration Act, which will restore more than 4 million
Americans’ right to vote, “the most basic act of citizenship.”
Susan Burton, a former prisoner herself, remembers being shocked when she heard a
Los Angeles county registrar misinform a roomful of former prisoners that they were not
eligible to vote.
“I was so disheartened that officials in the criminal justice and electoral systems, who
hold such an important part of other people’s lives in their hands, didn’t know the law--
and their ignorance means many people who have the right to vote think that they don’t.
I’ve spoken to people who have been out of prison for 10 years and still think their
voting rights have been permanently revoked.”
Burton decided to do something about it.
Burton partnered with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project to inform California’s formerly
incarcerated population and those in county jails of their voting rights. Through A New
Way of Life, a safe haven based in Los Angeles where formerly incarcerated women
rebuild their lives after prison, she helps residents register to vote. Burton also offers
women a six-month training course on disenfranchisement, rates of incarceration and
the political impact on the community. Several residents who have completed the
program have established local chapters of All of Us or None, a national organizing
initiative of former prisoners who combat discrimination based on criminal history.

2. California is the home of the nation’s highest prisoner reentry population, with a
disproportionate number of African Americans. “When people are denied their voting
rights, or are misinformed, it weakens the political voice of our community,” Burton
explains.
The Democracy Restoration Act is necessary, she explains, because many states deny
former prisoners the right to vote. According to a recent editorial in the New York
Times, millions of Americans could be denied their right to vote in this year’s November
midterm election because of disenfranchisement of formerly incarcerated individuals.
More than three million may never regain their full rights as American citizens.
In the book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,
author Michelle Alexander writes “voting is one of the most precious rights in our
democracy, yet the United States remains the only democratic nation in the world that
bans non-incarcerated individuals from voting.”
Burton, who was incarcerated six times after an early life of abuse and drug addiction,
has, with meager resources and little recognition, helped “build bridges” for formerly
incarcerated women and is now drawing national attention. This month she was
honored by the NAACP and Harvard University for empowering formerly incarcerated
women to restore their lives by providing them with housing, counseling, employment
and legal services. She was recently selected from 10,000 nominees as one of CNN’s
Top Ten Heroes. The cable news network will announce its “Top Hero” during its
Thanksgiving evening broadcast. Votes for Susan Burton will be accepted until
November 18, 2010.
“When I was in [jail] I didn’t think I would ever be able to enjoy the rights I had before I
was incarcerated,” recalls Shakia Parsons, a former resident at A New Way of Life who
currently maintains a 3.7 GPA in college where she studies psychology. “Susan and
her staff showed me that my past mistakes do not have to define my future and that I
could still make a difference. A New Way of Life has given me back my voice.”
Susan has established five homes and helped more than 500 women since 1998. Over
the past 30 years, the female prison population in the United States has grown by 832
percent, making her work increasingly important.
“A New Way is a bridge that taps into human potential instead of confinement and limits;
extends treatment instead of punishment, economic opportunities instead of denial;
political participation instead of disenfranchisement,” Susan adds.
For more information or to arrange an interview with Susan Burton, contact Nicole
Hayes at 202-833-9771 office or 202-527-4106 cell.
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