The lived experience of incarceration is difficult, but a woman's experience is markedly different from that of a man.

Their time in jail is almost universally abusive, humiliating, and cruel.

When their prison terms come to an end, what women need most is a helping hand, a launching pad to a new life, a safe haven that brings us to the door of Ardella's House in Philadelphia.

[music] Returning Citizens is made possible by [music] [music] The United Way, fostering the success of those who as they return to our neighborhoods remain a largely untapped resource.

The formerly incarcerated Waterman Two Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation at the recommendation of David Haas.

The Independence Foundation.

I almost thinks she used to rehab ... Hi.

Hi Tonie.

Welcome, welcome.

Welcome to Ardella's House.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Look at this, it's gorgeous.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Ms. Tonie, how did you get the resources to make this beautiful space?

Ms. Burton, Safe Housing Network, it was like a dream.

I was praying a lot because I knew how I wanted this house to look and I knew that I needed funding.

I couldn't do it, I got tired of begging people because people didn't understand cause they had never been incarcerated, so they didn't understand my pain and what I needed for the women.

No one understood but Ms. Burton.

I'm putting everything I can into changing the game.

Susan Burton has been called a modern-day Harriet Tubman for her powerful leadership of formerly incarcerated women.

Susan came up the hard way, but she says mistakes belong to the past and she belongs to the future.

She has built a worldwide network of safe houses that offer returning citizens a room of their own and a sisterhood of healing and support.

Susan, you had a rough growing up.

Yes.

What was that like?

Instead of dressing my dolls up, I was trying to figure out how to keep my dress on because people were harming me.

What, what, what's some of the trauma?

I know this is tough to ... Yeah yeah.

Talk about what about in your ...

I mean, I mean sexual ways, ways where there would be physical harm, there were beatings, there was, you know, just so much.

And how did you cope?

You know, I learned to survive.

I learned to mitigate the harms that were happening, I learned to dodge this one for that one.

And, you know, I just learned to survive.

And did some of that survival include stuff that will be considered criminal breaking the law?

When the day my son was killed, the day he died, I just could not hold any more harm.

The grief was unbearable and I began to drink.

I'm so sorry about your your son.

Yeah.

It's such a tragic story.

Yeah, yeah.

What, what happened to him?

So I picked my son up from school and I was in the kitchen cooking and he was out playing and a LAPD detective ran him over.

The, the death was accidental but it didn't feel accidental when someone runs, your son runs your child over and never gets out the car.

How old was he?

Five.

Five.

He was five.

He brought you a flower.

He had brought me in a flower a chrysanthemum and it was full of ants and he said here mommy, this is for you and, and then he was gone.

I could no longer stand and bear all of the harm I had to be an experiencing through life so I began to drink.

The war on drugs was in full flight in my community.

I began to, it escalated the drinking escalated to substance use, and for the substance use I was incarcerated.

And what was the experience of being incarcerated like for you?

I felt like what I believe my ancestors experienced in slavery.

I was stripped and robbed of my community and my identity and my individuality.

I was stripped out of my clothes and sprayed like an animal and put in garments that were prison garments.

I was shuffled to meals and fed food that sometimes was unrecognizable.

So you didn't feel like you were getting any kind of rehabilitation?

You have to understand that I was in a revolving door of incarceration.

How many times were you?

Six times I went in and out of prison.

And I want to hear more about how you went from that very broken woman to Ms. Burton.

Yeah.

This extremely successful social justice entrepreneur, CNN Award winner, and double ACP Image Award winner.

I made my way to a treatment facility in Santa Monica, a wealthy area of Los Angeles County about five miles down the highway from South LA.

But a world of difference?

A world of difference, it was like two completely different worlds, Santa Monica's was resourced.

For the first time in my life, I felt safe.

I went into that treatment facility, they fed me, they clothed me, they treated me with dignity.

And then I began to think, if I could build something like this, if I could create something like this in South LA that they had in Santa Monica, then perhaps I can help my community.

And the other thing is that I couldn't take back the years of pain and suffering that I had endured going in and out of prison but I could help another woman not endure the cycle of incarceration and break the recidivism for her if there was a place to go.

So people have this idea when you come home that everybody's got a home to go to family, friends who were waiting with open arms.

You know, I've heard people tell me, why don't you just pull yourself up by your bootstraps?

And what I have to say, say to them is I'm barefoot, I have no boots.

And all these women across the nation, they're leaving prisons and jails without boots too.

Because women have different challenges coming home than men do.

It's not easy for men.

Yeah.

Even harder for women.

Usually there is a woman that's, that's waiting to, to, to be with them when they come home but when we incarcerated the, the husband or the man goes on and finds another woman and leaves us and it's, it's you, you can tell by the visiting room, men's visiting rooms are full.

Women's visiting rooms are pretty, pretty, you know, scarce with visitors.

So you wanted to reach out to women specifically?

I wanted to give what had been given to me to other women because it was so helpful.

You started just by picking up women who were coming home.

I got a little house and I called it A New Way Of Life because that's what I'd found.

I had found a new way of life and I wanted to offer it to other women.

And you picked them up at the bus and then what?

I'd bring him on home.

I'd say, girl, I have a place to go and if you want to come there, it's drug and alcohol free and it's safe and it's clean and there's a bed there for you if you want to come live there.

But at first, this was your house.

This was my house and we live there together, and it was the most beautiful community I have ever been in.

It was a community of women helping women.

We cooked together, we shared resources, we laughed together, we cried together, we went to meetings together.

We, you know, slept under the same roof, waked in the morning, we healed together.

Tonie Willis didn't want to create just a shelter for formerly incarcerated women.

She understood that a gorgeous place they could call home would help them thrive and rise up.

Everything had to be perfect, because Tonie named Ardella's house after the most inspiring person she knew, her mom.

What was your mom like?

Loving, there was no one more loving than my mother.

When I started Ardella's house, I wanted like a therapeutic name for Ardella's house and I was coming up with these different names.

And a friend of mine, he was looking at me like I was crazy and I said what's wrong?

I said you don't like these names I'm coming up with.

He said you want to name your program after your mother because there was nobody more loving and caring than your mother.

My mother didn't believe in throwing people away, she saw good and everybody.

And what does it mean that this is Ardella's house?

My mother loved all of us unconditionally, and like I said, she's all good in everybody, so I just hope that I'm making her proud by naming this program after her.

So your mom inspired you to pay it forward, but why this particular house with this service?

A man can come home today, tomorrow, and might look up Sharon, who he was running with before his incarceration, and say, hey, can I move in or whatever?

Women, a high percentage of women are mothers and they can't just come home and grab their kids and move in with somebody.

So I decided to do work around women that were coming home and make sure that they have all the things they need to succeed once they're home.

And you have personal experience with incarceration?

Yes, sometimes I forget that I was formerly incarcerated because it was in my early 20s and I'm a woman of a certain age now, we won't say, but sometimes I forget about it.

But I didn't have some of the stories that I hear from the other women.

I was blessed to have had a house when I went in and I still had a house when I came home.

I didn't have any of the challenges that a lot of these women have that we work with.

So it was important for me to help them to find housing and to give them a place to come to.

You know a lot of women that are incarcerated have very low self-esteem and sometimes their incarceration is because I call them crimes of passion.

Because of them having low self-esteem, they choose the wrong person to love, the wrong person to bring into their lives.

So it was important for me to help boost their self-esteem, to teach them and let them know their self-worth.

So there are a lot of women who come home who I'm sure would love to be in this space.

How do you decide who gets to live here?

Well, we work very close with parole and the counselors inside of the prison to make sure it's a good fit.

We don't take women with mental illness.

When we started, we used to say that we wouldn't take violent offenders, but we had to change it because so many women are incarcerated and never shown any signs of being violent before until they couldn't stand being in an abusive relationship anymore and striked out at their love or whether they killed them or just physically hurt them some type of way.

So we had to change that and so we take some violent offenders now.

And what kind of services do they receive when they're here?

We have full wrap around service.

We have mentoring, we have felony unification, we have drug and alcohol, we have GED.

Do you think women people get angry or at women?

It's it seems like it's different for women.

Women are still the fastest growing population of mass incarceration.

But a lot of times when I go across the country to a conference or listen to people talk about mass incarceration, they still don't talk about the women the way they should.

They still talk about the men.

Even the jumpsuits that are in the prisons are still geared towards men and not women.

So you share really beautiful memories about your mom, Ardella.

What would you like people to remember about Ms. Tonie?

I just want them to know that I'm loving and caring and I'm always trying to show them the best of their self's.

Where do you get the strength to keep on keeping on when nothing seems to go right?

I talked to women who found that power at Ardella's house.

They blessed me with their stories of courage and despair and starting over.

When I first went in the system, it felt like a nightmare because it was the first time I was actually away from my kids and as a mom, I just could think it was, it was torture for me.

I grew up in foster care from the age of eight all the way till 17 when I was incarcerated.

What happened?

I was charged with robbery with a serious bodily injury at the age of 17.

I fought so hard to try to get it transferred to juvenile.

But what stopped me is they asked, they actually reached out to the foster care, cause I was still to consider a foster child and they said, hey, listen, we're willing to turn her over to y'all and release her if you are able to, you know, take responsibility for her like you know, and they were like, nope, you can keep her.

I can only tell you my story.

And what's your story?

My story is I've been abused, I've been raped, I've been and I've been the whole lot, I've been the whole lot of trauma but the thing is, I'm still here.

You know what I mean?

I have many little skills or talents like I've I figured it out.

I did hair, I did eyebrows.

I I steal, I stole food from, from prison, I worked in their kitchen.

You know, in there that's another way to get money.

I think the prison system is just horrible, and especially for women.

And how's it different for women?

It's different for women because we really don't have a voice.

Men have more of a stronger voice to get things done.

Women, we don't have a voice.

I would like to say that we, us as women, we need more unity.

Denise, you are incarcerated.

You're coming home soon, what's going through your mind?

Anxiety and I say anxiety for me it was bad because that means okay now I'm back to business, back to responsibilities, how I'm going to get money.

I know parole got a list of things for me to do, how I'm going to do it?

And what was it like when you finally showed up?

Like I said, it was, I'm heartfelt man, you know, like to see this atmosphere of just a house, a very nice, elegant lady she was, Tonie was very beautiful to me.

Since coming here, I learned to live alone and be alone and not be peeking out the door or the window and just not worry.

I was just content.

Without Ardella's house, I wouldn't have became somewhat stable to where I'm at today, and stability is such an important part of my life right now.

Nikida, what was it like having a mom who was away a lot of the time that you were growing up?

It was hard because a lot of times she wasn't like, wouldn't be there for like important events in my life.

But you were able to stay in touch with your mom?

Yes, because she still called home every day and she still would say things like did you do your homework?

And like, that would make me feel good, cause like she still was checking on me, ask me how my day was, and then she would tell me about different songs that she learned, gospel songs, she would recite ... You remember one of the songs.

It was one I remember ... [singing] I said I wasn't going to tell nobody, but I can't keep it to myself.

Oh, I can't keep it to myself, but the Lord has done for me.

She would go dum du dum.

And what was it like when you were released?

I got arrested as a child, so I didn't know how to do certain things and I didn't have to worry about as much as I had to worry about as an adult, so there were times ... What did you know how to do?

Really, I just learned, knew how to party and just run away from home and still have somebody to bounce back on like an adult to take care of me.

And what was it like being here?

Challenging, you know, because I'm still, I'm still young.

I wanted to do this.

I'm not going to lie, I think it was like my first night I actually try to sneak out the house.

Really?

I didn't know that they were cameras.

You write poetry.

Yes.

You perform poetry.

Yes.

Can you give us a quick poem?

So this poem is titled Growing Up.

Ever think about past relations or past communications, or past justifications that constantly have you meditating on them unforgettable wasted past date emotions of the mind.

I feel like, I have a good support system between my grandma, who I stay now with, and Ms. Tonie, and everybody I feel like I have, you know, that's the system.

So if I ever be like, hey, I need help, I don't know what I'm doing or you know, whatever they would be there for in a heartbeat for me.

And I'm very appreciative of that.

I I love Ms. Tonie.

I to me, she's like my fairy godmother, like she's my one support system out here, like I ...

But I want to ask you along those lines, I want to ask you about what does this mean.

This.

I gave that to Ms. Tonie on Mother's Day, and I remember telling her, Ms. Tonie, you got kids.

She said no, she don't have no kids.

And I was like, well, consider me a kid, consider me, you know, an adopted kid, because I see how much you've done for me and I and how much she's done for so many women that I know that she has such a special place in my heart.

What's, what's your, what kind of work do you do?

I am a participant advocate.

I work with homeless women and I actually have a desk job.

You know, I serve the meals and I just interact with the women.

I help them with resources, I help them out in any way I can.

I share my story, my experience, strength and hope with them and I love it.

I think this that's like my purpose.

It's not just a job where I'm employed at I'm able to touch lives and I look forward to going to work.

So when you see your mom now, what do you think?

I think that she earned to be where she at now, but she going to get further.

When you hear your son say that what do you think?

It feels good and I know he's right.

Both of you are strong women who get things done, so it wasn't enough to impact the lives of the hundreds of women you each have impacted but you have to make it a network.

Tell us about that SAFE network.

What's SAFE?

SAFE is Sisterhood Alliance for Freedom and Equality.

And it's a network of women around the world who are ushering women back from incarceration into the community safely and effectively.

It's a sisterhood of leaders, change makers, formerly incarcerated women, who I I see that just needed an investment and a hand up and their lives took off.

So we are, you can call us freedom fighters, we are freedom fighters.

So this takes a whole bunch of different skills.

Fundraising, people managing, grant writing.

Where did you learn this?

From Ms. Burton.

Ms. Burton, where did you learn this?

I've I started A New Way Of Life in 1998 and I've picked up a lot of skills in that time and you know, I'm always just a phone call away.

And you know, I can talk people off of ledges and through anger and help them develop grants and come in and talk to their legislature and do different things because it's important.

What we're developing here, Paul, is a movement a freedom movement.

I wonder what Harriet would be saying right now.

Harriet Tubman.

Harriet Tubman.

I wonder what Harriet Tubman would be saying right now.

I think she'd be saying Susan Burton, well done.

I think so also.

When the cell door closes behind you for what you hope and pray will be the last time, the next door you walk through can make all the difference.

A place like Ardella's house and the compassionate work of advocates like Susan Burton and Tonie Willis can open a whole different door.

A door to safety, security, stability, and most of all, hope.

It's up to all of us to hold those doors open.

[music] Returning Citizens is made possible by [music] [music] The United Way, fostering the success of those who as they return to our neighborhoods remain a largely untapped resource.

The formerly incarcerated Waterman Two Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation at the recommendation of David Haas.

The Independence Foundation.