National Women's History Month

A salute to African American Women who have made historical contributions to Substance Use Disorders Treatment and Recovery.

Clara McBride-Hale. "Mother Hale" Founder of Hale House in New York City. Mother Hale housed children prenatally exposed to heroin in the 1960's and 70's, children prenatally exposed to cocaine in the 1980's and 90's and children born HIV positive.

Andrea Barthwell, MD, FASAM. Dr. Barthwell is the former President of The American Society of Addiction Medicine and she served as Director of Demand Reduction at the Office of the National Drug Control Policy under President George W. Bush.

Lonnetta Albright. As former Director of Great Lakes ATTC, Lonnetta helped shift Substance Use Disorders Treatment from the acute care model solely, towards a recovery oriented system of care. Under her leadership Great Lakes ATTC published a monograph series authored by historian William White, MA on recovery management and recovery oriented system of care. This series played a role in helping to shape the future of treatment and recovery services.

Corrie Vilsaint, PHD. Dr. Vilsaint is the principal investigator at the Recovery Research Institute and Center for Addiction Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and research fellow at Harvard Medical School. Some of her research focuses includes recovery capital, reducing discrimination among individuals in recovery and racial health equity in remission and recovery.

Ijeoma Achara-Abraham, PsyD. In her role as a consultant, trainer and strategic planner, Dr. Achara-Abraham is one of the nation’s experts in helping cities and states transform their system to a recovery oriented system of care.

Tonier Cain. Tonier is an author, entrepreneur, movie producer and one of the nation’s foremost advocates and speakers on trauma informed substance use disorders treatment.

Anita Bertrand Bradley, LSW, LICDC. Anita is founder of Northern Ohio Recovery Association. NORA is a model program offering a full range of recovery services. Anita's work has been recognized nationally. She is the recipient of Faces and Voices of Recovery, Joel Hernandez Community Recovery Award, she was honored by President Obama 's Administration as a champion of change and Smart Women Magazine, Women who Excel Entrepreneur Award.

Ayana Jordan, MD, PHD. Dr. Jordan's extensive research, educational and clinical work focuses on increasing access to evidence based substance use disorders treatment for Black, Latinx and Indigenous persons of color nationally and abroad.

Dawn Tyus, PHD, LPC. Dawn Tyus is the Principal Investigator of the African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence, she is also PI and Director of Southeast Addiction Technology Transfer Center at Morehouse School of Medicine.

A Storied Career: Interview with 2021 NAADAC Enlightenment Award Winner, Mark Sanders

Mark Sanders, LCSW, CADC, is the Illinois State Project Manager for the Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC. Mark is a published author, trainer, educator, and mentor, as well as the founder of the Online Museum of African American Addictions, Treatment, and Recovery and the co-founder of Serenity Academy of Chicago, the only recovery high school in Illinois. 

If you have never attended a training hosted by Mark Sanders, you're missing out. Mark has a unique ability to be at once both energizing and reassuring. His presentations are equal parts inspiration and intellect – a captivating mix of stories, memoire, and facts. He has motivated and educated countless members of the SUD workforce throughout his nearly 40-year career. For these reasons and many more, Mark Sanders, LCSW, CADC, has been selected as the recipient of the 2021 NAADAC Enlightenment Award, the 2021 Community Behavioral Healthcare Association of Illinois Frank Anselmo Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Illinois Association for Behavioral Health’s 2021 Lawrence Goodman Friend of the Field Award.   

The Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC congratulate our colleague, Mark Sanders, on these well-deserved awards for his many years of exemplary service and leadership. In celebration of his accomplishments, we asked Mark to share his thoughts on the field of SUD recovery services and how he has achieved success throughout his career. Click here to continue reading.

 
 

Lessons Learned From Native American Communities on Recovery

 

November is National Native American Heritage Month. In this post I would like to share lessons we all can learn about addictions recovery from Native American Communities. One commonality African Americans share with Native Americans is centuries of trauma imposed on us by White Americans. As African Americans we experienced 250 years of slavery, Jim Crow Laws, lynchings, police brutality and mass incarceration. Native Americans experienced several hundred years of massacre, their culture and land taken away. As a result of this historical trauma, Native Americans developed the highest alcoholism rate in the world.

Today, some Native Americans tribes are achieving some of the highest recovery rates in the world, by healing historical trauma and returning to the cultures which were taken from them. One group I would like to highlight is White Bison founded by Don Coyhis, by helping tribes return to culture and healing historical trauma, White Bison is helping tribes achieve 40 to 70% recovery rates. 

Canada, our neighbors to the north also have a history of inflicting trauma on First Nation Tribes. There is a documentary called The Honour of All, which tells the story of a First Nation Tribe that went from 100% alcoholism to 95% recovery. They have maintained a 95% recovery rate for over 35 years by returning to culture. 

I once presented at a research conference on Addictions in Canada. All the top U.S. researchers were there. I suggested that the entire conference take a journey to the reservation and learn how a First Nation Tribe has maintained a 95% recovery rate for 35 years. I truly believe that recovery in African American Communities will involve a return to the culture that was stolen from us during chattel slavery.

YOU'LL HANDLE THAT TOO!

Arthur Ashe.jpg

An African American female friend called me and said she relapsed recently. I immediately thought of the words of African American tennis star, the late Arthur Ashe, who contracted HIV through a blood transfusion.. A reporter asked Ashe, “Was Aids the hardest thing you ever had to deal with?” Ashe replied, “The hardest thing I have ever had to deal with is being Black in this society.”

Thinking of Ashe's comments, the trauma my friend has endured in her lifetime and her resilience, I said to her, “You have handled being a Black Woman in America. You will handle this too!”

I listened as my friend shared what led to her return to drug use and we also discussed language. I introduced her to the term reoccurrence of symptoms as an alternative to the term relapse. The term relapse is perceived as negative. Cancer patients don't relapse I suggested, symptoms return. I shared that Women for Sobriety calls a relapse A temporary setback! I shared with my friend the words of writer Johann Hari, “The opposite of addiction is not recovery. Its connection.

My friend smiled and said, I'm going to a meeting today.

Black Opioid Deaths Increase Faster Than Whites, Spurring Calls For Treatment Equity

September 10, 20215:00 AM ET

MARISA PEÑALOZA

 A study published Thursday reveals a growing racial disparity in opioid overdose death rates. Deaths among African Americans are growing faster than among whites across the country. The study authors call for an "antiracist public health approach" to address the crisis in Black communities.

The study, conducted in partnership with the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health, analyzed overdose data and death certificates from four states: Kentucky, Ohio, Massachusetts and New York. It found that the rate of opioid deaths among Black people increased by 38% from 2018 to 2019, while rates for other racial and ethnic groups did not rise.

The study used data collected before the coronavirus pandemic began; preliminary data show that overall drug overdoses rose in 2020.

In the earlier waves of the opioid crisis, African Americans had lower rates of overdose deaths than whites, according to another study published last year in the journal Addiction, and Black rates stayed level from 1999 through 2012. However by 2013, white rates began to level off while Black rates began increasing.  The new study from NIDA confirms the trend.

 Click here to continue reading.

Lessons from the Recovery Legacies of Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X

Picture From Lessons Article.jpg

Mark A. Sanders, LCSW, CADC; Illinois State Program Manager, Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTCPublication Date: Feb 11, 2021

Frederick Douglass.jpg

Frederick Douglass was the first prominent American to recover from alcohol use disorder (White, 2014 ). Douglass's alcoholism was triggered by the trauma he endured in slavery. Douglass believed that alcohol was used to control the slaves. In his autobiography, Douglass stated that the enslaved would be abused Monday through Friday and given alcohol to drink on Saturday as medicine for the abuse (Douglass, 2019 ).  In a speech in Scotland in March of 1846, Douglass stated, "When a slave was drunk, the slaveholder had no fear that he would plan an insurrection. No fear that he would escape to the north. It was the sober thinking slave who was dangerous and needed vigilance of the slaveholder to keep him a slave ( Douglass, 1846)."

Speaking on his own alcohol use, Douglass stated, "I used to drink. I found in me all those characteristics leading to drunkenness." He went on to state, "I have had some experience with intemperance. I knew what it was like to drink with all the ardor of a drunk. Some of the slaves were not able to drink their share. I was able to drink my own and theirs too. (Douglass,1846)."

Malcolm X.jpg

Like Douglass, Malcolm X experienced trauma in childhood, which proceeded his substance use disorder. In his youth, Malcolm grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. He grew up in an environment of race riots and lynchings. His father was killed by the Klu Klux Klan, and his mother was placed in an asylum. Leaving a young Malcolm and his sibling to be placed in the child welfare system (Payne and Payne, 2020). If the ACE's test were available in Malcolm's youth, he would have scored high on childhood trauma exposure, a precursor to substance use disorders.

Both Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X achieved long term recovery, although their pathways of recovery differed. Douglass's pathway of recovery was social protest. Refusing to continue to use a drug he believed was used to control the Africans who were enslaved. Malcolm X's recovery story began in prison and is often described as a quantum spiritual awakening. All the urges to use drugs were removed instantly (Haley, 1999). 

Both men became advocates in recovery. Douglass was one of the founders of The Black Temperance movement. Malcolm fought for civil writes and started a program he called "Fishing For The Dead." The goal of this program was outreach to incarcerated African Americans to help them with recovery, employment, and to avoid future incarcerations (Haley, 1999).

The recovery legacies of Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X offer three lessons: 

1. Addictions professionals who work with African Americans with substance use disorders need to be trauma specialists. Like Douglass and Malcolm, many African Americans with substance use disorders have legacies of historical and current trauma that include slavery, lynchings, mass incarceration, police brutality, high unemployment, and community violence.

2. Advocacy can be a liberating force for African Americans in recovery. There is a famous 12-step slogan, "To keep it, you've got to give it away." In other words, one can maintain their own recovery by helping others. Both Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass were advocates for African Americans in their recovery. One question to ask African American clients is: “How can the African American Community benefit from your recovery (Williams, 1993)?”

3. It is important to honor multiple pathways of recovery for African Americans. Neither Douglass nor Malcolm X initiated recovery through a treatment facility. While many African American who initiate recovery  through traditional treatment, other African Americans initiate and maintain recovery through 12-step recovery, faith-based recovery, medication-assisted recovery, solo recovery, dual recovery, rites of passages, and return to culture.

 About the author Mark Sanders, LCSW, CADC is Illinois state project manager for the Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC. He is founder of Online Museum of African American Addictions Treatment and Recovery. Photo Credit: Frederick Douglass,  Library of Congress, public domain

References Douglass, F. Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass (2019) Kindle Edition.

Douglass, F. Temperance and Anti-Slavery. Address Delivered Paisley Scotland, March 30, 1846.Renfrewshire Advertiser, April 11, 1846.

Haley, A. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. (1999) Ballantine Books. New York, NY

Payne, L & Payne, T. The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X. (2020). Liveright Publishing Corporation. New York, NY

Williams, C. & Laird, R. No Hiding Place. (1993). Harper Collins, New York, NY

White, W. Slaying The Dragon. (2014). Lighthouse Institute. Bloomington, IL.

https://attcnetwork.org/centers/great-lakes-attc/news/lessons-recovery-legacies-frederick-douglass-and-malcolm-x

 

In Memory of Denise Eligan

Flowers.jpg

It is with sadness that I write of the death of my long term friend and colleague Denise Eligan and with gratitude that I was able to call her a friend for many years. You are fortunate if you have a colleague like Denise Eligan in your life time. Denise and I worked as young drug counselors in 1985 at Hyde Park Hospital. The unit census dropped to 2 clients and my supervisor decreased my work hours from 40 per week to 20 hours per week. At 20 hours per week I would not have been able to afford to pay rent or buy groceries. Denise told our boss that rather than my working 20 hours per week that she would split her work hours with me and we could each work 30 hours per week. Who does that!!

 I am most grateful to Denise for the impact that she had on my family. In the 1990's my brother had  an active addiction and said he wanted to write screen plays about his life experiences. I told him of my friend Denise Eligan who was a writer extraordinaire that could co-write with him. I was hoping that while they wrote together her recovery would rub off on him. It did! Denise helped him get placed in detox and he is now in long term recovery! He co-wrote movie scripts with Denise during the early phases of his recovery and often spoke of how her wisdom contributed to his recovery. My brother and sister's in law also achieved long term recovery after Denise placed them in treatment.

 Denise was an amazing drug counselor and said to me years ago People in recovery have other skills besides counseling. Her life was a living testament of this. Denise received a Masters Degree in Creative writing from Columbia College, Chicago. She wrote and directed a play, co-wrote 3 motion picture screen plays and was the editor of Recovered Magazine, one of the first recovery magazines in the nation. Denise was not only a creative writers, she was one of the nation’s best behavioral health grant writers. She was awarded a grant for an innovative program in Gary, Indiana Public Housing. The program was named Named Miracle Village and Provided addictions treatment services for women in the public housing development. Miracle Village consisted of 4 adjacent row houses, each provided specialized services for women seeking recovery (the recovery center, mental health facility, medical clinic and day care center for the client's children). Denise secured hundreds of thousands of Dollars as a Grant Writer for the State of Illinois.

 Denise's retirement from the State was Graceful. She pursued painting upon retirement and quickly developed a reputation as a great artist. It is written that most people use little of their God given talents. Along with individuals like Ben Franklin and Paul Robeson, Denise Eligan made the most of the many talents God gave her. I am blessed that she was a part of my family’s life for so many years.

How ‘Strange Fruit’ Killed Billie Holiday

by Brandon Weber February 20, 2018

Billie Holiday.jpg

Billie Holiday and Mister at Downbeat in New York City, ca. Feb. 1947. Courtesy Library of Congress.

“Strange Fruit” may have been written by American song-writer and poet Abel Meeropol (a.k.a. Lewis Allen), but ever since Billie Holiday sang the three brief stanzas to music in 1937, she’s owned it.

Holiday, born Eleanora Fagan, said she always thought of her father when she sang “Strange Fruit.” He died at age thirty-nine after being denied medical treatment at a Texas “whites only” hospital. Because of that memory, Holiday was reluctant to perform the song, but did so anyway to tell people about the reality of life as a black man in America.

“It reminds me of how Pop died,” she wrote in her autobiography. “But I have to keep singing it, not only because people ask for it, but because twenty years after Pop died, the things that killed him are still happening in the South.”

The song was so poignant for Holiday that she laid down some rules when she sang it at her gigs: She would close the evening with the song; the waiters would stop service when she began; and the room would be in total darkness except for a spotlight on her face. There would be no encore.

“Lady Day,” as Holiday was called by many at the time, began to work the song into her repertoire sixteen years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Jazz writer Leonard Feather referred to the song as “the first significant protest in words and music, the first significant cry against racism.” Click here to continue reading. Click the arrow below to watch the video.

DRUG ABUSE COUNSELORS IN HEAVEN

I received a call today from a young Addictions Counselor who told me that her mentor, Emmitt Hines died. In 1982, the year I became a drug counselor, Emmitt was my first mentor. He was a member of the Illinois Chapter of the National Black Alcoholism Council (NBAC). These seasoned pros from NBAC volunteered to do trainings to prepare the next generation of African Americans to become Certified Addictions Counselors. While many of these trainers went on to have stellar careers, Emmitt Hines was by far the best presenter. He had a charismatic style which included humor, laughter and spontaneous diagrams on the flip chart. He taught with such clarity that anyone could retain his lessons. Instantly, I wanted to be like Emmitt Hines. He was someone I knew I could learn from.

Emmitt worked at Hyde Park Hospital in the early 1980's as an Addictions Counselor and that too was impressive as most African Americans I knew worked at agencies. I asked him if I could volunteer to co-lead a therapy group with him at the hospital to continue learning from him. He said, yes. I quickly discovered that he was as effective as a group therapist as he was a presenter! His style was charismatic, I marveled at how he could make a whole group of clients laugh. He counseled with a rhythm. It is difficult to describe to new counselors today how counselors like Emmitt counseled with a Charismatic Rhythm. The old school counselors had the ability to leave an entire room spellbound. New counselors would have to see it to understand. I thought of Emmitt as an African American Sigmund Freud.

In the Mid 1980's Emmitt invited me and another newer counselor James Brumley to his office on North Michigan Avenue (The Magnificent Mile!). To be honest with you, when he put the key in the door I did not expect it to open. As far as I knew, only multimillionaire John. H. Johnson, Publisher of Ebony, Essence and Jet Magazine's had an office on N. Michigan Avenue. The key worked! Emmitt, James and I talked about partnering to open a counseling center on Michigan Avenue.

While we never opened the center, Emmitt Hines stretched my imagination. I followed in his footsteps and became a counselor at Hyde Park Hospital. I opened a private practice office on The Magnificent Mile, with views from my windows of both the Chicago River and N. Michigan Avenue. I helped train future African Americans pursuing certification as Addictions Counselors and I have done presentations all over the world trying to display the clarity and style that I learned from Emmitt.

If there is a need for Drug Abuse Counselors in the here after, Heaven just received one of the best. Rest in Peace Emmitt!

Every race, gender and culture must be welcome in treatment

February 23, 2018

Nicole Stempak

Mark Sanders, LCSW, CADC, is focused on patients’ recovery after they leave treatment facilities. For the last five years, he’s been helping to build recovery cultures. The idea is simple: Train people established in recovery to offer support in the very community where the clients are returning.

The movement requires providers and professionals to have an understanding of the neighborhoods and communities where clients live and work. “We want to know what resources exist within that community to support recovery,” Sanders says.

All too often, memories can trigger patients who may not have thought about using while in treatment. People, places and things can trigger cravings once they return home. It’s a problem Sanders has seen repeatedly during his 35 years as a certified addictions counselor. A consultant in behavioral health, he also has taught for more than 30 years at the university level and has authored five books. Sanders is co-founder of Serenity Academy of Chicago, the only recovery high school in Illinois, and past president of the board of the Illinois Chapter of NAADAC.

His most recent project has been the development of the Online Museum of African Americans Addiction, Treatment and Recovery, a resource geared toward frontline workers who want to work more effectively with African American clients. Addiction Professional recently caught up with Sanders to talk about treatment and recovery in the African American community.

AP: Can you describe the prevalence of addiction among African American communities?

Sanders: If we were to pay attention to media accounts, we might believe that addiction is more prevalent in the African American community.  And yet, when you look at SAMHSA’s annual statistics on drug use by race and by gender, African Americans consistently rank third or fourth on the list in terms of actual use. For middle class African Americans and those in the higher socioeconomic brackets, we can expect to see a recovery rate as high as their white counterparts in the same socioeconomic brackets. The more recovery capital you have, the greater your chances of recovery. The challenge is where race and poverty comes together.

The greater challenge is they are more likely to be arrested for possession of substances and thus more likely to wind up in the criminal justice system. There’s evidence that receiving a felony has longer-term consequences than actual addiction. You can always recover. That drug-related felony arrest will follow you for a long time.

AP: What are some of the reasons behind addiction and disparity among African Americans?

Sanders: At the core of addiction among African Americans is some type of trauma, which is consistent with other groups. Among those who are economically disadvantaged or economically poor, trauma can also be connected to joblessness. What executive directors at for-profit treatment centers need to know is they may work with African Americans in corporate America, who might be dealing with trauma but also organizational stress, racism in the workplace, etc.

AP: How do you see that stress and trauma affecting African Americans’ mental health, recovery and treatment abilities?

Sanders: African Americans have experienced oppression for several hundred years in America beginning with slavery, Jim Crow laws, discrimination and high disparity in detention centers. One of the reasons they’re not No. 1 in terms of drug use is the protective factor. There are many factors that actually protect African Americans from mental illness and substance abuse, and it includes things like spirituality, the sense of ‘we’-ness, extended family orientation where you have a great deal of community support, the ability to utilize humor and dance and movement to help mitigate stress.

AP: Is there a danger in providers being colorblind?

Sanders: Everywhere we go as human beings, we bring our experiences with us. African American clients will then bring with them to treatments their experiences of being African American, and then you view the world through their lens. Some African Americans say, ‘If you don’t see color, you don’t see me because my race, my culture, my ethnicity has a way of shaping who I am. So therefore, if you say you don’t see color, literally, I don’t feel like you see me.’

The other thing is, if we don’t see color, we also may not have the opportunity to examine our own biases. We’re not really thinking about that if we don’t see color. Lately in the diversity literature, they’ve been talking about microaggressions, intentional and unintentional slights. It’s insulting people without even knowing we’re insulting them. We have to pay attention to these things so we don’t injure someone inadvertently.

AP: If providers don’t acknowledge race, are they ignoring experiences or situations?

Sanders: By not seeing race, there might be some other things programs may not see. If you’re an African American and you walk into a treatment facility, the first thing you may find yourself instinctively doing is looking at the artwork, similar to the way you would if you were in someone else’s house or a museum. And the first thing you might ask is, ‘Do I see images of myself in the artwork?’ Because sometimes the pictures on the wall at the treatment center can send a signal of who is welcome and who’s not welcome in that space.

I’m a patient engagement specialist, so one program invited me to come in and help engage their clients more effectively. They said 80% of their clients were missing their second outpatient session. I sat in their waiting room for two days to see the agency from the perspective of new clients coming in. I started going through the magazines in the waiting room. They had magazines like O, Good Housekeeping and Martha Stewart Living, but they served Latino and Hispanic gang members. There was nothing in those magazines that reflected who they were as people—and those types of things can send a signal about who’s welcome and who’s not welcome.

AP: What advice do you have for providers?

Sanders: Look at areas such as hiring. Does your staff makeup reflect the clients that you work with? We used to say addiction is an equal opportunity employer. Peter Bell [of Hazelden Betty Ford] said addiction is best treated when the cultural background in which it emerged is taken into consideration, meaning that treatment providers have to be willing to understand and learn something about the culture. I would say if a treatment center works with African Americans, Latinos, Hispanic or Asian clients, then they should learn some things about the communities they are serving. 

When we’re providing clinical services, there’s something the clients bring to the table: their experiences and perceptions. Treatment providers are also bringing their experiences and their perceptions. So, not only do you need to understand the clients you’re working with, treatment providers also need to understand our own biases, our own assumptions, our own stereotypes. If we begin to understand those things, we can begin to see how our own experiences might impact the clients we serve. 

AP: What is one thing our readers needs to know about this issue?

Sanders: It’s really critical that even if you work in a program for what we call acute care treatment—short-term treatment—for so many people, addiction is a chronic and progressive illness. With addiction and treatment, we see you for 28 days, whereupon you have what we call ‘a graduation.’ We often have zero to two contacts with you upon discharge, whereas in cancer treatment, they may follow up with you for five years. At a minimum, we need to monitor people longer.

Addiction Professional https://psychcongress.com/article/special-populations/every-race-gender-and-culture-must-be-welcome-treatment

Nicole Stempak is a freelance writer based in Ohio.

America's War on Drugs Has Treated People Unequally Since Its Beginning

BY JOHN H. HALPERN AND DAVID BLISTEIN 

AUGUST 12, 2019

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday

Judy Garland

Judy Garland

When Prohibition ended in 1933, drug enforcers finally had a new agency they could call their own, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. This launched the career of its first commissioner, Harry Anslinger, the person most synonymous with the phrase “war on drugs”—in fact, the first person to use it—and likely the first person, outside of any royal family, to be referred to as a “czar.”

Between 1930 and 1962, Anslinger established the standards that continue to serve as basic tools of the trade for America’s drug enforcement, such as dramatic drug busts, harsh penalties and questionable data. There remains serious disagreement in scholarly as well as political circles about how successful Anslinger really was in reducing drug sales and use in America, though he achieved several significant legislative victories, including the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act, which fostered collaboration between federal agents and police in different states (each of which had its own specific laws).

But, as difficult as passing drug laws is, enforcing them effectively, consistently and fairly has proven to be virtually impossible.

Anslinger unapologetically divided the world into us and them, good and bad, right and wrong—and always black and white. While Anslinger’s 30-year war on drugs undoubtedly saved the lives of some individuals, his racial prejudices tarnished his reputation in ways that, even allowing for 20/20 hindsight, can’t be dismissed. The most blatant example was his disparate treatment of two of the nation’s most famous celebrities in the 1950s: Judy Garland and Billie Holiday. Click here to continue reading the article.

SHE FREED 17 PRISONERS FACING LIFE, WITH THE HELP OF KIM KARDASHIAN

By Nick Fouriezos

She Freed 17 Prisoners.jpg

It’s the number that Brittany Barnett will never forget: 1374671. Seven digits assigned to her mother after she was arrested on a felony charge of assault and bail jumping related to her crack cocaine addiction.

The experience hit home as Barnett later changed career tracks, leaving accounting behind to study law at Southern Methodist University in Texas, a state that incarcerates more people than any other in the country. But since then, the former corporate lawyer has done more than she could have imagined for the plight of prisoners like her mom.

This spring, Barnett helped secure the release of 17 federal prisoners in 90 days under the newly passed First Step Act — a feat that drew national headlines because it was partially funded by Kim Kardashian West. It was the culmination of what she started in summer 2017 with the Buried Alive Project, a nonprofit working to eliminate life-without-parole sentences. “Life without parole is the second-most-severe penalty permitted by law in America, and we’re imposing this sentence on people with drug offenses. It’s mind-blowing to me,” Barnett says. “Reform, to me, is a fix. What we need is a fundamental shift to transform the system.”

Barnett has just finished a training event on compassionate release — where sick, elderly or disabled prisoners are set free early — for lawyers at the Washington, D.C., offices of lobbying giant Akin Gump when the Texas native lets her roots show. With a slight drawl, the 35-year-old spells out “B-O-G-A-T-A,” the 1,200-person town she grew up in, where the Rivercrest Rebels played high school football under a Confederate battle flag. “I can honestly say that growing up, I didn’t experience much racism,” she says. Instead, it showed up in less obvious ways, such as a childhood friend who got a life sentence for drugs when he was 23 years old. “We thought, Jeez, this is just East Texas. What I didn’t know is that he wasn’t an anomaly.”

The sweet tea and trap music lover’s goal today is to dredge up pro bono lawyers who are willing to work with some of the 1,600 people in the federal justice system who are serving life for drugs. Just getting that number was difficult enough: The Department of Justice wasn’t keen to share the information, Barnett says, and so her Buried Alive Project team had to piece together the records themselves. “If you don’t have a good counsel, it turns what is a difficult fight into one that is impossible. So the work she is doing is so important, just to ensure we have a fair and just system,” says David Safavian, deputy director of the Center for Criminal Justice Reform at the American Conservative Union.

The First Step Act is expected to lead to the release of more than 2,200 prisoners locked up for nonviolent drug crimes. But for many critics, it didn’t go far enough. While it eliminated so-called “stacked” sentences for future defendants, it didn’t reverse them retroactively for those currently in the system, meaning some people are serving up to 55 years for what may be only a five-year sentence today, Safavian says. To try to combat some of those challenges, Barnett recently launched the Third Strike Campaign, telling the stories of 13 prisoners who weren’t released under the First Step Act. “You have people spending life sentences today under yesterday’s laws,” Barnett says.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR LITTLE BLACK GIRLS IN BOGATA, TEXAS, AND OTHER RURAL AREAS, TO SEE THAT BLACK WOMEN ARE DOING THIS WORK.

BRITTANY BARNETT

The story of how Barnett and West joined forces begins with a critical race theory class that Barnett took at SMU — a class that she had to beg to be let into, because it was overbooked. “That was the only time I ever have” made an exception, says David Lacy, who was teaching the course. Barnett, studying to be a lawyer at the time, began investigating the human faces of a war on drugs that required 100 times as much powder cocaine as crack cocaine to invoke equal mandatory minimum sentences — a distinction mostly made along racial lines. “There were people talking about it 10 years ago, but it didn’t have nearly the momentum it has right now,” Lacy says.

It was in those studies that she met Sharanda Jones, the first woman serving life whom she would later help free through clemency in 2015, under the Obama administration. Soon after, she took on the case of Alice Johnson, a convicted drug trafficker and friend of Jones, whose moving video (below) reached West. The celebrity entrepreneur visited the White House in the summer of 2018 to discuss prison reform with President Donald Trump, and, a week later, the great-grandmother was granted clemency and released.

Still, West’s involvement didn’t come without controversy. As West helped fund a three-month sprint by Barnett and her business partner, MiAngel Cody, to release as many prisoners as possible earlier this year, criminal justice advocates complained about the attention she was getting — headlines implying West was becoming a lawyer and freeing these people herself, distracting from the years of work done by less-famous people on the ground. Amid those complaints, Barnett posted on Facebook that West had “linked arms with us to support us when foundations turned us down,” and that at the end of the day, “TWO Black women lawyers freed 17 people from LIFE W/O PAROLE sentences.”

Looking back at that moment, Barnett says she posted because she wanted to defend West against criticism. “People know that Kim’s not going to court and arguing in front of a judge,” she says. She understands that some people took that as her wanting credit, which she denies, before adding: “I stand on the fact that it is very important for little Black girls in Bogata, Texas, and other rural areas, to see that Black women are doing this work.” Even with many challenges ahead, Barnett has hope for one simple reason: The human narratives behind unjust sentences are starting to be told. “Being able to put a heartbeat to the number,” she says — a number just like her mother’s. Nick Fouriezos, Reporter 

https://www.ozy.com/politics-and-power/she-freed-17-prisoners-facing-life-with-the-help-of-kim-kardashian/95841