“For me the experience was life changing because in there, I had enough time to think and to figure out what I really want to do with my life. Not that I want the experience again but it is not one that I regret.”
Those were the words of a former inmate of the New Amsterdam Prison. The woman, a mother of four, has been out of prison for the past few years and while she has not gotten her life fully back on track (she is currently unemployed) she said she has become a better person.
She had pleaded guilty, on the advice of the police officers who arrested her, to having one ounce of marijuana in her possession. They promised she would have received a fine and community service, instead the magistrate gave her three years.
At that point, she felt her life
