Natalie Portman Pledges to Match up to $100,000 to Fight Mass Incarceration
The Black Swan actress, Natalie Portman, announced that for her birthday, June 9th, she will be matching donations to Susan Burton’s organization, A New Way of Life, which supports formerly incarcerated women and provides them with a chance to rebuild their lives.
A New Way of Life Reentry Project provides housing and pro bono legal services to its residents. Burton founded the organization after she herself served her sixth term in prison, lost her five-year-old son who was struck and killed, and began to self-medicate to numb her grief. Burton spiraled into addiction and entered treatment in 1997. In 1998, she was determined to make a change not only in her life, but in the lives of other women too. Burton opened a three-bedroom safe home in South LA and A New Way of Life was born.
Portman supports Burton’s efforts and also wants to end discriminatory attitudes and cycles of mass incarceration. Portman previously showed her support for A New Way of Life when she attended its gala in December of 2018.
We urge you to take a look at A New Way of Life and continue t0 educate yourself about mass incarceration through reading Burton’s Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women.
I am an incoming junior at the UCLA College of Letters and Science. Through my love and appreciation for literature, social justice, feminism, public speaking, and writing, I am planning on pursuing a career in immigration and public interest law. I want to help those who are either the victims of the system or discrimination because I wholeheartedly believe that the purpose of my life is to help others and take cases that nobody else is willing to take.
