Lauren’s story begins with honesty. She takes ownership of her choices, but the truth is, the starting line she was given was far from fair.
“I made horrible choices in life,” she says. “Raised by a single mother who struggled with alcoholism and drugs, she never really cared what I did, or where I was. I started running the streets at about 14.”
School felt like a dead end. The streets promised quick money. Selling weed turned into selling crack cocaine. She drank heavily, used PCP, and felt “invincible.” When the federal charges came, she had never been in trouble before — or at least, never been caught. The sentence: 120 months in prison.
The Change
Ten years will wake you up — or it won’t.
Lauren chose to wake up. She signed up for every class, program, and skill training she could. She learned culinary arts, knitting, forklift operation, and even took college courses.
But the hardest part wasn’t prison. It was knowing her two small children were being raised by her mother. “Reintegration into society is nothing compared to reintegrating into my children’s lives,” she says. Simple gestures, like sending them prison-made bookmarks, became threads of connection.
In a strange way, prison gave her something she’d never had before: space. “I still miss the experiences in prison. It almost makes me ashamed to admit it. But in there, I was taken away from all the drama. I could finally become the person I am now.”
Life After Release
The woman who walked out of prison was not the one who had walked in. “Before I went to prison, I was an animal. I was selfish. But now I’m a better mother and a better human being.”
As a single mom and unemployed felon, she faced hardship head-on. Night shifts, physical labor, raising teenagers — she met it all with persistence. Today, she has earned a management position, bought her first home, and proudly watched her oldest daughter start college.
Her advice? Simple and profound:
“Use your time to learn who you are.”
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