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Keeping it real

What Renee and Becky taught her traveled into her heart. Now she turns around and gives it back

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In 2002, I had my first stay in the Butler County Prison in Pennsylvania. I was 23. I never thought in a million years that I would be incarcerated. I thought I was too young to go to jail because of my drinking.

I was lying there, sick on the floor, in a portable bed they called a “boat,” because the jail was so overcrowded. I was thinking about what a bunch of losers all of these other women around me were. Why didn’t they quit doing such stupid things to keep coming back? I just couldn’t identify. I underestimated the power of alcohol. 

Butler, Pennsylvania

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