Woman returns as a lawyer to jail where she was held 13 years earlier
"I came back in a much more powerful situation," Afrika Owes said.
For many former inmates and incarcerated people, returning to the jail or prison where they were held previously isn't exactly on their bucket list.
It wasn't something Afrika Owes, 30, initially planned to do either.
But on July 26, Owes, now a lawyer, returned for the first time to Rose M. Singer Center, a women's facility on Rikers Island in New York City. There, she opened up about her personal journey to young women being held for serious offenses.
In the process, Owes broke a bet she said she made to a correction officer that she would "never return to Rikers," a memory she recorded in her journal at the time as well.
"I was like, I'm never gonna go back ever as a prisoner," Owes recalled to "Good Morning America," after sharing the experience in an Instagram post.
When Owes was 17, she was arrested and charged as part of a gang-related conspiracy case, the New York Times reported in 2011. She later pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy and weapons possession, and was sentenced under the New York youthful offender program.
Owes still remembers how terrified she felt in 2011 when she was sent to Rikers.
"I felt like my life was over. I was scared and I was powerless," she recounted. "I was so hopeless. And I mean, prison is just a very gray and dark place. And it was depressing."
After six months, Owes was released, and in the decade since, she has turned her life around, becoming a mom, going back to school, graduating from college and then graduating law school in May.
Owes went viral in April after she posted her emotional reaction to learning she had passed the bar exam on her first try. At the time, she told "GMA" she wanted others to know that "everybody makes mistakes" but that changing and moving forward is also an option.
Owes was invited earlier this year by the New York City Department of Correction to speak to a group of about 15 young women at the Singer Center.
"We are grateful that Ms. Owes visited the young women at the Rose M. Singer Center," the department said in a statement to "GMA," adding that their programming initiatives "are critical to protecting public safety."
Owes said for her, the July 26 experience was filled with mixed emotions.
"I was overcome with emotion. Just even walking the hallways, I remember when I was an inmate, I had to walk along inside the line. So I felt, like, naturally inclined to walk in the line, but I didn't have to," she said.
Despite the negative memories she had associated with being in jail, Owes said returning to Rikers was also part of a "healing" process.
"I'd been through something very traumatic, and then I came back in a much more powerful situation, and it felt like I healed a lot," said the mom of one.
Owes said that by opening up about her experience, especially to other women, she hopes to offer them a semblance of hope for their own futures.
"Once you choose hope, you're unstoppable," Owes said. "Life isn't just linear. There's ups and downs, there's circles in it, and as long as you continue to choose hope, as long as you continue to believe in yourself and dream big, you can accomplish anything that you want to or close to it."
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