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Breaking the cycle: a drug addict's year in recovery
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Cindy Simpson, 49, wants to stop a spiral that robbed her of her family, her health and her dreams.
After enduring multiple drug charges and years in prison, she enrolled in August 2004 in Bridges for Women. The now-defunct program in Albuquerque helped women move beyond drugs and jail to regain their lives. After six months, Simpson graduated last spring from the program, where she learned life skills and chose to go back to school.
She quit drugs, reconnected with her family, found a job and moved into a place of her own.
It wasn't enough.
Last summer, she relapsed. She lost contact with her family and friends, and lived on the streets for a few weeks before finally turning herself in to her parole officer.
Since then, she says, she has been clean. Simpson is a full-time student at Albuquerque TVI, where she is studying to become a paralegal. She works part-time to support herself, her daughter and her grandson. She hopes to marry a man she has not met in person, someone she knows only through the letters he sends while serving out his own prison sentence.
This story narrates some of Simpson's joys and struggles after being released from jail as she tries to craft a life of her own, free from the spiral.
