The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous

The original 12-step program has a significantly Christian basis. However, many AA programs change the wording to have more secular appeal.

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

The Marshall Project: What is Prison Like for Women and Girls?

The Marshall Project is a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system.

Fast facts:

Nearly one-third of all the female prisoners in the entire world are in the U.S (more than 200,000).
Prisoners who maintain close contact with family do better once they are released and have lower rates of returning to prison.
About 60 percent of women in state prisons have children under 18.
Females are the victims of one-third of all sexual abuse cases committed by prison staff, despite making up just 7 percent of the prison population.
“Sarah Zarba was addicted to heroin when she was sent to jail, which did not help her with withdrawal symptoms. Getting off heroin can be dangerous. The number of people who have died from this is not tracked, but media reports show there have been at least 20 lawsuits filed between 2014 and 2016 that claim a prisoner died due to complications from opioid withdrawal.”