At the age of 40, Tracy Newman decided it was finally time to make a positive change in her life. After 30 years of one failure after another, she is working with Heartline to get back on the right track.
Tracey’s mother was 16 and her father 18 when she was born. They married but divorced a year later. By the age of 8, Tracey was experimenting with marijuana, courtesy of a friend’s older siblings. By 13, she was taking LSD and drinking, and by 16 she was stealing to support her habits.
She was put on probation for drug use at 16 – and promptly violated it by fighting at school. After a stint in the Wayne County youth home, she tried to go straight but soon was back on drugs, including crack cocaine, and dropped out of school. By 18, she says, “I was a full-blown addict, working the streets for money, living in crack houses or on the street. My mother didn’t trust me in her house because I would steal from her. She let me sleep in her car and she brought food out to me.”
She tried rehab and was clean for a few months, then relapsed, then got clean again. She gave birth to a daughter, now a college sophomore, and a son, now in high school, and tried to stay straight for them. When the children’s father discovered she was using again, he gained custody of the kids.
After the children left, Tracey went back to the drug culture. She rarely saw her children, wanting to shield them from what she had become. In her mid-20s, she sold drugs to an undercover cop and went to prison. When she was allowed out on work-release, she ran away and went back behind bars.
Maturing in prison
In all, she spent 11 years in various jails. In a way, it helped her. "Each time I was in, I was able to learn a little bit more about myself and understand more about my behavior,” she said. “The Michigan Department of Corrections actually helped me grow into the woman I am now. They stopped me from killing myself with an overdose.”
Tracey first came to Heartline in early 2009. She found a clerical job and reunited with her family. But it was “too much too fast,” she said. She started abusing anti-depressants and was sent back to jail for a technical rules violation.
Paroled again last spring, she tried to return to Heartline but Director Mary Ellen White was reluctant to take her back. Tracey persisted and in May, Mary Ellen relented.
“I do believe in second chances but hesitated because of Tracey’s prior relapse,” said Mary Ellen. “I believe Tracey has now gotten her priorities straight; before, she kept running from one thing to another. She seems much more serious this time about listening to people and taking advice that will benefit her.”
“Heartline works for me because they treat you with respect,” Tracey said. “They don’t try to force things on you. They give you the tools you need and take the time to listen and help you find solutions. There’s a lot of love here.”
Tracey works in a restaurant in Roseville and is studying for a certificate in addiction studies at Wayne County Community College. She stays away from her old neighborhood. She tries not to think too much about where she’s been. She stays focused on the present, setting realistic, short-term goals that she can accomplish.
“I made a promise to God that if I got back to Heartline, I would make it work,” she said. “I’m not taking any medications. I’m working and going to school. I want to feel I was put on earth for a reason – and that it was not to die from drugs but to help others.”
Heartline
A Residence for Women Leaving the Correction System and Homeless Women 
Heartline is a safe haven that provides shelter, food, a supportive, caring environment and discipline to women seeking a second chance. Heartline serves women who are on probation for a criminal offense; serving a sentence through the criminal justice system; leaving a drug rehabilitation program; escaping a home broken by addiction; battered or in an abusive relationship. All residents receive counseling and support to help them become productive citizens.
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