My name is Toni Dominica Estrada, I am 38 years old and I am currently serving a 20 year sentence in a federal correctional institution. I suffer from the disease of addiction and when left untreated results in me going back to prison. I am on my third bid, my first bid on a federal level. I was born in Amarillo TX. My parents were very young when they had me. As a child I remember living in many different homes with different family members. Sometimes I would live with my maternal grandmother and sometimes I would live with my paternal grandparents. I also spent time living with my aunt, uncle and cousins. Occasionally I would go back and forth living with my mom and dad. I didn’t see anything wrong with those living situations when I was a child because it was normal for me. As I got a little older I started to realize that my friends lived differently than I did. My friends had homes where they had their own rooms, a mom and dad, and brothers and sisters. They had routines, curfews, and rules. They went on family vacations and they did other things as a family. I started to come to the realization that I didn’t have any of that. I didn’t have a home where I belonged. I didn’t have rules or routine or parents that I lived with. I started doing drugs when I was 13 years old. I hung out with older crowds and started having sex and eventually ended up getting pregnant when I was 15 years old and again when I was 17. I was not strong enough to stop doing drugs and become a mother, I didn’t know anything about how to be a mother. I continued the cycle of allowing my children to be raised by my parents and other family members. Failing as a mother was the cause of me spiraling downward deep into my addiction and into a life on the streets. I ended up in prison for the first time when I was 21 years old.
