(NewsNation) —  Keri Blakinger’s life has taken many turns: competitive figure-skating, drug addiction, prison.

She is now an acclaimed author and journalist.

Her new memoir, “Corrections in Ink,” shares her experience with the criminal justice system and how she made it out.

“By the time I got arrested (for drug use), I was at a point where I was ready to make a change,” Blakinger said during an appearance Thursday on NewsNation’s “Banfield.”

She also said she was very fortunate, when she got out of prison, to have benefited from racial and class privilege so that she was able to get a second start.

Blakinger also covers criminal justice and injustice for The Marshall Project and writes “Inside Out,” a regular column published in collaboration with NBC News.

Piper Kerman, The New York Times bestselling author of “Orange Is the New Black,” has endorsed Blakinger’s work, saying that the memoir is a “testament to where a woman can go after rock-bottom, the power to transform oneself, and the imperative to discover and tell the truth.”