Welcome Home Brittney after 10 Years of Incarceration

After 10 years of incarceration, Brittney is finally coming home!

Brittney is a Black, queer, nonbinary mother and survivor who will finally be coming home in 2025. Brittney ran away from home 4 months after her mother passed away and was homeless at 16. While on the streets they became a victim of multiple sexual assaults, and eventually joined a gang for protection. At 17, they contracted HIV from a man that they said promised to love them and provide them with safety and shelter. Brittney gave birth and became a mother at 19 to their son Legend.

I thought I had fallen in love many times, my first glance at Legend proved me wrong. He is my first experience of true and unconditional love. Motherhood did lessen the darkness of my childhood trauma. Each day I spent with Legend, I knew more and more that I would protect him from the things I had been through, but being a single mother with only an eleventh grade education made financial stability almost impossible. I worked one dead end job to the next and would often resort back to my street tactics in order to maintain. I even remained in a domestically violent relationship for the purpose of support, and this is the mentality that led me to prison. I managed to get away from the domestic abuse at some point but could not escape the financial instability. On October 4, 2013, the electricity in my apartment went off. I did not want my then four year old child to be in the dark.

The gang members that promised to protect Brittney from their abuser also offered a way to pay their electricity bill. Brittney not wanting to have their child in a home with no electricity and fearing the wrath of their superior gang members agreed to do what they asked.

All of these factors led me to actually commit the crime that I committed, and as a result I was tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison to serve a sentence of 14 years.

During their incarceration, Brittney has positively impacted those around them in tremendous ways and sought out every educational opportunity available to them. Brittney has gotten their GED, Associate of Arts in Political Science, became a Certified Peer Educator via AIDS Institute, served as an inside educator for 7 years with The Women's Prison Association's AIDS Counseling Education program, and served as an inside educator for 3 years with Pathstone's REACH program.

While incarcerated, Brittney has also published writing and won awards for that writing. Brittney joined Survived & Punished NY as an inside member and began contributing to the Free Survivors newsletter where many of their poems have been published. In 2022, Brittney won the Joseph P. Clancy writing award in poetry for their poem titled "The Tank."

Brittney became an HIV+ advocate while inside and hopes to continue this work once they are out.

I realized that the only way to defeat stigma is to educate others. I literally saw a chain of stigma shatter before my eyes.

I sought atonement and social consciousness through higher learning and spent almost every moment of my sentence reshaping my morals and values through education. I also discovered the power of my story and its ability to change and save lives. I found my voice, but most importantly I rediscovered my ability to dream and my love. A love that was lost to me amidst a sea of trauma. Today I am a dedicated mother, an educated Black college graduate, an HIV+ advocate, a published poet, a gifted cook, a singer, a dancer, a comedian, and a songwriter. I’m an individual with goals, and I have every intent to reach for them and achieve them.

Now, as Brittney prepares for freedom, let's work together to provide them with the support they need to successfully transition. Your contributions will go directly to Brittney, helping to ensure that they have everything necessary to navigate this adjustment and reach for their goals.