CYNTOIA BROWN-LONG

Cyntoia Brown was sentenced to life in prison for a murder  she committed at the age of sixteen. Her case became national news when  celebrities and activists made the hashtag #FreeCyntoia go viral in  2017.  She was granted full clemency after having served fifteen years,  walking out a free woman on August 7, 2019.  This is her story, in her own words.
 

In  these pages, written over the fifteen years she was incarcerated,  Cyntoia shares the difficult early life that lead to that fateful night  and how she found the strength to not only survive, but thrive, in  prison.
 

A coming-of-age memoir set against the shocking backdrop  of a life behind bars, Free Cyntoia takes you on a spiritual journey as  Cyntoia struggles to overcome a legacy of family addiction and a  lifetime of feeling ostracized and abandoned by society.
 

Born to  a teenage alcoholic mother who was also a victim of sex trafficking,  Brown reflects on the isolation, low self-esteem, and sense of  alienation that drove her straight into the hands of a predator.
 

Though  she attempts to build a positive path and honor the values her beloved  adoptive mother taught her, Cyntoia succumbs to harmful influences that  drive her to a cycle of promise and despair. After a fateful meeting  with a prison educator turned mentor, Cyntoia makes the pivotal decision  to take classes at Lipscomb University and strive for a better future,  even if she’s never freed.
 

For the first time ever, Cyntoia  shares the details of her transformation, including a profound encounter  with God, an unlikely romance, and an unprecedented outpouring of  support from social media advocates and A-list celebrities, which  ultimately lead to clemency and her release from prison.
 

Giving a  rare look at the power of love, forgiveness, and self-discovery in the  darkest of places, Free Cyntoia is a deeply personal portrait of one  woman’s journey for redemption within a system that had failed her from  childhood.