In her own words, Cyntoia Brown shares the riveting and redemptive story of how she changed her life for the better while in prison, finding hope through faith after a traumatic adolescence of drug addiction, rape, and sex trafficking led to a murder conviction. Kristin Hall with the Associated Press looks at Brown’s long journey…. Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

Cyntoia Brown-Long, now 31 years old, knows as much about life in prison as she does about being free.

At 16, she was arrested for robbing and killing a man she says picked her up for sex and later was sentenced to life in prison. But two months ago, Brown-Long walked out of a Tennessee prison after successfully petitioning the governor for her clemency.

Brown-Long’s story has mostly been framed by other people — attorneys, the makers of a documentary film and celebrities such as Rihanna, Kim Kardashian West and LeBron James, who called for her release. Her case became a hashtag, sparking discussions about child trafficking and juvenile justice reform, and Netflix announced plans to release a documentary about her.

But now she’s speaking for herself in her memoir, “Free Cyntoia: My Search for Redemption in the American Prison System,” released Tuesday, that goes deep into the patterns of sexual and drug abuse, predatory men and a childhood raised in the juvenile justice system.

“You’re kind of tethered to the worst moment of your life. And we’re so much more complex than that as human beings,” Brown-Long told The Associated Press. (She married her husband, Jamie Long, while in prison and now goes by the name of Brown-Long.)

Her birth mother has admitted drinking heavily while she was pregnant, which Brown-Long’s attorneys argued led to her problems with anger as a young child. Although she was smart and had stability in her adoptive family, she lashed out at other children and teachers.

By age 13, she was in and out of juvenile facilities, often trying to run away from being held in custody. In her book, she describes a mostly segregated judicial system that punished her when she wouldn’t follow the rules but provided little academic or mental health support.

“I can’t recall a time where people at school or people in the court system actually listened to me and (asked) why I felt how I did,” Brown said.

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