Our Story.

There is a historical connection to being called a prisoner, which reflects a resistance that extends well beyond the confines of the prisoner's cell. Along the road, we have learned that the only way to be a truly abolitionist organization is by building our leadership from the inside out.

PBT was conceived inside a New York state prison's therapeutic program room.

In 2016, E. Paris Whitfield and Alisha Kohn could often be spotted in conversation in the common areas of the prison. The topic at hand was how to share the stories that are left untold behind the walls of prison. In 2019, those ideas became a reality with the creation of Queers for Justice, a branch of The Newburgh LGBTQ+ Center’s abolitionist program. Soon, individuals incarcerated across NY state began connecting with an outside team to develop legislative, educational, and community initiatives. In 2023, the Prisoners’ Brain Trust was born from those seedlings — an independent non-profit founded to build community and make our voices heard on the streets and inside the halls of political power.

Today, we are made up of incarcerated and system impacted community members across New York State, and dozens of volunteers and interns across the country.

The name, Prisoners' Brain Trust, is an homage to activists such as Cedric J Robinson, the Zapatistas, Martin Sostres, Larry White, and other activists whose work is fundamental to our ability to do the work we are engaged in today.