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Brian Carmichael

Brian Carmichael is a peer educator through the Know the Risks program at the Elmira Correctional Facility in upstate New York where he advocates for prisoners living with HIV and Hepatitis C. Carmichael has been an advocate for incarcerated PLWHIV since the late 1980’s. While incarcerated at Vacaville in Correctional Facility in 1989, Carmichael fought for hospice-like conditions for PLWHIV in prison and organized medicine boycotts, writing campaigns and a hunger strike which led to the establishment of the first ever federally funded hospice in any U.S. prison. Carmichael’s painting and sculpture practice allows him to stay in contact with loved ones on the outside and work through the loss he experienced at Vacaville, where so many of his friends passed away from AIDS.