- Prison is no fun place to be,
and I remember just being very lonely
heartbroken girl until Marcelino came into my life.
(calm music)
Hi everyone, my name is Brittany Santiago.
I'm the author of
"One Woman's Journey: Surviving the Streets"
- Hey, my name is Marcelino and I met my wife in prison,
and I'm here to tell you my side of the story.
- I'm here to tell my side of my love story
with my husband Marcelino.
My life prior to my marriage,
very sad, very difficult unfortunately.
I had a rough childhood which ultimately led me to prison.
When I was very young I ended up running away from home.
I just felt like I could find a better life
if I left and unfortunately that was not true.
There was a homeless teenager and I ended up
hooking with up with a few people
that got me addicted to meth.
You know, years of drug abuse,
I ended up being arrested at age 18,
and I served five years in prison.
- My life prior to meetin' Brittany
was full of ups and downs.
I was here and there and everywhere in the wind.
I never was constrained by anybody.
I started to make the switch and be serious
with somebody when I just started realizing,
you know, you go around the world,
you see things, go places, and you start feeling
like you wanna share your accomplishments with somebody.
And that's what made me wanna reach out
and get serious about a relationship.
- So prison is obviously not a very happy place,
and on top of it I was doing the best I could
to just dive into some soul searching and try to change,
because I knew that prison wasn't a place
I ever wanted to return.
And once you start on a path of finding yourself
and becoming a better person, it separates you
from the people in prison.
So prison then becomes even more lonely.
I ended up posting an ad on a pen pal website,
and a couple of months later I got a letter from Marcelino
telling me that he's interested in a friendship,
and he would really like to talk to me.
And that's pretty much where it all started.
Our love story really honestly started with a letter.
- I actually met Brittany through a site
called Meet-An-Inmate which I learned about
through a friend of mine who had been in prison himself.
I didn't necessarily look for somebody
who was in prison but it just so happened to be that way.
Didn't necessarily think I was gonna find somebody,
however, scrolling down, scrolling down,
seeing Brittany's profile at first made me wanna stop,
made me wanna see who was the woman behind those eyes.
- In prison and in jail we don't really have access
to the internet, and so the only thing
that we could do to stay connected to people
outside of prison is write letters.
I actually had like, three or four different pictures up.
You're able to mail those in to the pen pal companies
and they put 'em on your profile.
- And with the letters, you can give explicative photos,
who you are, in detail, what it is that you're looking of
your partner in life.
But she actually came to me very truthful and very honest.
- As soon as I received his letter,
I was like wow I really like this guy.
He sounds attractive, he sounds funny.
And how he said he was drippin' in tattoos.
Just by the way he writes,
you could obviously tell that he was very educated.
- From the letters, and the way she was explaining herself
and her situation, how she got into that predicament,
it was easy for me to reserve judgment
and get to know her and see who she was.
- He only wrote me one letter,
I responded with one letter,
and in a couple of days later he was there
at the jail to visit me.
The officers post a little paper
saying who has visits for the day and at what time.
I had like all of these nerve wracking feelings.
So I had gotten ready for my visit,
and when I came down to my visiting screen
I kinda saw him but he wasn't really
like full screen on the visit he was kind of
ducked off to the side.
And when I sat down I was like,
"What are you doing?"
- It was a screen, so I was off to the left
just a little bit just to make sure she wasn't--
(laughing)
She was who she said she was on paper and in the pictures.
And then when she finally did appear
to sit down I went ahead and sat down,
we had a conversation.
- He was like, "I just wasn't sure if you were
"cat fishing me so I wanted to kinda stay off to the side
"in case you were I was gonna leave."
(laughing)
- From that first conversation towards the end
I knew that I wanted to continue, or carry on,
to see where it could go.
- I had like deeply fallen in love with Marcelino
and I had no end to my case,
it was just ongoing, court date after court date.
So the biggest struggle was just not knowing
when I was going to be able to come home
and actually start my life with him.
- Dating somebody who's in jail
and particularly dating Brittany,
there was always that skepticism
if she was gonna be who she said
that she was going to be.
You know walk it like you talk it once you get out.
- There was plenty of times where I was really
missing Marcelino when I was in jail and in prison,
because we go on lock downs a lot,
like if two other people start fighting
they'll shut the whole unit down.
Can't use the phone, you can't go outside
and get recreational yard, you can't do anything.
It made it, my time, so much more difficult.
- When they get put on lockdown,
you go two or three days without a call
and just trying to figure out like what's happening.
And you get her on the phone about
what little situations she's trying to stay away from,
or who's causing a ruckus over here or there.
And that definitely brings the stress level.
- I never worried about Marcelino leaving me,
because he showed me this loyalty
that he did not owe me.
And he was more faithful and dedicated
to being there for me than my own family,
or friends or people I have known for years.
You know, he owed me nothing,
and he just showed up in my life one
day and he stayed consistent
and it was through his actions and nothing that he said
that I was able to trust him.
- You're literally out of sight, out of mind,
and you're only lifeline is people out there
supporting from the outside.
- We dated for about a year while I was in jail,
and I ended up goin' to prison for about six months.
And when I was in prison I actually got
personal contact visits with him.
Where we could share one kiss and one hug,
and so that was really nice.
- We're there in the presence of guards,
and everybody else, we can't really have an intimate moment.
But I was very overjoyed to see
that we'd come to that point,
to be able to be in front of each other.
- I was happy to be alone with him,
and to be in person, and to see him face to face,
because it's a lot different than
seeing him on a screen.
So that actually helped us connect even deeper
before I was able to come home.
- The day Brittany was released,
you saw it, everybody saw it in America,
everybody saw for the world to see.
We were there, the cameras,
that was actually when Brittany got out.
- Marcelino and I had been filming
on Love After Lockup Life After Lockup.
Which pretty much follows couples
who met in the unique circumstances
that Marcelino and I did.
It was very overwhelming, they were literally
there the second I got off the prison transportation bus,
I was being un-cuffed, camera crew was there and ready.
- Didn't have no time prepared with us, not nothing,
he was there are you, here I am.
Cut up through me.
(laughing)
It was great.
- Over the last two years that I've been home,
I would definitely say that filming
for the show has fast tracked
my relationship with my husband.
We're already married,
we've bought our first house together,
we have three children, two dogs, it's a lot.
(laughing)
- It's definitely been cumbersome,
our relationship is definitely on the fast track,
but we never lose sight of the moments
we wanted to be with each other when we couldn't be.
- You know, with everything that happens
to you in your life, you get to choose
what you wanna do with it.
If you wanna grow from it,
or you would like to allow it to destroy yourself.
It's really up to you, and I've learned from everything
I've been through in my life
and it really reflects in like the relationships
that I have today with my children,
and my husband, and even with myself.
- For me, Brittany was definitely worth the wait.
And ever since she got out,
Brittany's just definitely proven
that she's the one I wanna invest my time in
and spend the rest of my life with.
- You know I wanna tell people that even though
Marcelino and I have a healthy relationship
and we're deeply in love,
that doesn't mean that our relationship is perfect.
And it doesn't mean that it's not obtainable
for other people.
The key to making your relationship
and your marriages work is just finding acceptance,
not wanting someone to be who you think they are,
and instead just accepting them for who they are.
- This is true love here,
it's been goin' for two years so far.
- Waiting for each other while I was incarcerated
was definitely worth the wait.
I know that I'm so happy with him,
and that we made the right decision to be together.
- And words of wisdom from a learned man,
please listen to your wife.
(laughing)
It's very true, might be cliche,
but very true, happy wife happy life.
(upbeat music)