Christy Marie Camp
W-32687
D4-02-04L
VSPW
P.O. Box 92
Chowchilla, CA 93610-0092
Dear Ms. Camp,
I hope this letter finds you in good health. I want to tell you first off what prompted me to write to you. As a personal project I am writing a letter each day to someone, somewhere in the world. I post these letters on a website, and later post replies when and if they come in. I don’t know if you have internet access, but if you do you can see this and other letters posted on lizletters.com. You might notice that I do not inform most of my correspondents about the website or the letter-writing project. I feel I should disclose this to you, though, so that you know I am not attempting to exploit your situation for any reason.
I have been aware for some time that there are many women in prison for the very reasons you are there. They killed the men who were abusing them and their “crimes” were not judged as having been committed in self defense. At any given time, of course, there are countless people who are in prison for crimes they did not commit. New leaps in the use of DNA to exonerate people have brought this into the news in recent years. Less frequently acknowledged is the disproportionate number of people of color in the prison system. Women in your situation are almost invisible to the media. The U.S. criminal justice system is, to say the least, quite flawed.
Many of the people to whom I write probably do not even read the letters. I don’t know whether you’ll receive this. But I wanted to open a line of communication that’s outside my usual experience. Perhaps you’ll welcome a message from a curious stranger, perhaps not. Regardless, I wish you well.
Truly,
Liz Mann
