How Pen Pal Relationships Are a Lifeline for Those in Prison

For people facing long sentences and even deportation, contact with the outside world is crucial

Atoosa Moinzadeh
LEVEL

Photos: courtesy of Kelly Savage

Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.

On August 31, after 15 years, Patricia Waller was on the brink of being released from the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF). Instead of tasting freedom, though, she found herself heading hundreds of miles to a Colorado detention facility after California Governor Gavin Newsom handed her over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Waller was born in Belize — a country she has few remaining ties to but will soon be returning to against her will.

Being away from her family, community, and legal team has been “a little stressful, maybe,” Waller tells me over the phone one morning in mid-September, her voice shaking. “I’m trying to figure out where I’m going to go from here, starting over in a country I don’t even remember, with a felony record hanging over my head.”

Newsom’s decision to transfer Waller during a pandemic — something public health officials had advised against for months — has already resulted in Waller contracting Covid-19 inside the Colorado facility. But finally being…

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Responses (5)

What are your thoughts?

Atoosa, what an incredible story. Thank you for sharing. My wife and I became connected and eventually "friends" with some women at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women (NCCW) when we helped produce a TEDx event there in 2018. Here's just one…...

As dire as Waller’s situation is, it’s also tragically familiar: In 2019, ICE detained 143,000 people and deported 267,000

This was quite read. It was alarming how many women are doing time for self-defense and this here is just as eye-catching. It seems like it’s a given you will be deported if you are detained by ICE. Something about dropping people off in countries…...

Minnesota has taken steps to identify people like Patricia Waller as victims, not criminals. I hope that the rest of the country can start down this path.