The Other Legal and Moral Issues That Surround Abused Women

My congratulations to Susan Paterno for writing “A Legacy of Violence.”

For a year I have visited “Mimi”--a member of the group of women who killed their husbands after an eternity of abuse. I am a volunteer with the Match Two program administered from San Quentin. The purpose of the program is to provide a match between a “friend” on the outside and an inmate who receives no visitors. It is reputed to be an aid to successful parole.

Our prisons are grossly overcrowded. “Mimi” is an oncology nurse. At the very least, she could be put out on a supervised work parole. As few as 20 such successful exchanges of the boredom and hopelessness of incarceration at Frontera for a productive parole outside could save taxpayers half a million dollars.

To those who question whether they would be trustworthy, I can only answer I’d trust “Mimi” with my own life.

MURIEL CHRISTEN

Upland