The Women’s Resource Center’s Student Leadership Council started their second annual campaign advocating awareness and support for women in prison this week in the Ferguson Center.
The week of events will start off with a letter writing campaign beginning Monday in the Ferguson Center, near Fresh Food Company.
The group will operate a table there from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. every day this week except Friday and invite students and faculty to take a few minutes to write a letter of support to an inmate at Tutwiler Prison for Women.
“We want to provide the women the assurance that University of Alabama students realize that they are there,” said Jessi Hitchens, assistant director of the Women’s Resource Center. “We want to encourage them to leave the facility and be successful, because we believe in their success in the future.”
A similar campaign in January of last year drew letters from many UA students and staff.
“Our goal last year was to get 60 letters written,” Hitchens said. “We matched that goal, and we actually had 55 of the women write back to us. Their letters are really quite moving. Those responses will be at our table this week, so people can see how these women responded to the original letters and what they meant to them.”
The responses to last year’s letters are filled with thanks, appreciation, regret and hope.
This year, the Women’s Resource Center has upped their goal to 100 letters total. Those who choose to write will be given the first name of an inmate and sign their own in conclusion.
“I appreciate you for what you’ve done,” one inmate responded to a letter from the WRC Student Leadership Council. “You’ve shown that you cared enough to write a stranger, an incarcerated stranger. Again, thank you.”
Another wrote, “I would like to thank you for the letter of encouragement you sent me. I also want you to know I am still strong in my faith in God. When I am feeling weak like lately, God uses someone like you to remind me to hang on.”
The campaign continues Wednesday, with a panel held in Ferguson 309. Three women, including a woman once incarcerated, will speak and discuss the issues surrounding women in Alabama’s prison system.
Friday, Jan. 28, the week of events concludes with a visit to Tutwiler Prison and a guided tour with the warden there. The trip, as well as the panel, is free of charge.
Students who would like to attend should contact the Women’s Resource Center at 205-348-5040, who will fill available spots on a first come, first served basis.
“The purpose of the campaign is to provide awareness of the struggles of women who are incarcerated.” Hitchens said. “It’s important to be aware of them, and to recognize the issues that surround why they become incarcerated.”
