I see where you are coming from. It is very fascinating. I like to watch Notorious and other biopgraphies on killers to see how and why they did what they did but I think I would still be a bit scared of becoming so close to one. I believe there are killers who have mental illness and were misdiagnosed but I also believe there are people who are just pure evil and don't deserve to have outside contact. I would, however, like to write to some of the inmates who are housed with Stella Kiser and Jessie Compton and let them know just what a horrible thing they did so that others will treat them how they should be treated. I just think if I were the family of the victim, it would be like being slapped in the face to know they have so many freedoms.
The people you see on television, the famous ones, who flaunt the devil and are clearly, CLEARLY after attention for their crimes - marrying women and getting them to mortgage their homes for them - the ones, like you say, that are just evil - I'd never want to write to fuel that level of narcissism. That would not be at all interesting to me. Child molesters - no way! Just makes me feel icky.
The sentence is either death, after some time, or many years of crappy nasty food, filthy living conditions and absolutely nothing to keep your mind occupied is such a punishment that they do get crazy. (I had a brilliant boyfriend who ended up in the system for most of his formative years due to drugs, and he's a complete NUT case now - it's horrific and so sad.) Anyway, their punishment is being treated worse than shelter dogs - so I hardly think writing on a piece of paper that you have to trade something for to even get a stamp is really to be considered a freedom. (My opinion, of course, you are totally free to disagree.) Especially if the mother of the prisoner gets even a piece of comfort from it. I know I get FAR and AWAY more out of writing to my pen pal than he does. At least I think so. We never talk about the crimes. I mean, once I asked one specific question about one crime that I read about and I had one specific question because I lost sleep over it - but I am not a "fan" and he knows I don't want details of his crime. I can watch stuff on tv all day long, true or not, and read about it here - but I don't want to hear it "from his point of view." I want to know who it is BESIDES the label of the one thing he is in prison for. I am not defined by the fact I am a mother, a programmer, a state worker, a tom boy and a dominatrix. I happen to be the most loyal best friend and most accepting person to so many people... and beyond that, I am so much more. So are they.
It's actually MORE scarey when you get to realize that they are human beings just like us, with just one wire crossed... and that MOST PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW IT. That means... one mistake, one fingerprint left at the wrong place just before a crime, and that could be us sitting there. Because we are just like them, but for a moment of something... that we did, or that we didn't even do.
That's a bigger rush to think about than any Stephen King novel.
Thank you for not condeming me. It's refreshing to be thought about a bit disapprovingly, without being attacked for it. You truely made my day.