Lol - she got her $40 worth already, according to that site ...
For Immediate Release
07-12-03 6:30 p.m. EST
WriteAPrisoner.com - Susan Smith
With Susan Smith’s ad comes a great deal of media attention. We have literally spoken to hundreds of members of the media and would like to address some of your questions here:
1) How many letters has Susan received through your service?
As of 6:00 p.m Eastern Time, July 12, 2003, we conservatively estimate the receipt of over 6,000 letters. This is a rough estimate based on both email forwards and ****** letters. We are currently printing email forwards to send to Ms. Smith and have had to temporarily discontinue our email forwarding service until we can catch up. We hope to be able to restore email forwarding within 2-3 days.
2) What is the most common response to Susan’s ad?
There is no single type of generic response to Susan. Authors have contacted her, members of the media, single men, mothers, mothers who have lost their children, ex-judges, attorneys, producers, people interested in selling her items on eBay, proposals and so on. She is also receiving a substantial amount of mail from people of various religious affiliations that is supportive and forgiving in nature.
3) How many visitors has Susan received on her webpage?
As of 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time, July 12, 2003, Susan has received over 150,000 visitors on her personal page. She is currently receiving approximately 170 viewings per minute.
4) What type of feedback are you receiving regarding Susan’s ad?
There are people interested in purchasing her original application and ad for the website. (Please note: None of these items are for sale.) Support mail for her. Hate mail for her. People offering to pay for her ad to stay up indefinitely. Law firms wanting to represent this case in some fashion or another. People of various religious affiliations offering encouragement and/or forgiveness. People who feel she suffers from mental illness.
5) Are you forcing Susan to take her ad down?
No. However, based on the volume of mail she has already received and will continue to receive, we are going to encourage her to take her ad down. It is an unfair burden to put on the Department of Correction’s mailroom, and there is no way Ms. Smith could ever reply to all of these messages.
6) Why did you place her ad in the first place?
Ms. Smith is an inmate, and we provide this service to all inmates. However, if we had realized initially that Susan is a “celebrity” inmate we would have taken steps to help her find pen pals without the media circus this has created. The truth is that the person who typed Ms. Smiths’ ad didn’t realize who she was. We were unaware we had a “celebrity” inmate on our site until we were contacted by the media.
7) How has this affected mail for other inmates?
Because the web site has received a significant increase in traffic, other inmates are experiencing significant increased volume in the amount of mail received. The majority of mail for non-celebrity inmates continues to be positive and encouraging. We are currently receiving in excess of 100,000 visitors daily on the site.
8) Will this affect your policy regarding future “celebrity” inmates?
Until this event we have not had a policy regarding “celebrity” inmates. Because our goal is to work cooperatively with federal and state Departments of Corrections to reduce recidivism through letter writing, we are going to discuss possible steps we can take to ensure that institutions are not burdened with inordinate amounts of mail generated by events such as this.
