Dear Friends, Family, and Supporters,
My name is Judy Pickens, and I am currently incarcerated at the Chillicothe Correctional Center for Women in Missouri—fighting every day to prove my innocence and return home to the life and family I have been wrongfully separated from.
From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank each and every one of you who has stood beside me in this painful journey. Your prayers, your letters, your public support, and your faith in my innocence mean more to me than words could ever fully express. You remind me that I am not forgotten, that my story matters, and that truth still has the power to move mountains.
This fight is not just about me—it’s about justice. It’s about ensuring that no one else has to endure what I’ve endured. My case is a clear and heartbreaking example of how a miscarriage of justice can steal years from an innocent life. That’s why I’m humbly asking for your continued support—not just in prayer, but in action.
Please consider writing to your local lawmakers and members of Congress. Let them know that my case demands urgent attention. Encourage them to re-examine the facts, to investigate the failings that led to this, and to stand up for the principles they were elected to uphold—fairness, truth, and justice.
In the time I’ve been separated from my family, I’ve missed countless irreplaceable moments. My son, Joseph, now has a daughter—my beautiful granddaughter, Khloe—whose life and growth I am missing out on, but I look forward to helping her with homework and combing her hair. My daughter, Kheematah, got married last June, and I wasn’t there to help her get ready or walk her through her wedding day with the love and support a mother should give. My parents are aging, and each day I spend away from them is a day I can never get back.
All I want is the chance to be present. To rebuild the time lost. To give and receive love freely, without bars and walls between us.
In Luke 17:6, Jesus said:
“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”
I am holding tightly to that mustard seed of faith—and I ask you to do the same. With your voices added to mine, I believe we can uproot injustice and plant hope in its place.
Please share my story. Please write. Please speak out. Help bring me home.
With gratitude and love,
Judy Pickens
Madeline Carthen, Chaplin Brings on Judy Pickens, a wrongfully convicted woman. Click the link below.
“The Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act starts to change our country’s approach to helping women in prison by ensuring that they are treated with dignity and equipping them with the tools, resources, and services they need to successfully return to their families and communities
Women prisoners are categorized as members of vulnerable populations because of the many unique conditions associated with confinement that compromise their ability to exercise free choice. Thousands of innocent women are wrongfully incarcerated, and that’s why we have to fight with them and for them to be released each and every day for justice in every way.
Vulnerable populations include patients who are racial or ethnic minorities, children, the elderly, the socioeconomically disadvantaged, the underinsured, or those with certain medical conditions. Members of vulnerable populations often have health conditions that are exacerbated by unnecessarily inadequate healthcare.
As of 1997, over 135,000 women in the United States were in prisons and jails. Despite recent reforms, the United States still incarcerates 698 people for every 100,000 residents, more than any other country. Compared to that number, the women’s incarceration rate of 133 seems quaint. But it’s the highest incarceration rate for women in the world.
What is the correctional system?
A correctional system, also known as a penal system, thus refers to a network of agencies that administer a jurisdiction’s prisons and community-based programs like parole and probation boards; this system is part of the larger criminal justice system, which additionally includes police, prosecution, and courts.