7th July 2022
Anthony Arteaga K48159
I have known Anthony for over 20 years since he first wrote to me from CSP Corcoran at the suggestion of one of his fellow prisoners whose father I had known when I was living in Los Angeles 1992-1997. Over the intervening years Anthony and I have exchanged many letters, at first getting to know each other and exploring our backgrounds and interests. Then I helped him to develop his interest in history, sending him reference books and historical novels. I introduced him to some novelists and poets, including William Shakespeare, Alfred Tennyson, Oscar Wilde and T.S.Eliot. And we also discussed some of the personal issues in our lives. In short, we have got to know each other through that correspondence very well.
I have been able to visit Anthony only once, at CSP Corcoran in 2007 when he was in the S.H.0 there. My letters, however, have followed him around from Corcoran to Tehachapi, to Pelican Bay and now to CSP Solano. And through that correspondence there has grown up between us a strong bond of friendship and love which has now developed into a “father and son ” relationship. We are embedded in each other’s lives.
I have also tried to show Anthony without, I hope, being patronising, what the Christian ethic of “loving one’s neighbour as oneself ” means. I wanted him to realise from the start of our relationship that there was someone out there who really cared about him as a fellow human being and was prepared, as it were, to walk with him on his journey towards release and beyond. To my great joy, he has responded to that very positively, certainly in his letters, and has developed a logical, well thought out, approach to life. This will, I feel sure, stand him in good stead when he faces the great challenges of life outside prison. He is, I feel, very ready now for release, and to begin his productive life.
I will continue do what I can to encourage Anthony, introduce him to American friends and to give him some financial support where possible. I would very much like him to visit my wife and me here in England and then to travel with me around this country seeing something of its culture and the history that he has read about, and we have discussed in our letters. But whether this is a practical ambition for either of us I do not know.
Merrick S. Baker-Bates
British Consul-General in Los Angeles 1992-97
