Lynn Acosta

Born: 1973 | Years incarcerated: 22 | Released: 2018 | Location: Monterey

“Igrew up thinking I was a mistake,” Lynn Acosta says. During her adolescence, she says she was “abused in every way a child could be.” At 19, she joined the Navy, but her time in the service was shortened after she was sexually assaulted.

In 1998, Lynn was arrested after an old friend murdered his wife. Because she had knowledge of the plot, she was charged and convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. She ended up serving more than 20 years in prison.

“I think the military prepared me for acclimating to prison,” she says. Submitting to authority and keeping her quarters clean were easy, but seeing violence and drug overdoses was hard for her — as was being away from her children.

“I was a preschool teacher’s aide before I was arrested, in my son’s class.” She grew deeply depressed. “I medicated for a good couple of years.”

One silver lining in prison was her time spent in vocational training and self-help groups. “In all the brokenness of my past, prison also gave me the tools and the foundation to be the woman that I am today.”

With guidance from the nonprofit prisoners’ right group, Uncommon Law, as well as other organizations, Lynn went to the California parole board in 2018. Once parole was granted, she wanted to celebrate — but was met with the humility of knowing that there was still someone dead because of her actions, or lack thereof. “I can’t right what I did, but I served my time the best that I could.”

She questioned: “Now what? What is life going to look like?”

After getting situated in a transitional home, she found community in a circle of other former lifers. “There is a distinct difference,” she says, “between people that come and go in the system like it’s a McDonald’s drive-through and a lifer.”

Since her release, she’s found stable employment at Marriott and also became a licensed physical trainer and a certified Department of Veterans Affairs counselor.

She is newly married and living with her husband, Chris, who is also both a former lifer and a veteran.

Through everything, Lynn believes: “If I would’ve been who I am right now, in 1998, I wouldn’t have been incarcerated. But, you know, I’ve had quite the journey. And without the journey, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”