Pubdate: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 Source: Newsday (NY) Section: City Edition Copyright: 2005 Newsday Inc. Contact: http://www.newsday.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308 Author: Ellen Yan Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/women.htm (Women) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?140 (Rockefeller Drug Laws) CELEBRATING THEIR MILESTONES She Worked Tirelessly To Free An Inmate Who Would Become A Close Friend; The Two Now Are Working To Help Other Females In Prison As Lora Tucker gets her master's degree in social work today, the former interior designer has already met her goal to "help people design their lives, not their homes." She was key to the celebrated clemency release of Elaine Bartlett, a mother of four sentenced in 1984 to 20 years to life under the Rockefeller drug laws for carrying 4 ounces of cocaine. But Tucker has also fought her own sort of sentence as she struggled toward graduation at Hunter College. "I had the burden of being sentenced to HIV-AIDS," said Tucker, 44, of Howard Beach, who learned she contracted the illness from an ex-boyfriend in 1997. Getting the degree "was something I wanted to do and nothing was going to stop me," she said. Behind Tucker's determination is a story of friendship, a crusade and a budding venture with Bartlett, granted clemency in 2000 after Tucker personally lobbied Gov. George Pataki. Tucker wrote 1,500 letters on Bartlett's behalf and taught inmates how to market themselves with the parole boards. "When Lora gets that master's," said Bartlett, 46, of Harlem, "I'll feel like I'm getting my master's too, like I invested in it as well." The lives of the two women merged when Tucker began a help workshop in 1997 at the Bedford Hills prison. She was full of enthusiasm the first day - Pollyanna, the inmates called her - ready to help women win clemency. But by her next visit days later, Tucker knew she had AIDS, and now it was Bartlett making the prison the one place Tucker felt she was free of the AIDS stigma. "If I had any doubts about living my life, she'd say 'Shut up. What are you talking about dying for? There's women counting on you here,'" Tucker said. The two women seemed to lead parallel lives. It was Bartlett's emotional support that counted when Tucker's mother was fighting cancer. And when Bartlett's mother was dying of diabetes in the hospital, it was Tucker at the bedside. Then two days before Tucker's graduation, Bartlett got her own recognition, a Martin Luther King award from the Albany-based advocacy group, Center for Law and Justice, for her efforts to overturn the Rockefeller drug laws, which requires long sentences for minor drug offenses. The two are starting a nonprofit to help female inmates. "AIDS was the worst thing that happened to me, but meeting Elaine was one of the best things," Tucker said. GRAPHIC: Newsday photo / Robert Mecea - Elaine Bartlett, left, and Lora Tucker tend to each other's struggles. Bartlett was in prison; Tucker lives with AIDS. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth