WOMEN ON CRUSADE TO CHANGE LAW

'Mothers Of The Disappeared' Aim To Put A Face On Drug War

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Ever since Mattie White's three children were arrested
two years ago during the largest drug sting her town of Tulia, Texas, had
ever seen, she's been working overtime.

Now she says she's tired. The 50-year-old has been raising her two
grandchildren and visiting her children whenever she can, she's been
working two jobs and she's trying to change the laws governing drug offenses.

Ms. White was in New Mexico on Tuesday along with five other mothers whose
children are in prison for drug offenses. They had gathered to meet with
Gov. Gary Johnson to kick off a national campaign showing how the drug laws
affect families.

"It's good we're all coming together, but it's also very sad to hear
everyone's story," she said. "When your kids become incarcerated for such a
long time, you become incarcerated, too."

Calling themselves the "Mothers of the Disappeared," the women will end
their seven-day tour in Tulia, marking the two-year anniversary of the
controversial drug sting in the Panhandle community of 4,700, 45 miles
south of Amarillo.

In the July 23, 1999, sting operation, forty-six Tulia residents, - 43 of
whom were black - were charged with cocaine possession based on the
testimony of one undercover officer. About 250 black people live in Tulia.

One year later the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit, accusing
local officials of singling out black people to run them out of town. The
NAACP has filed several lawsuits. Twenty residents remain in prison while
others are on parole or on probation.

The mothers plan to open a Tulia office, the second of what they hope will
be several nationwide.

This year, the Texas Legislature, responding to the Tulia case, made drug
convictions contingent on corroborating evidence, and not solely on the
testimony of a single drug agent. Sentencing laws were not changed.

"Most of those people in Tulia are first-time offenders," said Elaine
Bartlett, who served 16 years in a maximum security prison for a
first-time, nonviolent drug offense. She wants changes in New York's
so-called Rockefeller drug laws, which require among the harshest mandatory
minimum sentences in the nation.

"These severe drug laws were made for kingpins, but that's not who's being
put in jail," she said.

"This is putting a human face on the war on drugs," said Mr. Johnson, who
has been hailed as a visionary and a hero since he became the highest
elected official to call for decriminalizing marijuana.

"I don't think there's a bigger issue going," he said, adding, "If we ever
get around to changing drug laws, we'll easily be able to shut down our
private prisons."

Teresa Aviles' son Terrence died mysteriously in New York, eight years into
a 23-year sentence for a nonviolent drug offense. The black mother has yet
to receive a full accounting of what happened; the death certificate she
received was for a white man.

"My son had never done any other offense, and what he essentially received
was a death sentence," said the 53-year-old from New York. "There is
something wrong when people who kill get out in seven years and you get
accused of selling drugs ? without any evidence ? and you get 25 years to
life. What kind of society is that?"

As for her meeting with New Mexico's governor, Ms. Aviles offered an
exchange. "I wish we could take him back to New York and give New Mexico
[New York Gov. George] Pataki."

The mothers will participate in a NAACP forum on race and the drug war in
Amarillo on Friday, then will arrive in Tulia by Sunday for their "Never
Again" rally.