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.