A Cry for Frankie: Fri, 16 Mar 2001

Dear committee on unjust sentencing,

I am writing this letter in concern for a very dear friend of mind, frankie delise. Frankie is in the Fluvanna corections center for women in troy, virginia. Even thou frankie is a federal prison, she has been put in a state prison that does not handle them as the federal guide lines state that a inmate shout be. frankie has wrote me many letters. she obnly get to see that outside about 20 minutes a day, in here last letter to me,she was telling me how much she would jsut love to be ble to sit in the sun for a few minutes. Since Frankie has been at Fluvanna, she has lost over 30 lbs because you can not eat the food there. on lettern she wrote to me stated that , at dinner tonight, they had a peice of meat with gravet over it, i pulled the gravey back to see that it was a piece of ground hamberger that had not been cooked. i could not believe that there were human being on this planet that would serve raw meat to a person. i also wondered , when these people go home at night, do they feed their families raw meat. yes , these are inmates that are paying for a crime that they did. but they are also human's, not dogs. it really made me sad to think that we, as free people have a system that would do this to other human's and call it the law. the one thing that stands out in my mind is when Frankie tell's me how hunger she is, but she can't eat what they give them there. food that is rotten, raw meat's and only 6 oz. per serving. i wonder if they feed their children the same way. but the one thing that really trouble's me is the time that was given to Frankie. she has to serve 25 years for selling drugs. now i am one that does not believe in people taking drugs. but i also don't believe in people drinking and getting in a car to drive, but we do not give them 25 years for that. i also don't believe in people that kill other people, but most of them gt less time than Frankie has. Frankie is not a violent person, she is very sweet and loving. why did the federal system put her in a place like Fluvanna. the only reason i can come up with is, they jsut don't care. How can a person come out of a place like this and be a better person? There is no way that can happen. do we as people think that by putting a human being in a place liek this jsut takes care of a problem in the war on drugs, which by the way was pushed thru by a man that lies, cheats on his wife and who knows what else he had done. but we called him, mr. president. Frankie told me she just stays in her cell to stay outof trouble with nothing to do, nothing to eat and no one that care"s. is this what as free people have become . the federal goverment is a big , powerful system, that i guess can do what ever they want, and we arre to go along with it just because they don't care. there are a lot of other ways that we can punish these people that would help , rather than hurt them and other people. Frankie once told me in a letter, that if she had killed someone, she would have had a better change on life thatn she has now. is this what our federal goverment is wanting to teach these people. that it i sbetter to kill thatn to sell drugs? i wonder. as i said before, i am a person that does not believe in durgs, but i am also a person that believe that human's should be treated as human's and not animals.

Please everybody help Frankie,

Terry Lewis