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PAPER
TRAIL
The Arrest
On the morning of November 8, 1983, Elaine Bartlett and her boyfriend
Nathan Brooks left her apartment in a Harlem housing project and
rode the train to Albany. Crammed down the front of Elaine’s
pants was a package of cocaine. Her friend George Deets had told
her that if she brought the drugs to Albany, she would earn $2500.
At the time, she was 26 years old and had four young children.
George met Elaine and Nathan at the train station,
then took them to the Monte Mario Motel. Within a few hours, Elaine
and Nathan were both in the custody of the state police, posing
for mug
shots at the police barracks. They were under arrest for selling
four ounces of cocaine. (Click
here to see the investigation and arrest reports.)
The Trial
Elaine and Nathan were taken to the Albany County Jail, then indicted
by a grand jury. In January 1984, they went on trial together
and were each convicted of an A-1 felony. Under New York State’s
Rockefeller drug laws, the judge was required to give them at
least 15-years-to-life.
Neither Elaine nor Nathan knew much about the
Rockefeller drug laws, but Elaine tried to plead her own case
at their sentencing. (Click
here to read her words.) When she finished, the judge gave
her 20-years-to-life. He gave Nathan 25-to-life.
Life on the Inside
On March 5, 1984, Elaine arrived at Bedford Hills, the state’s
only maximum-security prison for women. (Read her receiving
blotter.) Over the next years, she was regularly evaluated
by the prison’s counselors, who were required to fill out
“assessment
summaries” measuring her “custodial adjustment”
and “program involvement.”
The only way Elaine could get out of prison early
was to get clemency. She applied and was invited to appear before
the parole board in December 1999. Two board members interviewed
her and also reviewed her “inmate
status report.”
Governor George Pataki granted Elaine’s
request for clemency two days before Christmas in 1999. She was
released from Bedford Hills on January 26, 2000. By then, she
had been a prisoner for more than sixteen years.
Life on the Outside
Once she left prison, Elaine was not completely free. To get out
of prison, she’d had to sign a “Certificate
of Release to Parole Supervision.” Now she had to follow
all of the rules listed on this form, or else risk returning to
prison once again.
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