Dear friends of DRCNet:

I'm writing you today with some good news, some bad news and some urgent news. Last week, four drug war prisoners, including Amy Pofahl of "Shattered Lives" fame, were pardoned by President Clinton. That's the good news. Amy had served 9 years of a 24-year sentence, for crimes committed by her husband, not by her, and is now free.

The bad news is that 400,000 nonviolent drug offenders continue to suffer behind bars in our nation's prisons and jails, many of them serving equally unjust sentences. The infamous "Methampethamine Anti-Proliferation Act" is coming to a vote in the Judiciary Committee tomorrow, and would create new mandatory minimum sentences, in addition to its dangerous anti-speech provisions. We are asking you to do the following to help:

First, please visit http://www.drcnet.org/justice/ to send an e-mail or fax to Congress calling for the repeal of mandatory minimum sentences and the pardon of federal nonviolent drug war prisoners.

Second, please use the tell-a-friend form on http://www.drcnet.org/justice/ to spread the word, or forward this alert to your friends and favorite mailing lists directly.

We are also asking you to advocate for another of the unjustly imprisoned. Kemba Smith is a young woman who took the fall for her former boyfriend, who operated a drug ring in and around Hampton University, and who beat her and threatened to harm her parents, if she didn't follow his orders.

Kemba's case was featured in Emerge Magazine twice, under the title "Kemba's Nightmare," and to many in the African American community it is representative of the injustice of mandatory minimum sentences and harsh drug war policies. Visit http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/8899/ to learn more about Kemba's story, and please click on "What You Can Do" to sign her petition for a presidential pardon.

Please also visit http://www.drcnet.org/freespeech/ to tell your Representative and your two Senators to oppose the meth bill and the provisions of it that violate freedom of speech. Last but not least, please call your Reps and Senators on the phone or visit them in person to discuss these issues. Doing so will increase your impact dramatically.

Visit http://www.hr95.org to learn more about Amy Pofahl's case. Those of you who already own copies of "Shattered Lives: Portraits From America's Drug War" can see her picture on the front cover and her story on page ten. Visit http://www.famm.org, http://www.november.org and http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/prisoners/ for many more drug war victim cases.

Please act today! Visit http://www.drcnet.org/justice/ and take a stand.