FREE VICKI ROSEPILER: Serving a 24-year jail sentence in Danbury, Connecticut for 2.72g of cocaine! - Network Against Prohibition

This page is provided by the Darwin-based chapter of the Network Against Prohibition (NAP) as a resource for people who want to help free the prisoners of the War on Drugs and bring an end to this madness. Your feedback and support is appreciated.

Free Vicki Rosepiler

Serving a 24-year jail sentence for 2.72g of cocaine!

When a judge sentences a woman charged with a non-violent crime involving drugs to life plus 20 years, what sentiment prompts that? Clearly it’s irrational. Can someone help me to understand this?

Sister Caryl Hartjes CSA writing from
the US Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury CT

Vicki Rosepiler page index

(this page was last updated Friday 03rd March 2006)

A message from Vicki Rosepiler

Collaboration: NAP and Vicki Rosepiler

Dominate, Intimidate, Incarcerate, Exterminate
- the War on Drugs escalates

Vicki Rosepiler resources

What can I do to help Vicki?

Write to Vicki

More handy links and resources

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The majority of us are non-violent offenders, doing draconian time because of the War on Drugs... who desperately miss their children, husbands, and parents. Martha Stewart is not the only one who will be out of her element in prison; we all are.

Vicki Rosepiler writing from
the US Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury CT - March 21, 2004

A message from Vicki Rosepiler

Originally published in September 2002 on DrugWarPrisoners.org

My name is Vicki Rosepiler. I am a Prisoner of War at the federal women’s prison here in Danbury, Connecticut. I am serving a 292 month sentence for a non-violent drug offense. I have been incarcerated since 1996.

The purpose of this message is to warn those in the free world of the danger you face if you follow the example of the United States. No one here at Danbury says drug use is the right way to go. Most of us have been addicted in one form or another. But any harm done by drug use is miniscule compared with the harm done by the War on Drugs itself, as the government of this country chooses to pursue it.

I could describe the dark side of the Drug War from many angles but will confine myself to two – taken from my own experience. One is the atmosphere of torture that surrounds the practice of plea bargaining. The other is the practice of slave labor – as it is generally known here in Danbury.

You may think that a 24 year 4 month sentence reflects a huge drug deal. Sorry. I pled guilty to possession of 2.72 grams of cocaine powder. I received this draconian sentence because I would not “cooperate” with the prosecution. It’s standard practice to offer a plea bargain to anyone indicted on a drug charge. The deal is to plead guilty in return for a lesser sentence. Then the prosecutor does not have to argue the case in court. But there’s a catch. A downward departure – as it’s called – from a standard sentence is allowed only if the defendant will incriminate someone else, and testify against them. It’s a way the government breaks friendships and communities. In my case I refused to go along. Here’s why.

On the day of my trial I was threatened that if I did not accept a deal for 24 years 4 months the government would indict my innocent mother for what they called money laundering. The charge would have been false, utterly ridiculous, but nothing matters in a drug case. If I did not protect her by surrendering myself to prison, she would be locked away herself – and lose her entire life’s savings to forfeiture. I was given 5 minutes to make up my mind. It was a lose-lose situation.

Perhaps you think, too bad. That must be the exception. No justice system in the world or civilized part of the world is that corrupt. Unfortunately, my case is routine. The only people on a drug charge who escape with a light sentence are those who testify against a friend or family member. Many do, and never go home after release.

The other thing you should know is the return of slavery to the United States. Today, vast numbers of our citizens are in prison. America leads the world in the proportion of its citizens who are incarcerated, an untold number of us for drug offenses. I don’t know what the figure is for Australia. But compared with Canada the proportion behind bars is almost six times greater. Compared with European countries the figure is certainly not less.

Two points stand out in this connection. Prisons for profit and cheap labor. The private prison industry is the fastest growing industry in our country. And whether private or state-run, the prison system here is built on cheap labor. Prisoners make 12 to 17 cents an hour, producing a large variety of goods and services. If you have a place in UNICOR, the government run manufacturing corporation, you make from 34 to 65 cents an hour. In case you think this is enough, remember we pay for toiletries and personal items, extra clothing, and stationery out of our own pocket, and soon – we are told – we will pay for medication prescribed by prison doctors.

There you have it. Vast numbers of people swept into prison, serving long sentences for minor offenses. A justice system corrupted by the War on Drugs. And slave labor.

If my words mean anything, be warned that the example of the United States is dangerous. Taking direct action to end the War on Drugs may not be easy in the United States, given the extremist turn of the present administration. Direct action in countries with more respect for human rights may save you from the disaster that has befallen us, and in the end bring our own government to more enlightened ways.

Thank you.

The following Drug War prisoners join me in saying “Hi” to you from Danbury. You can read their words on the web site of The Committee on Unjust Sentencing.

Kimberly Robinson, age 37, release date January 2015
Irene Jacqueline Seale, age 56, release date November 2009
Ramona DiFazio, age 43, release date January 2019
Aminah Forde, age 44, release date October 2018
Shamika Sims, age 27, release date March 2012
Tami Jo Conner, age 38, release date June 2015
Tammie Francis, age 41, release date never (life imprisonment)
Sharon White, age 41, release date April 2022
Paula Buford, age 48, release date June 2012
Matilda Hall, age 50, release date December 2024
Audrey Miller, age 40, release date November 2016

Finally, a number of Committee supporters outside the POW community responded to an invitation to support the Direct Action conference. One writes:

“I have not been incarcerated, but have a few words that may be of useful application.

“The incarceration of drug users takes the user away from their family and their job. Preventing the user from being with his or her family has serious negative effects on the family short term and long term. Preventing the user from being on the job, either creating goods or providing services, is NOT PROTECTING SOCIETY.

“Incarceration effects on the family and the workplace cause serious financial losses for society and the family.

“Some drug users eventually need treatment. In these cases it would be much to the benefit of society if the expenses of treatment were paid for by the one being treated. A stiff tax on legalized drugs would allow the drug user/treatment patient to pay for most of the expenses. YOU USE, YOU PAY is the simple formula here. Even with the high tax, prices of drugs would be less expensive than they are now on the street.

“G’luck down under.”

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Collaboration:
NAP and Vicki Rosepiler

In September 2002, the Darwin-based Network Against Prohibition held the First International Conference on Direct Action to End the War on Drugs in conjunction with the First Darwin International Syringe Festival.

People from around the globe contacted NAP to offer their support for these ground-breaking events. One of the first letters we received was the above letter from Vicki Rosepiler and NAP members have continued to correspond with her to this day.

Vicki gives us an essential insight to the plight of hundreds of thousands people in the US prison system. Her case serves as a reminder of the insanity of the US-driven War on Drugs and is often used by NAP members as an example of its dangerous consequences.

We hope to meet Vicki some day soon!

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The spirit of liberation is rising in the people all around the globe. It cannot be silenced by threats and violence any more than it can be contained by prison walls.

Sister Caryl Hartjes CSA writing from
the US Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury CT

Dominate, Intimidate,
Incarcerate, Exterminate
- The War on Drugs escalates

Over the past five years, there has been a serious escalation of efforts to foist a drug-free world upon the rest of us.

The US-dominated International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) and UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) are both aiming for a drug-free world in the near future. Both organisations are staunch supporters of a zero-tolerance approach to illicit drug use.

Australia’s anti-drug warriors are no different.

Prime Minister John Howard's own Drug Czar, Salvation Army Major Brian Watters, former chairperson of the Australian National Council on Drugs (ANCD), has recently been appointed to the INCB. When it comes to the War on Drugs (and drug users),

Australia

is very much at centre stage.

These drug eradication efforts occur on many levels. In the developing world, peasant farmers and their families are the target, facing sanctions for harvesting crops that their ancestors have grown for generations. The

funds crop spraying in

Afghanistan

and Central America regardless of the impact on the environment.

In western 'democracies', the powerless underclass are the cannon fodder. The western underclass is currently being incarcerated en masse; all in the name of the War on Drugs.

Vicki Rosepiler is just one person among hundreds of thousands of who are profoundly affected by the War on Drugs.

Sister Caryl Hartjes CSA* hit the nail on the head with this letter she wrote writing while incarcerated at the US Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut:

"It’s good for the economy. Prisons benefit localities, even save them from collapse with jobs and contracted services. A sideline one could only know having been here on the inside: Discounting the professional staff, prison employees are not rocket scientists! Given the worldwide shift to technology, what would localities do with their unskilled workers? Voila! Build prisons and hire them as officers. Hundreds of them!... I read a statistic that by 2050 one half of US citizens will be in or profoundly affected by prisons. Includes children whose parents are incarcerated (major disaster) as well as former prisoners with felony charges that prevent them from voting for life, not to mention the impossibility of getting jobs or education."

Sister Caryl was right when she said that the War on Drugs was good for the economy.

Incarceration is now an essential component of 'justice' systems in many western nations. There are corporations who see private prisons as one of their primary revenue raising tools and governments who see votes in building (and filling) more jails.

As early as 2000, the World Socialist Website's Joseph Delius reported that some US states are already spending a significant amount more on their jails than on higher education. The US state of California - over which Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger presides - has the highest incarceration rate in the world with over 626 prison inmates per 100,000 residents. (See UNODC Global Incarceration and Prison Trends).

Australia's Northern Territory (NT), the birth-place of the Network Against Prohibition (NAP), has an atrocious incarceration rate. The NT Government jail nearly 600 people out of every 100,000. A stunning ninety per cent of whom are Indigenous people.

Amazingly, the incarceration rate in Australia's closest neighbour - Indonesia - is only 21 per 100,000 inhabitants (Prisons: a booming industry in the US and Europe - WSWS article, June 5, 2000).

Many countries still utilise the death penalty as a key part of their drug eradication program. Saudi Arabia,

and even the

have laws on the books that can land you a death sentence for non-violent drug offences.

*Sister Caryl Hartjes CSA is a member of SOA Watch, the organization which keeps tabs on the School of the Americas (renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) at Fort Benning, Georgia. WHISC trains paramilitaries in methods of torture and put down of dissent in Latin America. Sister Caryl was among the 49 SOA protesters sentenced to prison after a non-violent action outside the “school” in February this year. She was released from FCI Danbury in July 2005.

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Are you doing your bit to
end the War on Drugs?

Vicki Rosepiler resources

NAP Free Vicki Rosepiler poster (version 1)

NAP Free Vicki Rosepiler poster (version 2)

NAP Free Vicki bookmarks (microsoft word version)

NAP Free Vicki bookmarks (adobe acrobat version)

CAN-DO Clemency: Vicki Rosepiler

Letter to the editor of the Northern Territory News by NAP member Stuart Highway - Monday, 05th September 2005

Sister Caryl Hartjes CSA writes from Danbury

Vicki Rosepiler on DrugWarPrisoners.org

Vicki Rosepiler on the November Coalition site

Yahoo! search for "Vicki Rosepiler" on napnt.org

Search the web with Yahoo! for "Vicki Rosepiler"

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What can I do to help Vicki and other prisoners of the War on Drugs?

If you think it's time you did something about the situation faced by people like Vicki Rosepiler, the Bali Nine, Schapelle Corby, Nguyen Tuong Van, Michelle Leslie or others who are facing prison or even the death penalty for drug offences overseas, or you have had enough of the War on Drugs, there is heaps you can do.

The following are some suggestions for people who want to help with the campaign to end the War on Drugs. This is not an exhaustive list and we welcome feedback if you have other ideas.

Things you can do include:

start a NAP chapter in your community. Contact us to find out how;
download and distribute our Free Vicki Rosepiler posters and bookmarks;
tell your friends, family members, schoolmates and work colleagues about Vicki's case;
if you are in Australia you can email, write or phone your local member of the Commonwealth Parliament. Northern Territory residents should also engage with the Northern Territory Parliament. If they ignore you, find a better way to get your message across to them (if you are overseas consider writing to your own politicians);
express your concerns about Vicki Rosepiler and the War on Drugs on talkback radio;
write letters to the editors of newspapers and other publications;
graffiti your local neighbourhood with slogans like "Free Vicki Rosepiler" and "End the War on Drugs!";
support NAP community smoke-ins and other events;
help organise other civil disobedience activities;
come along to NAP court case s to show your support for the Napatistas;
join our email list so you can keep up to date with any developments in Vikki's case (once you sign up as a member of our email list you can join us in our chatroom);
inform the NAP about your efforts;
tell your story… if you are a victim of the War on Drugs, write it up and publish the story where you can (send it to us so we can put it on our website);
if you are a member of a trade union, express your concerns about the War on Drugs to your union executive and to your fellow members... demand that your union take some action;
if you have a website, link to http://www.napnt.org and Vicki's page on the CAN-DO Clemency website;
make a donation to NAP to help us keep this website online and maintain our activities on the ground in the Northern Territory and beyond. We receive no government or corporate funding and rely entirely on raising funds from within our own community. Many NAP members are permanent part-time volunteers engaging in a wide variety of activities;
help us with our newshawking efforts by sending us any media clippings on Vikki's case; and
write to Vicki and other drug war prisoners.

If you want to get involved in the NAP campaign to free the drug war prisoners and end the War on Drugs, please email us or call 0415 16 2525 (+61 415 16 2525 from overseas).

If you are interesed doing more to end the War on Drugs, we encourage you to engage in some of the actions suggested above.

If you are in the Top End of Australia, you are welcome to join us at one of our regular NAP meetings. Our meetings are held on every second Wednesday at 7pm in Nightcliff. Click here for the date of our next meeting.

Taking direct action to end the War on Drugs may not be easy in the United States, given the extremist turn of the present administration. Direct action in countries with more respect for human rights may save you from the disaster that has befallen us, and in the end bring our own government to more enlightened ways.

- Vicki Rosepiler writing from the US Federal Correctional
Institution, Danbury CT, September 2002

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Write to Vicki

NAP members often write to drug war prisoners from within the NAP network and beyond. If you would like to join our prisoner support/solidarity efforts, click here.

You can write to Vicki at this address:

Vicki Rosepiler
#02424-087 13/M
Federal Correctional Institution
Pembroke Station RT. 37
Danbury, CT 06811
USA

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