AMY GOODMAN: You’re listening to Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now!, The Exception to the Rulers. I’m Amy Goodman, here with Juan González, broadcasting from Philadelphia, where the Republican National Convention is taking place. We are in the third day.

Well, there is not only a convention that’s taking place, but there is a shadow convention that is a counterconvention taking place at the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. And, of course, there are the protests in the streets. But at the shadow convention yesterday, the theme was the so-called war on drugs.

Seventy-five thousand women in the U.S. are serving prison sentences, and the numbers are growing by 9% a year. Most of these women behind bars are there for nonviolent, low-level drug offenses, and most of them are mothers. They call themselves drug war prisoners because their lives have been gravely affected by the government’s present drug policy. The so-called war on drugs, which we’ve looked at extensively on Democracy Now!, affects more than just the people incarcerated. Today we hear from the mothers, sisters and children who are the victims of low-level and nonviolent drug use.

And we welcome our guests to Democracy Now! and want to begin with Mary Gaines, leader of Federal Forum, which is a program to assist families who have incarcerated family members. Mary Gaines, welcome to Democracy Now!

MARY GAINES: Good morning, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. You spent eight-and-a-half years in prison for a drug misdemeanor.

MARY GAINES: Yes, eight years, mm-hmm.

AMY GOODMAN: What was the crime?

MARY GAINES: It was for conspiracy of drugs.

AMY GOODMAN: Your comments?

MARY GAINES: My comments is that I was a first-time offender, nonviolent offender, and I thought the eight-year sentence was definitely — was just too much. I was separated from my children for the complete eight years and taken directly out of the state of Minnesota, which I was very much unprepared for.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: What was the impact on the rest of your family?

MARY GAINES: The impact was very — to me, it was severe, because my sister ended up actually taking care of my three children. And that was Ricky, Rashad and Rakisha. And it ended up where, after eight years, she pretty much — my sister was completely, almost, exhausted, because she could not get support services within our community. My children could not visit me. It was a hardship, because I was, you know, traveled all around the country to different prisons. I went to four different prisons in the eight years. And it just — it was just a hardship on the family completely, and it was very emotionally draining for all of us.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, we’re also joined by —

AMY GOODMAN: By your children.

MARY GAINES: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Rakisha and Ricky. Rakisha is 18. How did it affect you that your mother was gone for eight-and-a-half years?

RAKISHA GAINES: When my mom went to prison, it affected me a lot, because she was my best friend, and also I was real young, so my mom was all I had. So, it was just like that they had just took everything away from me. I got in trouble with the streets and started getting in trouble in school and, you know, started getting in trouble with the law and stuff. So it was just like I was repeating a pattern, like that with my mom, as far as the law and stuff, because I didn’t know what to do. I just felt, since she was in prison, I felt that if I was to go to jail, that’s the only way I could be closer to her. So, you know, that’s it.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And Ricky?

RICKY GAINES: Well, for me, when she was incarcerated, it became a big void within my life. And I think I filled that void just with self-determination, as far as educating myself in school, staying in school, trying to stay positive, keeping myself around positive friends. And I did, you know, get into some things as far as, you know, negativity, because it’s hard, you know, not having a mother and a father there, which that is the equation of a family. But, I mean, we stuck it through thick and thin. We still had support within our family from my auntie, Angela Gaines, and that helped. That helped a lot. And we had — we all had each other. And I think, just within that, you know, that’s self-determination. I mean, I knew the system would label my mom forever as this bad person or this failure to society, but in reality, they failed her. So, you know, I wanted to be something that and someone that she could be proud of, that, hey, you know, you didn’t fail as far as a parent, as a mother and as a human being.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’d like to ask Nora Callahan, who’s also here with us, who’s the executive director of the November Coalition. You know, there are a lot of people out there who are listening to this show and who’ve been watching the Republican convention, who say, “Well, the people who are involved in the selling or use of drugs, if they commit the crime, they’ve got to do the time.” What’s your response? Could you tell a little bit about your personal story and also why you formed the November Coalition?

NORA CALLAHAN: Sure. What do I say when people — to people who say, “When they do the crime, they should do the time”? Well, I could say — I could talk about my personal story, but I want to add something about Mary Gaines. Mary Gaines was an insurance saleswoman. She was trying to become a businesswoman so she could make a decent living and raise her three kids. And a DEA agent posed as a white woman that wanted to be her friend, a white woman from another class that wanted to be her friend. And they worked on her for months and months and months and months to build a friendship, and then tried to talk her into hooking this DEA agent up with some people that could get her some drugs, because if she just could get a little money, she could have the lifestyle she was accustomed to, because she was having personal trouble in her life. And that’s what Mary got ensnared with. And that’s what the war on drugs is about, taking people not ordinarily predisposed to crime and turning them into criminals. And then she ended up doing more time than anyone else.

And these kids, this doesn’t happen often. We have a family together today. This is not the rule. This is the exception. Most of the time, the mothers get out of prison, and these kids could care less about their mother. So, what we have is an exception to talk to America about the rule. And the rule is the drug war is destroying American families. It is not a war on drugs. It is a war on people. It’s a war on families.

And in my own situation, my brother got 27-and-a-half years, and I spent many years very depressed, trying to figure this out. I had a father dying of cancer, undermedicated, a stepson that came into our home drug-dependent. We couldn’t get him treatment. And then my brother got arrested. And I’m from my background, you know, white family, no crime. I mean, we were never selectively prosecuted like the inner-city people. But when I studied the drug war, that’s what I saw, was what was really happening to a lot of families. And so, the November Coalition formed. And Mary’s working on her organization, Federal Forum. We do a lot of networking, because we believe we can change these laws.

AMY GOODMAN: Speaking of families, Tamika is also with us, 21-year-old woman raising her seven brothers and sisters.

TAMIKA: No, I’m raising my five brothers and sisters and two kids of my own.

AMY GOODMAN: Ah, so seven — 

TAMIKA: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: — kids altogether.

TAMIKA: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Because your mother and other relatives are in jail.

TAMIKA: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: How are you doing it? You’re 21.

TAMIKA: A lot of hard work, and people like Mary to help me. You know, it’s hard, because, like you said, I’m 21. So, you know, people don’t expect me to do it because of my age. But since I don’t have a mother, because she is incarcerated for drug trafficking. And you know, I feel like the system is failing us, because not only did they take a single mother from seven kids, but then they didn’t give us any option or anybody to talk to, anybody to try and help us. So they basically left us out there to go into the system. And I have a 19-year-old brother who’s incarcerated for 13 years now, and I have my 15-year-old sister’s in a boot camp. So, they’re repeating this cycle. And I think that’s what they wanted us to do. They didn’t want to see us do any better than what we’re doing now, because they didn’t give us any choices, just like I don’t think my mother had a choice to do what she did. She didn’t have any other, you know, resources to get, you know.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: How much time is she sentenced to?

TAMIKA: Five to 10 years.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Five to 10. And how far away is the prison where she is from you?

TAMIKA: She’s in Pekin, Illinois, and we’re in Minnesota.

MARY GAINES: And that’s about 900 miles.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: So, there’s no consideration even in terms of placing her in a jail where it would be even easier for you to be able to visit her.

TAMIKA: No, and they just moved her from Florida. She was in Tallahassee, Florida, and they moved her down the Pekin. So, it’s a little bit closer.

AMY GOODMAN: Mary Gaines, as we wrap up the program, what message do you have for the Republicans? And is it any different than the message you have for the Democrats?

MARY GAINES: The message really is the same. I say to the Republicans and the Democrats that they need to go back into their whatever, so-called houses, and they need to really look and revise and review these mandatory minimum sentencings, the sentencing guidelines, and they need to look at what it’s doing to our children, what it’s doing to families, because this community, this society, is built upon families, and it’s affecting every class. It’s not just one class, but the majority is in the communities of color. And if they continue doing what they’re doing on the war on drugs, what it’s going to be is a second generation of offenders. And we, as a society, do not need that. We need to have these children, who are trying their best to hold on, to just be able to have support services. And we need to be able to have — since they’ve already failed us, they need to try to come back and help us.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you all for being with us. If people want to get in touch with your group, where can they call?

MARY GAINES: For Federal Forum, they can call 651-646-2483.

AMY GOODMAN: Thank you, Mary Gaines, Nora Callahan, Tamika. Thank you very much for joining us. And thank you very much to your kids for coming in, as well, Rakisha and Ricky.

That does it for the program. A lot of people to thank today, and we hope you’ll go to our website. We’ll give you a tour of it tomorrow. It is just newly unveiled, Breaking with Convention: Power, Protest and the Presidency. Our new media reporter and web manager is Pratap Chatterjee. If you’d like to get a copy of today’s show, you can call 1-800-735-0230. That’s 1-800-735-0230. We are broadcasting on radio, on public television, through public access cable stations around the country, on Deep Dish network at 9415, that channel, through Free Speech Television and Deep Dish network. Democracy Now! is produced by Jeremy Scahill, with help from Deepa Fernandes, also our technical director, Graceon Challenger. We had assistance from Sanaz Mozafarian, Karen Pomer, David Thompson, Lisa Shaul, Nell Geiser. Video production DeeDee Halleck, Skip Blumberg, Linda Iannacone, John Hamilton, Ben Thomas, Carlos Pareja, Jay Pennington, Tia Lessin. And Pratap had help from Lina Hoshino and Derek Chung on that web. From the studios of the Independent Media Center in Philadelphia for the Republican National Convention, I’m Amy Goodman, here with Juan González, for another edition of Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now!

[End of Hour 1]

AMY GOODMAN: From Pacifica Radio, this is Democracy Now!, broadcasting live from Philadelphia.

Hundreds of protesters were arrested yesterday as they attempted to block democracy as business as usual. We’ll speak with a protester and his father, a Republican delegate from South Carolina. We’ll go to the jail where a number of the protesters are being held. And we’ll talk to Spearhead.

All that and more, coming up on Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now!

Welcome to Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, here with Juan González, broadcasting from the Independent Media Center in Center City, Philadelphia. We are just a few miles away from South Philly, from the First Union Convention Center. “First Union,” hmmm, might give you the idea that the workers are unionized there. They are not. But there are thousands of delegates inside, and today is the third day of the Republican National Convention, as we go to news headlines.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Thousands of people protesting against the nation’s growing prison system paralyzed downtown Philadelphia for hours yesterday and delayed the arrival of many Republican delegates to the First Union Center in a hit-and-run series of actions that dashed the hopes of both the city’s police department and Republican Party leaders for a trouble-free Republican convention. While most of the protesters were peaceful, blocking dozens of intersections throughout Center City and submitting to arrest, a small group spent several hours overturning trash bins, vandalizing about a dozen police cars and spray-painting political slogans on the walls of many of the stores in downtown. Police say they arrested nearly 300 people, that four policemen were injured and that they seized a bus containing hundreds of animals that they say the protesters were going to release in the city.

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Action Group, on the other hand, which is coordinating the events, claimed 450 people have been arrested, that several have been beaten by police or guards at police headquarters, and that one is unconscious in the hospital. The protesters are on a hunger strike demanding the dropping of all charges.

AMY GOODMAN: And we hope to go to the jail where a number of those protesters are being held, for late breaking news in just a minute. But from the other side of town, the convention hall, Republican officials insist their financial base is primarily small donors, but the party has received more than $90 million from a relatively small pool of wealthy individuals and corporations, some of whom have shielded their generosity from public view. New York Times today reports an elite cadre of 739 contributors, writing larger checks than in the past, has provided two-thirds of the party’s $137 million in so-called gift — in so-called soft money, the unrestricted party gifts. Some donors have been directed by party officials to make their gifts in ways that disguise their identity and the degree of their largesse, according to a top Republican fundraiser talking to The New York Times.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And this news from the Kuala Lumpur: A Malaysian court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal by jailed former Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim to make Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad testify in his sex trial as a defense witness. “We have no choice but to dismiss your case,” Eusoff Chin, chief justice of the federal court, said in a one-line ruling after an hour of arguing with Anwar, who said he would no longer participate in the proceedings.

AMY GOODMAN: Chile’s Supreme Court has said it is postponing making a decision on whether to strip General Augusto Pinochet of his immunity, clearing the way for him to stand trial on human rights charges. The Chilean media reported later that the justices had agreed to rule against Pinochet, but decided not to announce their verdict until later. After meeting behind closed doors for almost four hours, the 20 justices put off a final decision until at least a week.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And from Cincinnati, citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, a federal appeals court has struck down Kentucky’s law against late-term abortions. The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday cited the recent 5-4 Supreme Court decision declaring Nebraska’s law banning the late-term abortion procedure as unconstitutional.

AMY GOODMAN: And we have this news on the corporate front, in Nigeria, in the Niger Delta, about 60 miles north of Port Harcourt, an oil city, community activists have occupied a barge or two oil installations, where 165 people are. The oil installations are operated by Royal Dutch Shell. The community activists are demanding employment for local people and compensation from the company for taking oil from the area. Shell is the biggest of the multinational oil companies operating in Nigeria, with its production accounting for nearly half of the country’s total daily output, its activities in Nigeria made famous by Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Ogoni activist who was executed by the Nigerian military for criticizing Shell.

And the New World Health Organization report accuses the tobacco industry of waging a secret campaign to undermine the agency’s efforts to combat smoking, this an exposé in The Washington Post today. The Post said the report charges the industry with trying to pit other United Nations-affiliated agencies against the WHO, of trying to discredit the WHO and cut its budgets, and of hiring experts who grossly distorted the results of scientific research into the effects of smoking.