Disabled Victory Behind Bars.

AuthorERVIN, MIKE
PositionQuadriplegic arrested in Virginia - Brief Article

Lynchburg, Virginia

The Virginia correctional system was not ready for Christopher Tucker.

In September, Tucker was arrested when Lynchburg police entered his home with a search warrant and claimed to have round a small amount of marijuana.

But Tucker is not your typical inmate. Three years ago, he became quadriplegic as the result of a car accident. He has used a wheelchair since and requires daily assistance to stay alive.

At first, Tucker was held in a tiny cell in a city police lockup, where it was impossible for his mother, Patricia Theodore, to administer the routine he must go through every other day in order to have a bowel movement. There was no room to maneuver in the cell, Tucker says.

After three days, Tucker was transported to the Greensville Correctional Facility in Jarratt, Virginia, about two hours away. When he arrived, he says, he learned there were no orders for him to receive his bowel program or the catheterization he needs every few hours. It is life-threatening for Tucker not to receive this care.

When Tucker called his mother, she contacted Louisa Overstreet, a local disability rights activist. "We knew we had to go public," says Overstreet.

With the help of the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and several disability rights organizations, phone trees, list serves, and e-mail networks were buzzing with the news of Tucker's predicament. Theodore appeared as a guest on the nationally syndicated radio talk show on disability issues On a Roll. Calls and faxes poured in to the governor and the state's Department of Corrections.

Meanwhile, "I wasn't drinking and I wasn't eating," so as to reduce bodily waste production, says Tucker. He suffered a pounding...

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