Former nurse Dorothy Gaines lived a simple life in Mobile, Alabama. She was a devoted mother who never separated from her children. She was a self-proclaimed PTA mom and always brought snacks to the football field where her son played on the team, and her daughter was a cheerleader.

In August 1993, her life changed as Alabama state police raided her home for drugs. Police found no evidence of Gaines having possessed or sold drugs, and Gaines states she was not aware that her then boyfriend was a low-level drug dealer. Though the state dropped all charges, federal prosecutors charged Gaines with drug conspiracy eight months later – charges that to this day, she disputes. She refused to plead guilty or provide testimony against defendants and was sentenced to serve 19 years and 7 months.

“I raised four daughters – three of them are college graduates and you think I have time to sell drugs? I don’t think so,” – Theresa McIntyre Smith

Theresa McIntyre Smith had never been in trouble with the law. College educated, pursuing a degree in criminal justice, Theresa worked for many years in the airline industry, eventually becoming a flight attendant. After her 21-year marriage ended in divorce, she continued to raise her four daughters who ranged in age from 8 to 19 years old.

Identical twins Lawrence and Lamont Garrison were inseparable. In elementary school, one would rush to the other’s classroom and wait until he was dismissed. Living in the same house in Washington, D.C. that their mother and grandmother had grown up in, they attended Howard University together. Both worked part time to help pay their tuition – Lamont for the Department of Justice and Lawrence for the Department of Energy. Good students and aspiring lawyers, the twins graduated together in May 1998.

Although Kemba Smith had no prior criminal record, mandatory minimum sentencing laws have made her and an increasing number of women casualties of excessive punishments that do not fit their crimes. She was sentenced to 24.5 years in prison for conspiracy to participate in her boyfriend's drug activities.

For women like Serena Nunn, associations with husbands and boyfriends involved in drug rings can result in harsher prison sentences. Serena’s story mirrors those of many other women who, because of their minor involvement in drug rings, have little information to trade and are left with little bargaining power with prosecutors. They end up facing excessive time in prison; meanwhile, their male counterparts receive reduced sentences in return for their testimony.