KENTUCKY’S female incarceration rate is more than two times the national average, and is the second-highest in the nation in 2016.
FREe
AMBEr
TUCKER
inmate #215699
Some children you give birth to, I have 3 of those.
Some children become yours and Amber Tucker is my 4th child.
She calls me Momma and I am honored.
I will never leave her side.
I long for the day when I have her under my roof and my protection.
This page and all our effort is for the purpose to
FREE AMBER TUCKER
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Right now, there's a tall skinny girl sitting in a prison cell at Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Pewee Valley.
She's been incarcerated for over 11 years.
She just turned 29.
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March 2008: I'm sentenced to 15 years in prison.
2nd degree Robbery= 10 years
1st degree Escape= 5 years
To served CONSECUTIVE
I was staying at Pewee.
April 2008: I gave birth to the most wonderful thing to ever come into my life. My beautiful daughter was born.
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You cannot imagine the humiliation, shame and utter terror to give birth while chained and shackled.
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In the past 10 years
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I've had my parental rights involuntarily taken away.
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I've been diagnosed with Todd's Paralysis after having seizures. My condition is up and down as medication sometimes is available, sometimes withheld. Once I almost died, there was no phone service and the warden at the time would not allow the use of cell phones to call for help. It's been so cold in the hole, I've had to break the ice just get a drink.
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I've been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder
Sometimes my medication isn't available.
Sometimes they just change it.
I've broken my foot and had to walk up and down steps for 3 weeks before I was allowed to go to the medical facility.
Yep broken.
Yep, gotta re-break it cause it's been so long.
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I know I have PTSD. Sometimes I remember things and sometimes I can't. Squeezing a ball and coloring with pencils is the kind of mental help I receive.
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When things get so bad, I cut myself. There are scars, lots of scars. Some are as wide as my pinkie and almost as puffy.
I get sent to the hole when I cut.
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I know I'm a target because I assaulted an officer. I play right into it too. No matter how hard I try. It doesn't matter that I was a pregnant 17 yr old. Any reason to mess with an inmate is a good reason.
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My phone calls have been restricted. I can't talk to my Mom (my only support when I'm upset)
My email availability has been restricted meaning it's a lot harder to receive money and communicate quickly with my family.
My visits have been restricted. The visits that are so precious to me because I get a Momma hug. You really can't understand what a hug means when NO ONE is allowed to touch for any reason.
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I don't know what the real world looks like anymore.
I've been left behind to die in this place.
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Late July 2007: We were caught after, I think, 3 weeks. Several things happened during that time, I may never be able to talk about it. Of course, we were arrested. Brandi was taken to juvenile detention. For me, they said, because of my actions involving the case worker, my escaping, and taking the car, my case was adjudicated to being tried as an adult.
My jail experience began in the Franklin County Jail.
No bail. Just one guy that wanted my case for recognition for his practice. He actually said that.
Looking back & now understanding what coercion is, there is no doubt in my mind, had someone with my best interest, been allowed to help me understand what was going on, things would have turned out so differently.
Instead, my Pro Bono attorney convinced me to take a 15 year plea deal. I was to agree to kidnapping Brandi, so she could get a lesser term. He said I was looking at 30 years so I was lucky to get 15. I'm going to prison anyway.
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August 1st, 2007 My 18th Birthday
Sooner than I thought. I was transferred to KCIW in Pewee Valley due to the fact that I was pregnant.
My name is Amber Tucker.
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This is my story from what I remember.
1990: I was abused as an infant. Broken bones and burns. The scars above my lips are a constant reminder when I look in a mirror.
Rights from mother was terminated. No one, but me, paid for that crime.
1990-1999: I was passed between several family members with little stability.
1999: I'm 9. My Grandparents landed custody of me.
2003: At age 13, my Grandmother couldn't care for me anymore. I had began acting out for reasons I couldn't understand. I was placed in numerous institutions, juveniles detentions and foster homes. If I didn't feel safe at one place, I would run away.
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June 2007: I'm 17.
I can't remember much but I decided to run away from this last foster home. As I was leaving, another girl saw me and wanted to go. I had no intention of anyone coming with me but Brandi wasn't going back. We were free women for a while, until we were picked up a couple weeks later, taken to jail to await a ride to a detention center.
Later, we were picked up by a case worker to be taken to a juvenile facility. I did NOT want to go back. Somehow, with chains and cuffs on, we overpowered the driver, jumped in the car and took it as far as the gas would take us. I never meant to hurt anyone.
I just wanted to get away.
I had no direction, no home that I knew of, no hope that my life would ever be any different or better.
​AMBER'S STORY
On July 17, Tucker, then 17, and Brandi Murrah, 16, who were in state custody, escaped by using force against a Juvenile Justice driver who was taking the girls from Bowling Green to the Morehead Youth Development Center.
The Morehead News, April 25, 2008
The female youth transporter was not seriously injured and was released from the hospital after receiving treatment for bruises on her neck. FoxNews July 2007
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Tucker pleaded guilty in February to second-degree robbery and first-degree escape. A charge of attempted kidnapping was merged into the robbery count. The Morehead News, April 25, 2008
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