FOLSOM, Jan. 10 – Doris Tate is not a criminal but she is serving a life sentence.

She was given the sentence more than 20 years ago when a band of cultists led by Charles Manson brutally murdered her daughter, actress Sharon Tate, and eight others in a monthlong spree in the Los Angeles area.

Doris Tate said she has never stopped being a victim of that 1969 rampage.

“That’s why I call it a life sentence,” she said Tuesday after a visit to Folsom Prison, where she addressed a local citizens committee and presented a video about the effects of crime on its victims.

“I have never gotten over the fact that my daughter was 8 1/2 months pregnant when she was killed. I can’t imagine people being so cold-hearted as to kill someone carrying a living child inside her body.

“I went for the next 10 years trying to accept what happened, trying to get through life without my child. I didn’t go into a shell as much as tried to play low key. I still never get over it when people I’m meeting for the first time ask if I’m related to her and I have to tell them I’m her mother.”

In 1980, the life of Doris Tate was changed again.

She joined a group called Parents of Murdered Children and Others. She began to learn about convicts, prisons and recidivism, which led to her appointment by the California Department of Corrections to a commission on crimes against victims.

Two years ago, she suggested the department make an educational video about the far-reaching effects of a crime. She even helped pick the victims to be interviewed for the 30-minute video titled “Life Sentence.”

Tate said the intent of the video is to put the inmates in the shoes of the victims and, perhaps, change their ways once they’re out of prison.

The tape has been stocked at every prison facility in California and may be made available to public schools, Tate said. Inmates at Folsom Prison, however, have yet to see the tape, an official for the facility said.

In the video, the victims of crimes tell of the pain and suffering they must overcome. Murders, rape and a car theft are among the crimes.

George “Bud” Hannaford, a Folsom City Councilman and chairman of the Citizens Advisory Committee for Folsom State Prison, was among a group of officials who viewed the tape Tuesday.

“It showed how something as plain as a stolen vehicle can have quite an effect,” he said. “The victim was starting to move his family and had a lot of personal possessions in the car. After it was stolen, he had to walk eight miles to work and home. There was stress to the family, and he lost personal property that could never be replaced.”

More traumatic were the upheavals caused in the lives of people who were raped or had lost loved ones, Hannaford said.

Inmates on pre-release programs or who have committed “lesser felonies” — such as drug or alcohol crimes, burglaries or robberies — are the primary target for the video, Tate said.

Also targeted as viewers is a second group of convicts, those who have committed more serious crimes — such as armed robberies, assaults or drunken driving. The chances of making converts here is less likely, Tate said.

“But if we can go that extra mile, maybe we won’t have another victim,” she said.

Tate, who will be making another presentation today at the California Medical Facility, Vacaville, said she can sense remorse from inmates who have seen the video.

“There’s an old saying that silence is golden,” Tate said. “You can see the expression on their faces or the tears in their eyes. It’s a moving video.”

A third group of prisoners may never see the video, Tate said. This group includes hardened murderers or serial killers.

Charles Manson and his followers, who are serving life sentences, would be in this group, she said.

“These people are not going to be rehabilitated,” Tate said. “They have no feelings anyway. How well I know this. Each time I go to a hearing of the Manson women, I’m more amazed at the lack of rehabilitation, the lack of remorse.”

By ART CAMPOS