It's actually worse than that. Most states and the federal system impose periods of supervision after release - often lasting for years. During this time, they aren't just expected to not break the law. They must find a job that their probation officer approves of, with an employer that is willing to give reports to the PO, and must disclose their conviction to all potential employers. They often cannot travel outside the county in which they reside, even for work. They cannot drink alcohol (even socially) in most cases. Their constitutional rights against illegal search and seizure are null and void, and must submit to searches any time and at any place they are. Those that were accused of financial crimes often are not allowed to possess checking accounts or credit/debit cards. They often must attend expensive classes & counseling sessions, and pay supervision fees, along with making any applicable restitution or payments on fines. These are just the basics that apply to everyone....there is an infinite list of conditions that can be imposed based upon the specific crime(s) they committed.
If they violate any of these conditions, they are subject to immediate arrest and imprisonment, usually without any judicial review. This is one reason reincarceration rates are so high - it's incredibly easy for these people to be sent back to jail without even thinking of committing a new crime.
You are 100% right. Parole and probation violations are a common misstep in our system, and account for an enormous amount of our prison population. I can speak from experience. I had a one-year probation sentence, on the very last day with only a few hours until my probation was set to expire (I even had a preliminary release letter from my probation officer with the date and time of expiration and had completed my final assessments), I was packing a moving truck preparing to move out of the state. I did not intend, nor was there any possible way I could have finished packing and had everything wrapped up in that time, to leave prior to my probation being expired. Instead an off-duty sheriff deputy who knew I was on probation just happened to see me packing decided he was going to stop and arrest me for on a violation for attempting to violate by moving. Although when I went before the judge 24 hours later he dropped it, the fact of the matter is that I was still violated, spent 24 hours in a holding cell waiting to see the judge, all because someone was a little overzealous in their job and had a zero-tolerance attitude.
Now I see and hear the stories every day of individuals who are violated for the dumbest reasons (i.e. bus crash in front of probation office, witnessed by probation officer, individual taken to hospital, violated for missing probation appointment by same officer that witnessed the accident in the first place. Given a 90-day sentence for violating their probation. And those were the facts as provided by the officer, not the individual. The officer essentially was laughing at how much control they have over someone's life in these incidents.).
I call this the police-judicial complex; they have a "problem" in that between the end of the demographic Baby Boom and the partial reversion of the soft on crime '60s and '70s, there is much less real crime. Per the thesis of Arrest-Proof Yourself (http://www.amazon.com/Arrest-Proof-Yourself-Dale-C-Carson/dp...) that means in much of the country they'd have to downsize if they didn't "feed" upon a steady stream of what the authors refer to as "the clueless", most especially the sorts of people who can't realistically follow all their probation restrictions.
Obviously much, much better than them suffering layoffs. And I'l criticize the media again with their "if it bleeds, it leads" bias, how many in the US realize crime is down so much from that old peak?
I've always wondered if I would take parole, or complete my sentence? If it was just a few extra years, and I was in decent health; I think, I would say no to parole?
The rules they put on paroles are beyond unfair. They might have made sense in the 50's, but so much has changed. We don't have jobs. We don't have any housing. The few guys I knew who got out of San Quentin were given $180, and dropped off at the bus station in San Rafael. (The ones with caring family did a little better than the single guys, but all of them went back eventually because of parole violations.)
Whenever I hear a state administrator explain our current parole system; I know he's lying to the public.
A Stanford Mathematics grad student spent twenty-five years unsuccessfully struggling to obtain his PhD then beat his advisor to death with a hammer.
After serving quite a long time in prison, he was offered parole, with the only condition - at least as reported in the press - being that he not set foot on the Stanford campus ever again.
He refused parole, served out the remainder of his sentence then was released. I don't know what became of him after that but his plan was to work as an electronics technician in Silicon Valley.
While he did wrong to murder his advisor, I regard his refusal of parole as one of my inspirations for being so bluntly outspoken myself. There is no doubt whatsoever that what I blast all over the Internet makes me damn near unemployable but I work to benefit others that are unable to speak for themselves.
As bad as things do get for me sometime, there are billions of people alive today that have it far worse.
In Colorado, misdemeanor probation has been "privatized" and is managed by a for-profit entity (Intervention, Inc. & Rocky Mountain Offender Management Services [RMOMS]).
I've been through their "system". I'm convinced it's a money making scheme. Their "case managers" (you don't even get a probation officer) are paid $12/hour and are implicitly instructed to find ways to charge you more money. I've had one lie to my face about a state statute (that I had memorized, word for word) to try to get me to pay them more money.
A first-offense, low BAC DWAI in Colorado set me back >$20,000 over 2.5 years and 3 lawyers.
Alcohol Education Classes (teacher ripped me off, had to repeat): $1500
Alcohol Education Classes Round 2: $1500
Lawyer #2 to Fight Class #1: $4000
Lawyer #3 to Fight Class #1: $2000
Alcohol Therapy: $2400
Probation Discharge Fee: $100
License Reinstatement Application: $95
Driving Permit Application: $50
Driver License Application: $50
Ignition Interlock Installation: $100
Ignition Interlock Lease: $2400
Job opportunity lost: VP of Engineering at mid size software startup. Required short notice international travel. Denied by probation. Would've been a 500% boost in salary for me.
You are required to present a pay stub each month to your probation officer. You can not black out the payment amounts (I tried). In effect, these case managers know exactly how much money you make and what your expenses are (intake questionnaire). They knew I had a good amount of disposable income and used that to their advantage.
The money isn't even the worst of it. A buddy of mine is currently on probation for the same charge (low BAC DWAI) in Colorado. He's 24 and has been diagnosed with 2 distinct cancers. Probation denied medical marijuana use but allows him to take prescribed opiates. Well, the prescriptions ran out and heroin is cheaper than Vicodin. Guess what? He buys heroin now and has the prescription on file to ignore the results of opiate metabolites in his urine.
My girlfriend is also currently on probation for the same charge (low BAC DWAI). She's supposed to start University in September (Vet. Tech. program at a great school). The case managers are intentionally making it very difficult for her to be able to attend. She's seriously considering postponing her education for 24 months. That's the real crime.
Do you see a pattern here? Mid 20-somethings being targeted.
DWAI in Colorado = BAC 0.02
DUI per-se in Colorado = BAC 0.04
DUI in Colorado = BAC 0.08
Even 1 drink and they can arrest you. DWAI carries virtually the same penalties as a DUI ($500-$1000 difference in fine).
Ugh! I hated to upvote for all those expenses, but that was a great documentation of the actual costs involved. The real eye-opener for everyone should be that sadly the majority of those costs are collateral consequences that are added on so that various for-profit companies can all get a little piece of the pie.
Ignition interlock is the biggest scam of a for-profit company I have ever seen. My ex-fiance had to get one in Florida. The place to have it installed was about 50 miles from our house. They told her she had to drive the car there herself and present her valid driver's license to get it installed. Not really thinking about it, I drove her over there. They were about to turn her away because she wasn't driving, yet her probation condition says she can't drive without one installed. They did overlook it after some pleading, but then asked for her driver's license. All she had was a state ID card because she couldn't get a valid driver's license until she had the interlock installed. She ended up never getting it installed. Funny story though, we moved to a different state a few months later and the court order for the interlock didn't follow her. She was able to get a driver's license free and clear. Ironically, when we broke up she moved back to Florida and because she had a valid driver's license from another state she walked right in and got a Florida driver's license.
But I would say the worse part for you was the job loss. While the expenses are high, losing a job is a much greater loss in my opinion. I don't understand the travel portion for some non-violent felonies. I had a similar clause, ended up costing me a couple thousand in attorney fees to get them to let me travel to a different county in the same state for an overnight work meeting. It is completely out of hand in my opinion.
Two things strike me here. First is that the effective cost to you was over ten times the amount that the judge (or whoever) thought was sufficient to serve "justice". That's fucking insane.
Second is that the people in charge treated you like a hard core alcoholic. Without knowing anything else about you I'm going to guess that's not the case. Regardless of motivation -- although profit is a safe bet -- it's stupid in the truest self-destructive sense for society to automatically treat you like this for [edit: a drink or two].
Edit: I'm getting my BAC numbers mixed up, but it doesn't really matter. I see that in our state 0.02 is DWAI for <21 years of age. It's like we're looking for ways to fuck up peoples lives.
You were either not treated according to law, there's something you're forgetting to say, or the above info is incorrect:
* no "alcohol lock" for a first time "BAC DWAI"
* no license suspension for a first time "BAC DWAI".
Yep this is becoming a big move too. The privatization of parole/probation offices. It's unreal the expenses they charge and most are uneducated or misinformed about the actual laws of each state.
Yep. It's gotten bad enough that people will actually take a longer period of incarceration if it doesn't involve probation afterward. And good luck finding an employer who will hire a felon. Hell, good luck finding a landlord who will rent to you.
Landlord here. I won't rent to violent felons (murder, sexual assault, etc.) strictly as a liability issue. But I consider it an ethical and moral obligation to not discriminate against people convicted of crimes that don't reasonably make them a threat to the neighbors of my properties.
I firmly believe that one of big drivers of recidivism is housing discrimination based on the mere presence of a criminal record.
If they violate any of these conditions, they are subject to immediate arrest and imprisonment, usually without any judicial review. This is one reason reincarceration rates are so high - it's incredibly easy for these people to be sent back to jail without even thinking of committing a new crime.