From Dragonfly: Getting Myself Out of Here

It is truly a full time job to try to get yourself OUT of prison. As you know, I've been struggling with getting them to complete my exit paperwork. Yesterday, I went to my case worker and my unit manager, during their office hours, in order to get assistance. My case worker's hands are tied now, she's done everything on her part. My unit manager was busy and didn't come to his office hours, so I filled out a cop-out and brought it directly to him this morning. I saw him reading it.

Then, at lunch, I walked up to the woman responsible for my exit summary in main line at the dining hall. She has talked to me several times, but still didn't know who I am. When I told her, again, what is happening, she said that she received a list of people from my doctor yesterday and should have the official declaration for me - which means, she can do my paperwork. So, she told me to come to her office after lunch. I beat her there and waited patiently for her return.

Once in her office, she read off a piece of paper the simple words, "home confinement." That means that due to my medical condition, I am not recommended for halfway house, but I can do home confinement. Perfect - I could be out of here in May. So, I said, "okay, can the paperwork be completed now?" She turned to me and asked, "well, do you have proof of health insurance?" Ummm, I'm a prisoner and have no job... answer: NO.

She said that I have to prove I'll have some health insurance, or they can't recommend me for home confinement. Really??? I can't apply for Obama care until I am home and I am not on disability or anything like that. I'd been covered by my school graduate assistantship, and I'm going to do my best to get back in, but in the meantime, I was going to go on the county health plan. She said I had to go to Social Work and have them send her an email saying that I have the medical coverage to go to home confinement.

Across the hall from the clinic, is psychology/social work. I walked in there and was told to go knock on someone's door, but there was no answer. So, I sat in the lobby. Lucky for me, Curls and Nurse were also in the lobby, so we sat and talked - and mostly laughed as Nurse told us about her crazy night from yesterday. After about 45 minutes, the social worker came out and had me go to her office. I explained the situation and she did not seem so happy to help me out, but she did call the county health plan to verify I could get on it. Well, wouldn't you know, the health plan ends in April. Really?!?!? But the reason is that the state is a Medicaid expansion state under the Affordable Care Act (this is something I am not too familiar with, but is making me like the ACA just a little bit more). What it means, is that people who are low income can qualify for Medicaid, even without a disability. I should qualify, as my income is currently $0. Wow, weird to write that! I plan to find a job and get back in school asap, so this would be a short term solution, but knowing that I should qualify, is certainly good news. However, wouldn't you know it, the social worker refused to actually do the search to prove that my state is an expansion state (even though the county health plan worker told her so on the phone) and shooed me out of her office, telling me that I had to get printed proof of the state being under the ACA and what it covers. Really!?!? It's not like I have access to the internet to do this search, and anyone will tell you that I'm the technology person among my friends/family.

Next stop, back to my case worker. She likes me and knows how hard I'm trying to get things done. Good thing, too, because she did the internet search for me and printed out an article saying that my state is going to be under the ACA expanded medicaid coverage and how I will qualify (I hope). So, tomorrow afternoon, I will be back at the office of the social worker, documents in hand, praying it's enough. All the medical lady needs is an email saying that I'm going to be okay for home confinement and then she will complete my exit summary papers. My prayer is that my case worker can mail off my papers to my region by the end of the week.

It truly is a full time job - as these meetings happen at all hours of the day. I never knew I'd have to jump through so many hoops and that it would be up to ME to make all this happen. Many inmates believe the prison will just do the paperwork and we will be in our halfway house or at home on the right dates. I'm living proof that it's not true. WE have to jump through a lot of hoops - good thing I have a good pair of sneakers, and am prepared to JUMP when I must!