December Supervision Update and More

A couple months ago I posted that my P.O. had stated that I should be off supervision by the holidays (remember?). Later, Freckles posted that her P.O. stated that she was told that nearly no one gets off supervision. Well, it is the holidays... what's my status?

I have been on supervision a total of 17 months of my 3 year sentence. Word was that most people have to do at least 18 months, so there's that. What about the "before the holidays," stuff though? I had to go see my P.O. and I have been pushing him in a cordial kind of way... "any movement?" "anything I can do?"

One thing I did was bring in my Carswell certificate that showed I took a class in financial budgeting. It was a requirement of my supervision that I have a financial course and encouraged that I do it while still incarcerated. I didn't mind doing so. It was informative and Glitter taught it. I went for six weeks and we watched videos, filled out paperwork, took a pre and post test. It was legit. I received a certificate and points on my official paperwork for completing it. It was one of the few educational activities where I was a participant and not the educator. My P.O. made a copy of the certificate last time I was there and we crossed that requirement off my paperwork, or so I thought.

Last week, I talked to my P.O. again due to my needing permission to travel for Thanksgiving, and he informed me that he still wanted me to get in another financial seminar ("I don't care how short or long it is"). I guess pushing these programs while still incarcerated don't count once we are out. Luckily, I had several workshops I'd been to that we could choose from. We selected a workshop I recently attended with the youth I work with where I actually took a selfie with Rev. Jessee Jackson Sr. Telling my P.O. that I had a selfie with Rev. Jackson resulted in his wanting me to text him a copy of the photo. While not nearly as informative as the seminar I attended at Carswell, the one day workshop with Jessee Jackson crossed that "t" and dotted that "i," and there was nothing remaining on my requirements from court for concern. No matter what anything may think of Rev. Jessee Jackson, the workshop was really good and he was inspirational to the youth - also, he was impressive to my P.O. which is all that really matter!!!

So, was that enough? Well, no.

Being qualified to be recommended for early release from supervision and having your P.O. actually seek it are two entirely different things! I had done everything expected of me for the last 17 months - monthly reports, paying more than expected in restitution, maintaining my employment, school, solid family life, no negative police interactions, clean from gambling, active in recovery, etc., but there are several people that must make the decision to ACT before anything can happen and the first level had initially decided to NOT act.

My P.O. informed me that the office was so overwhelmed with "bad" drug dealers that they did not have time to go to court to request my early release. Early release is the lowest priority in such a busy office. With the number of people recently being released from prisons, they are just too burdened to take on the work of early release. He admitted he was going to try to get me released before, but too much work has now piled upon him. I think he could see my disappointment as I just stared at him knowing that he had all the power in that room.

I did not let it entirely go, though. I brought up the fact that travel is a real part of my life - as all our family members live out of state and I am constantly burdening him with travel requests.

Next thing that happened is that my P.O. decided that he would call the prosecutor from my case and see if there would be an opposition to early release. If not, it will be much simpler to go forward. That phone call should have occurred this past week. I am supposed to hear back from my P.O. tomorrow.

My P.O. asked me if the prosecutor was being really tough on me. I said that, honestly, he was tough in the fact that he asked for prison and a year and a day, but that he could have gone with the statutory minimums of 3-5 years. My P.O. laughed and said, "he went for a year and a day?"

I said, "I know, he wanted me to be able to get time off..."
My P.O. said, "exactly." One year and I'd have served exactly 365 days in prison and instead I was able to served about 10 months!

I also said that the prosecutor allowed me to hold on to my passport and go to South Africa between arraignment and sentencing. This fascinated my P.O. "You went to South Africa??"

"Yeah, they said I was a good bet." Meaning I wouldn't run. "I told them that they should use a different choice of words on me."

My P.O. is the one person in the legal system who understands my sense of humor around my gambling addiction. I reminded my P.O. that I am 7 1/2 years clean from gambling. I am also 7 1/2 years since any wrong doing.

I do not know what could happen. Will I be released from supervision before my three years are finished or will I have the opportunity to have a judge consider me for early release? These are outside my control.  I will just keep doing the right thing whether on or off supervision and hope that I continue to maintain a decent relationship with my P.O.

Honesty, Open-Mindedness, and Willingness are three words we learn in recovery --- I think they are applicable in our relationships with our P.O.'s as well!

Getting Out of Prison...If you are a Care Level 3 at Carswell:

On March 22, 2014 I wrote that I would share the 6 handwritten pages that I wrote about the process of getting out of prison one you are above a Care Level 2 in federal prison. I am posting it later and through the magic of "blogger" I am able to have this post as of 3/23/2014. However, I am actually typing this up from the comfort of the lanai at my mother and step-father's home in Southern Florida, where they moved in late 2015.

1. 17-19 months prior to your exit date, your case worker should start the process for halfway house/ home confinement.

• If you arrive with under 17 months of incarceration remaining, this process should begin at your first team meeting (30 days maximum after arrival.

2. If you are needing a case transfer from the district you were sentenced within to a different district in which you actually will be going to or live in within the U.S., this process should start as soon as possible. Your case worker will need to do a little leg work to find the appropriate office in the state of transfer, and will submit paperwork on your behalf. You will need to sign these documents before they are sent.

• In order to transfer your case, the best case scenario has you having a home address you plan to live at once released (even if going through halfway house first. A probation officer in the new district will visit the new address within 45 days of receiving the paperwork, will interview people living there, and will approve the new home. They will then send a letter to your case worker saying the transfer is complete.
• If you do not have an address yet, you can still try for the transfer based on the halfway house you will be going to, but there may be additional hoops you will have to jump through.

3. Before your case worker can submit your documents to the region your district is in requesting community confinement (i.e. halfway house/home confinement), you will need medical services to complete an exit summary and upload it to your computerized file.

• As of my time in prison, there was only one person who could do this, and her last name was a favorite day of the week. Only she could complete the paperwork and she started in her position in January, 2014. She, also, has several steps to her process - the most important  being a request to your assigned doctor to write a simple declaration stating what community confinement programs you are "Medically Appropriate" for. You must be medically cleared for this process to occur.
• As a medical level 3, the doctor can recommend halfway house, home confinement, both options, or neither. Medically, some people are forced to MAX out their time.
• If you are approved for halfway house, it is UP to your team to decide how much time to request. Some people are recommended for one month, some up to 12.
• If you qualify for the second chance act to receive up to one year halfway house (drug/alcohol treatment during prison, etc.), that process should begin at the 17-19 months prior to your exit date, if at all possible.
• If you are approved only for home confinement, you must do some more work on your own to get your exit summary approved.

4. If you are only qualified for home confinement, the prison requires you to be able to prove you have health insurance prior to approval.

• You will need to to to Social Work in the psychology offices.
• Working with the social worker, you will need to show that you are financially capable of supporting yourself (or you have someone at home who is going to help support you until you can get back on your feet) and your healthcare needs can be taken care of financially while on home confinement:
• Early in your incarceration, is possible, have a spouse/partner/parent send in a NOTARIZED letter saying that they agree to help you financially and medically upon release sent to your case worker. Have a copy of the letter sent to you so that you have the copy in your personal records (just in case).
• Even if you cannot get such a letter, you can also show proof of employment, your financial plan, or proof that you qualify for government financial assistance (i.e. social security, disability, etc.). You have to have someone do this work for you on the outside or you have to do this work for yourself BEFORE you turn yourself in, because NO ONE can do it for you and you can't do it for yourself once you are on the inside. There's no way to find the answers and no access to the internet.
• In order to show proof of health insurance, you have several options - THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT:
• obtain a copy of your current insurance card with a phone number so the social worker can verify you are covered and/or will be covered upon release
• show proof of medicaid/medicare from the past and some proof that you will requalify. Provide a phone number to the local office if possible. Important to note that you are NOT QUALIFIED while incarcerated, so your benefits are cut-off while you are/were in prison.
• If your state is an "extended medicaid" state un the Affordable Healthcare Act (i.e. Obamacare - like the law or not, it brought a lot of healthcare rights to ex-prisoners), bring in proof that your state approved the extension, what it covers, and the application process. If you did not do this research before going in, have someone look it up for you and send it in to you asap.
• Some states allow you to apply while still in prison, some will not. For me, I had to apply after I was released, but was approved immediately for medicaid and paid $0/mth. I was asked to reach out to the Social Workers at FMC Carswell and tell them about my experience so they felt more comfortable about having people use Obamacare if in an extended medicaid state and they actually wrote me back and thanked me for letting them know my experience.
• Have a family member go to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) website and find what other health care plans may be available to you due to low/no income. Under the ACA, a plan can start at as little as $9/month. 

5. Once you are able to prove financial and medical coverage, type up a statement of what you have found, with any support documents, and provide this to your social worker.

• Once the social worker feels you have health insurance and support and/or are likely under the ACA to obtain medicaid, they will send an email to Medical Services to say they have verified everything. At that time, Medical Services can complete your exit summary.

6. The exit summary must be uploaded to your computerized profile (which is done when they get to it). Once uploaded, your case worker will complete some documents, likely requiring your signature, and send it off to your region. It can take 60 days to hear about halfway house space, depending on your region. Some regions are quicker than others. Your region can still deny you medically for halfway house and/or home confinement, so just stay hopeful and do your best to have no health complications during your stay at Carswell (or another medical facility). If denied, you will likely have to max-out your time.

7. Even with health insurance, sometimes the out-of-pocket expense for our medications can be quite high. Please have someone go to the medication website and look up "financial support" options for people who have low income. Often the manufacturers have assistance, secondary to your insurance, and ensure you will have a low/no copay.

• For me, this was one of my requirements, I had to show that I would still qualify for the Enbrel financial support card that ensured my co-pay was never more than $5 whenever I was not on medicaid. Medicaid paid 100% so it was not an issue during that time.

8. Another option for some, is to work with their doctor to lower their care level to a 1 or 2 (Freckles was able to do this). Some conditions or medications preclude this from being an option (like mine). If you can do this, you can avoid needing an exit summary, and just work with your case worker to get things moving (much, much easier!!!).