Families of SOs Community Group
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Hi and thanks for reading and offering advice in advance. My husband is being released in five months after serving eighteen years for a sex offense. We are facing challenges with residency restrictions. We live in NC and are looking for suggestions of other states that do not have these, specifically with minor children. I have four children from a previous marriage and two are still minors. His PO is saying he can't live with us until the youngest is sixteen- that's seven years after his release. We are just learning this, so close to his release and are now desperate for answers and solutions. He will only be on parole for nine months, but will they still periodically check him after that? I'm torn and he's feeling displaced after all these years of planning his homecoming. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Parole can tell your husband to do things like where he can go and what he can do. However those restrictions are not the law, they are just what the PO wants your husband to do. So your husband may be able to legally live with children in the state of NC, but his PO can say no while he is on parole. Think of parole like still being in prison and it makes more sense.
I don’t know NC law, but in my state a SO can live with minors. This is from one of rew’s last posts:
“A RSO off probation or any type of paper time can almost always be around minors. At that point, the offender has completed his court mandated sentence and is no longer under the custody of the state or the BOP if his conviction was a federal conviction. One or two states do not allow RSOs to live with children unless the offender is the biological parent, step-parent, or grandparent of the child.”
Once off parole if your husband were to live with you the biggest concern would be child protective services. If someone were to report you having an RSO living with your minor children, especially if your husband committed a crime against a child and they are the same sex as your minor children, you may lose your kids to the state.
The biggest concern would come from your ex or family members who don’t agree with you being married to an RSO. But any nosy neighbor or random “do-gooder” could see your husband and recognize him and see that you have kids and make a report. The fact he isn’t the biological father means there is a pretty good chance you will lose custody of your minor children.
The best thing to do is contact an attorney and see what they think is your best course of action. If his crime didn’t involve children maybe the best path to take would be to talk to CPS first before he comes home so they could do an evaluation of the situation. The best person to make that call though is a qualified attorney who has worked with CPS before. So maybe a family attorney, or a law office that does both family and criminal law? I’m not sure but I would ask any lawyer you talk to about their experience with CPS.
-Independent