Ok that is all good advice I was thinking about that, ok return receipt. Will do. What about Faxes? I guess just keep the confirmation sheet?

How do you stay organized with all this paper?

Yes I am totally different when it comes to my family. I think also because this whole process is so waring and emotionally damaging, it changes you. Really does. I think it exactly what you said as well - fear. Once you know what they can do that never leaves you. I wonder at every corner, every interaction, who is going to separate us again. Who else will take him away. Who else will say he can't see our children.

I am in contact with a man who is fighting these stipulations in Indiana, its going to the Indiana supreme court next month to determine constitutionality. He, his wife, and his two children are all sueing the Indiana DOC for damages for forcibly separating them. I think that so many of these things are actually unconstitutional but it is so hard to fight them, both financially, emotionally and physically. Fighting can really take the life out of you when you feel like your always loosing. I think that also brings up how important it is to really celebrate any wins. Not that I've had any yet but I'm hoping.

Yep keep the confirmation sheet. LOL ya get pretty good at keeping things in order when you doing this! What I do is keep a note in a diary on the day I send the letter or call then fill the copy away for just in case.
We all live in hope its what we good at.

I would suggest recording the phone calls . That way you have something to work with....

how do you record the phone calls?? Sounds intriguing but how do you do it and are you allowed to record phone calls?

Have you considered seeing your doctor about your anxiety? Both adavan and Xanax have become lifesavers for me when I go into full melt down panic attack mode. That is only caused by someone knocking on the door or ringing the door bell. I've talked about this many times on here. ... Door bell rings, I hide under kitchen table until my breathing slows and the ringing in my ears stops. At which point I take a Xanax..then all is well. (koo-koo koo-koo)

To record phone calls, I put my cell phone on the speaker setting, lay it on a shelf, desk, or table, and position a portable, digital recording device right next to it. I also take handwritten notes on a steno pad, so I can have both resources available.

Here's one link I found when I googled "recording phone conversations Illinois."

http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/recording-phone-calls-conversations-meetings-and-hearings

Please feel free to research other sources.

the warden is the man in that place. Talk with him cause he has the right to go over the head of some of those people u r on the phone with that don't wanna do there job due to a over crowded justice system. there,s thousands a year trying to get out that prison.keep calling bugging the shit out them til you get your man don't take no.

But how do you talk to the warden? I imagine if I can and say hey can you transfer me to the warden they will say no! Obviously I am going to try anyway but just wondering

@ mom, if you have a smart phone you can download apps that allow you to record calls. In most states, you need the person's permission to record the calls. However, I record calls anyways. Too many calls that people deny having. If I had these calls recorded, I could prove my point/case.

Don't use any of the free apps, but purchase one. Check out the reviews ahead of time to see what others think about it.

TaW; wow good advice, I'm going to tuck that gem away!

I am going to offer something that I haven't seen mentioned on here.

What I have learned from talking with a great deal of offenders and listening to folks on here is that what Supervisors/Parole Agents want to see is the offender doing the leg work rather than someone that is already free and knows how to take care of themselves. Or at the very least make the initial inquiries. You are calling the agents at his facility, why isn't he flying a kite to make an appointment or ask the same questions? I am pretty sure that is why you got in to that conversation with the one guy that went no where.

But I do also agree that you shouldn't give up and you should keep asking. But there is some information that probably should be gotten by him and asked for by him. Living situation is one, he wants to live at your own home then he should put in a request for that in writing.

If your laws allow it record all your conversations with anyone from the DOC/LE/etc. make notes on what you want to say to these people before you call so you can stay on track when you call and not get side tracked by their shenanigans.

Hang in there... What you may need to do is find out who his PO will be when he gets out. Unless when he gets out he won't be on paper, if he isn't on paper then the parole agent at the prison will actually be of little help, as they do not know anything beyond their scope of position, and if they do, they won't tell you.

Basically anytime he has tried to talk to any of these people at his facility including flying a kite etc they give him no information and completely blow him off. They give him no avenue to connect or communicate with anyone and in fact I am sure they prefer it that way. They don't even tell him if a site is denied or approved or that he should submit something else. They go for months with out saying anything to him. And his counselor is completely useless. He won't tell him any information and has in fact mostly just given him incorrect information that was very upsetting and turned out that he didn't have any idea about what he was saying. My husband even flew a kite to the warden about the issue who also blew him off. He has also submitted multiple grievances which no one has bothered to respond to. These people are just very unprofessional.

I decided to try and look up some other phone numbers I might be able to call and got ahold of a supervisor at the Chicago parole office who finally helped me. I also called the state police and the registry office in Chicago who were both also helpful. I haven't really gotten anything resolved but I think going around these people may be my only option. Since I posted this I have been hung up on by the field services guy three more times.

I have been making notes, working on the recording technology. I also talked to some of the people who do the SO treatment programs in Illinois and they essentially all told me if it were them they would just stay and do their parole in prison instead of doing the treatment programs. I was told that they are dangerous and use lots of unreliable tests that could lable him something worse than they already say. They also said they could get involved with DCFS and make our lives worse than they already are.

I don't know if any of you have experience with what this treatment program is like in Illinois but it sounds like it might just not be worth it at all.

Anyone know about parole in Illinois or Ohio?

Mom, the 1st paragraph sounds like my experience. I too am curious about the SO programs. Hopefully somebody will stop in and comment. Hang in there!

mominmedicine,

I don't know when your husband was convicted or how much prison time he received, but would it be possible for him to just do all his time in prison and discharge the entire sentence in prison? By doing that he would not have to worry about probation or parole. Once released, he would have no paper time and would only have the registry to deal with.

Of course, his sentence may have been structured so that he had a form of supervised release mandated after prison. In that case, my suggestion would not be possible. I do know that in most convictions today which are plea bargained, the state makes sure the defendant has some type of supervised release even after the prison sentence.

The reason I ask is that I was convicted in the 1990's by a jury trial and they imposed a 20 year prison sentence. With my good time credits, I was able to discharge the entire 20 year sentence in eight years. Then upon my release I only had the registry to deal with. I waived all my parole dates because I did not want to be on parole as I did not want to deal with all the stipulations. I actually only had to serve a couple of additional years, as my first parole date did not come until about two years before I would have discharged my sentence anyway. Another reason I did not bother with parole is that to have any chance at parole, an offender has to admit guilt and I was not guilty so I refused to do that. For that same reason I was not eligible for the sex offender treatment program and refused even though it was court ordered.

Of course, I went to jury trial and did not plea, so the prosecutor could not place a time of supervised release on me.

Also at the time of my conviction, my state was giving out a lot of good time to inmates who behaved. I only served 40% of my sentence. Today, most all sex crimes are under the 85% criteria, and that would make a lot of difference.

Most of the older inmates waived parole and just did all their time in prison.
Could your guy do that? If so, you would not have to worry about a PO or any parole stipulations. You would not have to worry about the sex offender treatment program if he discharged his sentence and once released he could live where he wanted except for the stipulations according to state law and those of the registry.

I am not sure about him living with his children, as it differs from state to state and court to court, but a that decision would not be up to a PO. You would only have to worry about state law.

Just a thought. Good luck to whatever you decide.

rewdiazepam

Yes we have thought a lot about him staying. He was actually sent to prison this time for driving on a revoked license. Really railroaded into this one because of his almost 10 year old statutory rape charge. So they are applying all of this bullshit, pardon my french, to him regardless of the fact that he is there for driving.

In illinois they basically completely took away all good time, and then "reinstated" a version of it that was so restrictive it was only given to a hand full of people in the entire state. So no good time. They gave him 3 years for driving. He was supposed to come back after 18 months to then have 1 year of parole. No one obviously ever informed us of all of this craziness with parole. When he had his original SO case 10 years ago he had no restrictions keeping him away from children or "treatment" at that time. So we had no idea this was going to happen until we started trying to submit addresses for his parole. So here's something to think about to everyone here, if your ever convicted of anything again and go on paper, parole or probation then can, at least in Illinois now apply all the same condition to you as if you had just been convicted of another SO. Now he is not allowed to live with us while on parole or have any contact, phone, in person, letters anything with our kids while he is on parole. While before he spent basically every day with his niece and nephew who at the time were about the same age as our toddlers now.

Times have changed apparently and Illinois now has a SO specific parole unit, so I am told. So supposedly it is the same stipulations and restrictions throughout the whole state. They also do not separate anyone based on crime or length of time since the crime. His PO said sometimes they will consider not imposing them if the crime is >25 years old and then its still a maybe.

That was news to us and apparently to the vast majority of attorneys, including the chump we paid 10K to who basically just told him, take the 3 years because if you take it to trial no one will believe a word you say anyway because your a SO.

Alternatively he could stay 6 more months and then be released, supposedly with no parole time. That seems the best to me, as well as to him, but its hard to stay when you know you could be out. His thought is to come back for a little while, take care of some things at our house, construction etc, and then go back to finish the rest of it there if it really is as bad as they are making it seem.

I think there is no good answer