Update on PO mess!

[klmno]

Buddy, I speculate that PO became aware this was a case over his head about 4-6 mos ago then got his super involved. But his super didn't know anymore than he did- and maybe even less. Yes, it has been said that if difficult child comes straight home to me, he will have an ankle bracelet. Right now, oddly enough- it appears to be a situation where people in the state office KNOW they have NO legal right to keep difficult child from returning home under these circumstances but I can almost hear them shrinking over the phone when I mention that they have no legal authority to do otherwise.

Keep in miind, my letters to the legislators in this state were advocating for parental rights- parents should not be blamed for delinquent behavior from their kids without justifiable reason that it was the parents' fault and if that's not the case, the people ihe system should be backing up the parent, not blaming them. The idea that people in the system don't want to deal with this from parents isn't a mere "fleeting thought"- you haave no idea how far they will go to eliminate the parent from the decision making body. in my humble opinion, it's horrific.

 

[klmno]

OK, what am I missing here?

PO now knows he can''t put difficult child in this post-d GH, or really any GH, without a court order or my permission and that I'm not giving consent. The facility where difficult child is now can't release difficult child to me because PO won't change his direction to them that he's picking difficult child up to take to GH. I told them yesterdday that if PO comes to pick difficult child up, they better verify with the "place" PO claims to be taking him that they will accept placcement and if PO shows up with a court order, I want a copy because I haven't even heard about a hearing. PO emailed that he's not changing direction/order until rec'g word from central office. Central office hasn't responded to any party yet.

Now, even if they were pursuing the next stringent placement which would be a state Department of Juvenile Justice halfway house, that takes thorough investigation reviewed by court and order from a judge, too. Central office has to know this. So what am I missing? Why are they holding this up? I can see them taking forever to send me a written response to my written complaint but I can't see why they aren't calling PO and Department of Juvenile Justice facility to tell them difficult child is to come to me, or whatever their plan is. PO did confirm in his email that difficult child is still scheduled to be released Fri. What could they possibly be doing? They have access to AG and they have attnys on staff- how long does it take to decide if they want to try to get a court order?

I don't even know what flippin court to file a complaint against Department of Juvenile Justice in. LOL! I know juvie courts here won't take it because there are no pending charges against me or difficult child.

 

[buddy]

Oh in my humble opinion too.... It is HORRIFIC.

What ever happened with the lawyer?

 

[klmno]

The llawyer disappeared- not just from me but there's never any answer except an answering machine at her office- even when I had a coworker try calling from her cell a couple of different times. I don't know- family emergency maybe??? I googled to see if her name was in the news or obits and nothing came up; I checked to make sure she was a licensed attny in good standing and she is. Another attny wanted 2500 just to make one request in court. I couldn't afford that. I hate to think what it would cost to actually file a claim against Department of Juvenile Justice since the attny would be going up agaainst the state AG. I'm just praying the ACLU grabs on, and quickly.

I really don't understand the continued persistence for difficult child to go to GH. It's not like I've ever been incarcerated, unfit, involved with dss or can't provide for difficult child. Isn't it time they bite it and change the flippin order?

 

[buddy]

Can your legal aid dept help you find any pro bono attorneys?

 

[klmno]

I don't qualify for legal aid and there are very few pro bono- except aclu. Legal aid works more like a referral agency so I could get an inexpensive consult but not inexpensive representation to take on Department of Juvenile Justice.

The more I think about it, I don't see how Department of Juvenile Justice/po can take this to court- difficult child hasn't violated parole because he's not on parole yet and there are no outstanding charges against difficult child that he hasn't already been sentenced for. I haven't broken a po order because the order was unlawful- PO doesn't have authority to order me to make a parental placement tranferring custody to a GH. They can only hold pending charges against the difficult child over a parent's head to get the parent to do it. So, PO would have to file against me as being unfit but he has NO grounds to do so, I've made all required appts and contacts with him and I haven't abandoned my son. He's the one that messed up because he tried to claim he was placing difficult child in there but he can't because THEY won't let him. How can he bring charges against me for that?

Furthermore, since reentry funding doesn't cover this post-d program under these circumstances, I can't see how he can get the placement funded anyway.

 

[buddy]

Such a huge "head banging against the walls....." kind of thing you keep going through. but you KEEP GOING.... Really KLMNO, I have been so amazed by you and you and your son deserve every single chance the universe has to offer. OK so my energy for you goes to the ACLU picking up the case......

 

[klmno]

thank you- it's safe to say both my and difficult child's nerves are shot. But they use this sort of koi to force the parent's and difficult child's hands. Every time I hear a noise outside I check the door to see if it's a subpeona for court. LOL!

 

[klmno]

These are the 2 key passages from state law- both require review and decision by the court, not the PO, which is exactly why that GH is not accepting difficult child without my written consent.

When the child is returned to the custody of the court for parole supervision by the court service unit or the local department of social services for supervision, and, after a full investigation, the court is of the opinion that the child should not be placed in his home or is in need of treatment, and there are no funds available to board and maintain the child or to purchase the needed treatment services, the court service unit or the local department of social services shall arrange with the Director of the Department of Juvenile Justice for the boarding of the child in a foster home or with any private institution, society or association or for the purchase of treatment services. In determining the proper placement for such a child, the Department may refer the child to the locality's family assessment and planning team for assessment and recommendation for services. The cost of maintaining such child shall be paid monthly, according to schedules prepared and adopted by the Department, out of funds appropriated for such purposes. Treatment services for such child shall be paid from funds appropriated to the Department for such purpose.

In the event it is determined by the juvenile and domestic relations district court that a person may benefit from placement in the halfway house program operated by the Department, the person may be referred for care and treatment to a halfway house. Persons so placed in a halfway house shall remain in parole status and cannot be transferred or otherwise placed in another institutional setting or institutional placement operated by the Department except as elsewhere provided by law for those persons who have violated their parole status.

Does anyone have any ideas why central office is dragging their feet? They have to know these laws.

And since this isn't a Department of Juvenile Justice halfway house, it's a locally run GH, that means it falls under that first paragraph- there has been no investigation at all much less court order and that's why I'm thinking PO didn't even have funding for it lined up.

 

[buddy]

It seems they dont. They probably have very few people that even question them.

Not having had any experience with any of this, (you have been so patient with my questions...I am only asking because I see how much it affects you and want to support you).... I have one more dumb question...

I always thought parole was for when they are released early. I thought if they actually did their time then they were done???

 

[susiestar]

Do you know the name of the reporter who wrote the article about your Department of Juvenile Justice system not having a top person and being in all that trouble? It might be worth a call to that reporter to see if they would be interested in knowing that even AFTER said article and the Department of Juvenile Justice getting into trouble, they are STILL trying to have kids sent to programs with-o court order or parental consent and they are still trying to make sure that they are as unhelpful as possible and that they want to make double jeopardy a normal thing for kids. It MIGHT be an interesting follow up, and knowing that a reporter is asking questions about difficult child might make PO want to cooperate iwth you so that you say good things.

I wonder how many times they can push his release date back with-o him doing anything wrong? I am half expecting the PO to tell them to not release him on Fri for some reason. This whole thing is nuts.

(((((hugs))))) You are doing a great job advocating for him, even if it feels like you are not getting anywhere.

 

[klmno]

It's different for adults than juveniles. Adults- well I don't know if this is always the case but at least in some cases, an adult who gets a sentence can go before a parole board and might be granted a release conditional on being on parole and having to do whatever PO says.

In juvie cases, in this state, if a kid does not complete his requirements while incarcerated (anger management treatment, as one example) and has maxed out the most time they can keep him incarcerated, they have to release him but will make these a condition of his parole. So, he'd have to finish the anger management treatment or whatever in order to prevent re-incarceration.

difficult child was sentenced to 15 to 24 mos, and has completed his required treatment and earned his way thru all the steps at 18 mos incarcerated. Therefore, while he's still required to be on parole, no further treatment like that can be ordered as a condition of being released. The PO can order followup treatment, and that's appropriate. But PO is trying to order an entirely new anger management treatment and make GH placement a condition- I think they've already figured out they can't do that because difficult child completed what he needed to without maxing out his sentence.

It's not a dumb question at all- I looked it up prior to pushing things to this point in order to make sure they couldn't keep difficult child incarcerated. Now supposedly, difficult child could choose to do the full 24 mos and not have to be on parole at all but that's a bit questionable- it says that in Department of Juvenile Justice regs but the judge who committed him to Department of Juvenile Justice said he was to be on parole supervision after release so I'm not fighting that. Since difficult child completed all requirements to be released from incarceration, it would be double jeopardy for a judge to sentence him to another disciplinary program for the same crime.

 

[klmno]

I swear I can't remember which reporter ar article you're referring to, Susie. My mind is too full right now- can you help jog my memory?

As far as pushing difficult child's time back without him doing something else wrong, yes, I suspect PO or even central office might try by saying this is still unsettled, however, it is illegal for them to do that because it's their fault that it's unsettled. If a kid is ordered to a halfway house, they can keep them in Department of Juvenile Justice until a bed is available but there is no court order for any placement so I told PO in my email yesterday that I planned to pick difficult child up Fri and any further delays in his release without justifiable cause would be proceeded upon as unlawful detainment. That's my predicament now-- how do I proceed on that when I don't have a ton of money? Mainly, this is a problem because staff at Department of Juvenile Justice facility have been told by po that he'll pick him to take him to GH. That's when I told them they better verify with GH before releasing difficult child to PO unless he's standing there with a court order in hand because otherwise, I want to know where he's planning on taking my son and it's not going to be a pretty picture if he rides off into the sunset with my kid when the group home cannot accept him. I'm thinking that's the point I'll be calling the police.

This is the kind of stuff though that's still going to be piled into a letter of complaints to fed doj- they have authority to do something. And this effort to get difficult child in this GH no matter what just makes all the funding issue and agency that oversees all these programs look more fishy to me. I know that isn't clear, but when one agency oversees reentry programs and dispositional programs and they got reentry funding and PO then is pushing for a dispositional program, it makes me wonder if fed funding intended for one thing is actually going to something else to keep that other program afloat.

 

[buddy]

Thanks for explaining...

So, it is Wed. He is to be released on Friday... holy cow I hope they get back to you today.

 

[klmno]

Yeah- and the only reason difficult child's release date got changed from today to Fri is because PO was claiming difficult child was going to GH and he couldn't pick him up until Fri. Still, I'm not regretting saying if difficult child was going to GH, they have to transport him. Otherwise we'd be standing at GH right now trying to figure out if we both can get into trouble for me not signing agreement. This way, I know difficult child can't be in trouble for violating parole and any questionable acts are them violating my and difficult child's rights, not us breaking the law. I just want confirmation from the facility that if I show up Fri, they will release difficult child to me. If PO is still saying difficult child can't come home, they need to verify that he has legal authority (ie, court order) to issue that direction.

 

[DammitJanet]

The article Susie is referring to is the one that was in the Richmond Times Dispatch saying that the entire Juvenile Justice System was under review and some people had been removed and some people were being replaced.

 

[klmno]

Oh koi- is that the one I posted some time ago or a different one?

Ya know, I noticed when I called fed doj last month and asked if they could help, and they asked me what state I was in, the lady seemed to gasp and get quiet before telling me who in their system to write a letter to- it definitely appeared that I wasn't the first person to call about this state's Department of Juvenile Justice.


I just rec'd a letter from the youth commission rep on the general assembly and it didn't seem to be the typical "blow-off" letter I expected. Not real detailed but I think maybe she will actually present some of these things I requested review of, as she said she would. For instance, they passed a law a year or two ago saying if a kid is diagnosis'd with a MH illness or is seeing a therapist in Department of Juvenile Justice, then the PO is required by law to have a review mtg of that, then form a MH treatment plan and have it in place prior to release. OK- well, how much good does that do if the counselors provided are exempt from the licensing requirement so in actuality, you could get anybody? ((I didn't word it that way in my letter but that was the jest of my request for them to remove the exemption for providers to have a license qualifying them.) And what good does it do if no one checks to make sure the pO actually had this mtg on time and got this stuff lined up? Gee....I wonder where that loophole is that prevents improvement after we passed all these wonderful laws and got funding???

 

[JJJ]

I think you haven't gotten a call back yet because it is a different priority from them.

For you, this is your #1 priority -- difficult child.

For them, he is one of 1000s and to them this is not a crisis, no one is in danger, they will get to it when they get to it.

 

[susiestar]

Janet is right about the article. You posted it fairly recently.

As for the funding for this GH program - they are probably calling it by any of a half dozen names so that they can use funding from all sorts of sources. Chances are the GH is owned by someone's brother or cousin or mistress and the kids are being sent there for this, that and the other (post disposition, anger mgmt, continued therapy, alternative placement, whatever) so that the relative/whatever gets all sorts of $$ and doesn't lose their shirt because the program failed. I KNOW it isn't supposed to work that way, but a PO and/or GAL isn't supposed to tell a 9 or 10 or 12yo that they don't have to do what Mom says, they only have to do what PO/GAL says. And we know that happened to you and difficult child.

I am sorry that this is such a mess. I am glad you are complaining to the fed doj.

 

[klmno]

As far as costs- check this out- the GH would charge 185 per day (per kid) and the kid goes to public sd so that's no cost to them, the parent "agrees" to pay for clothing, supplies, medical and dental care. The place looks like a dump and they have approx 12 boys there at a time. And the parent pays CS while the kid is there. What gets me about this is the amount of people I have found that are in the youth commissions "programs" or services that also work for Department of Juvenile Justice. That seems extremely fishy. And, the state/local funding for the GH was cut a few years ago but fed funding for reentry was approved last year- this program was not a reentry program but is overseen by the same agency that oversees local reentry services. And come hell or high water, they want my son filling that bed in the gh.