klmno
Active Member
OK- legal research has led me to find out these things:
Definitions- 1) a step-down program doesn't add to time required to be incarcerated,
2) a reunification and/or transitional placement is a short term (max 60 days if it's going well) placement and in this state, it's also consideed a step down and not to add to time incarcerated
3) a post-dispositional program is either in a detention center run by juvie or contracted out to a local GH, last 8 mos on average, and can be gotten 1 of three ways- a) a judge orders it in lieu of commitment to Department of Juvenile Justice or in the event of emergency protective order for child or due to child's behavior, b) dss has custody of the kid and can't keep them in a LRE, c) a kid is on probation and still not behaving so PO refers it to prevent taking kid to court for harsher punishment; important to note - a judge is not allowed to order a kid to both post-d and commitment to Department of Juvenile Justice because it has been deemed double-jeopardy. They can order post-d with suspended sentence to Department of Juvenile Justice so if kid "fails" at post-d, then they get committed to Department of Juvenile Justice but if committed to Department of Juvenile Justice, they cannot also be ordered to do post-d for the same crime; post-d is very simialr to a Department of Juvenile Justice incarceration because it requires the kid to earn their way out, there's a min length of stay, they have the same required treatment program, such as substance abuse and anger management
4) a "court order" is an order from a judge only and is not the same as an order from a PO
I had asked for either 1 or 2 above and even asked if a short term foster care placement could be used to meet the same objectives. PO led me to believe this GH was 1 & 2 but of course, would be after difficult child's release for required incarcerartion. When it started looking like this was a post-d program because there were too many inconsistent stories about it, I said never mind that difficult child could come straight home then super got irate accusing me of trying to write parole plan and said they were ordering it anyway. PO, even as late as this past Friday, was documenting this as a 3-6 mo transitional GH placement and they were ordering it.
OK, maybe they didn't know what they were doing but wouldn't they have looked into it before Friday or yesterday when difficult child's release date is tomorrow and PO and super have been adamant that they could order this? Wouldn't someone from the GH at least mentioned to PO that he can't do this?
because as it turns out, PO forwarded the application from the GH to me yesterday at lunch time. It is titled "Post-dispositional placement application and agreement". It says if placement is made by court order, court order must be attached. If placement is made at request of juvie CSU (PO), parent must consent.
Did PO honestly think he could sneak this by me without anyone noticing?
Now here's where we are today- difficult child was scheduled to be released tomorrow. On Friday am I was told to pick him up from Department of Juvenile Justice on Wed for transport to local GH only and I would sign him in there. I said no. If difficult child was being transferred and not released to my custody, they are responsible for transport. Central Department of Juvenile Justice office agreed. They call PO and PO says it will have to be this coming Friday then instead of Wed and issued paper to Department of Juvenile Justice saying he would pick difficult child up on Friday to bring him to GH. That's when PO called me (late afternoion last Fri by that point) to tell me I'd "have" to sign this agreement with GH first. I told him to email iit to me so I could see what they were expecting me to agree to since this was being done under a PO order. That's the app I rec'd from him yesterday. Apparently they originally planned for me to transport difficult child on Wed, show up at GH, and they'd slide me the signature page only under the pretense that I was just signing that as a check-in. How crooked!! Yesterday mid-afternoon, I write a letter to PO saying I'm not in agreement with post-d placement at this time because it's double jeopardy. If difficult child comes home and is not behaving, I'll reconsider because that's different. And I ask him to confirm that difficult child will be released to my custody now. I called yesterday, too, and left VM to make sure he'd rec'd this and knew I was not consenting. I've rec'd no response. difficult child called last night and said his counselor spent all day yesterday changing paperwork from Feb 8 release date to Feb 10 release date due to PO's order.
So WTH? Maybe PO is trying to get a judge to order this as I sit here typing this up. If a judge did order it, I would appeal because 1) I'm not there, 2) PO is probably over in court lying or at least mis-representing things in court. I don't know- but I can't believe how much- whatever this is- incompetence? manipulation? down-right lying?- WTH were these people thinking? Were they going to these extremes just to try to save face because PO's super backed them in a corner by saying she was ordering something she had no right to order without my consent?
My letter to aclu will be rec'd by aclu today. It charges these things- violation of difficult child's rights by lack of due process, double jeopardy, and unlawful detainment; violation of my parental rights by refusal to return child back to my custody upono release from required incarceration; 3) breech of trust of public servant and abuse of authority due to several violations of state law and state Department of Juvenile Justice regulations. aclu doesn't take many cases and only chooses those that would effect the rights of a lot of people. I'm thinking there are a lot of kids/parents whose rights are being violated this way in this state.
I could take the state Department of Juvenile Justice to court for all this but I can't afford the high-cost attny it would require to stand a chance against the state AG. The only thing left I can do is wait to see if they still follow thru, if GH accepts difficult child or PO tries to put difficult child in detention or whatever, then file complaint with fed DOJ and go public via media. I don't think general public pays too much attention though to a news release about a kid coming out of Department of Juvenile Justice and his rights being violated.
So does anyone want to wager a guess on what PO is doing today and why I haven''t heard back from him yet? Is he trying to get a court order or is he trying to get his foot out of his mouth?
And, DJ- if you read this- thank you again for letting me know in a persistent way that the previous PO and GAL had BSd me big time about threatening me with putting difficult child in custody of half-bro if I didn't jump thru their hoops. When I looked into it and found out for sure that you were right and they had flat out lied to me about that, knowing about the potential for sex abuse, etc, and how this was tearing me up emotionally but costing me everything I had, that's when I started keeping a more watchful eye on what is going on now with these people. Otherwise, I'd continued on thinking they were people to be believed and trusted. Ha!
I think the fed gov ought to check on where their funding is going, too, because that stream isn't supposed to cover this GH and there are a lot of people in this state with jobs in Department of Juvenile Justice and financial and personal interests in these "youth services".
Definitions- 1) a step-down program doesn't add to time required to be incarcerated,
2) a reunification and/or transitional placement is a short term (max 60 days if it's going well) placement and in this state, it's also consideed a step down and not to add to time incarcerated
3) a post-dispositional program is either in a detention center run by juvie or contracted out to a local GH, last 8 mos on average, and can be gotten 1 of three ways- a) a judge orders it in lieu of commitment to Department of Juvenile Justice or in the event of emergency protective order for child or due to child's behavior, b) dss has custody of the kid and can't keep them in a LRE, c) a kid is on probation and still not behaving so PO refers it to prevent taking kid to court for harsher punishment; important to note - a judge is not allowed to order a kid to both post-d and commitment to Department of Juvenile Justice because it has been deemed double-jeopardy. They can order post-d with suspended sentence to Department of Juvenile Justice so if kid "fails" at post-d, then they get committed to Department of Juvenile Justice but if committed to Department of Juvenile Justice, they cannot also be ordered to do post-d for the same crime; post-d is very simialr to a Department of Juvenile Justice incarceration because it requires the kid to earn their way out, there's a min length of stay, they have the same required treatment program, such as substance abuse and anger management
4) a "court order" is an order from a judge only and is not the same as an order from a PO
I had asked for either 1 or 2 above and even asked if a short term foster care placement could be used to meet the same objectives. PO led me to believe this GH was 1 & 2 but of course, would be after difficult child's release for required incarcerartion. When it started looking like this was a post-d program because there were too many inconsistent stories about it, I said never mind that difficult child could come straight home then super got irate accusing me of trying to write parole plan and said they were ordering it anyway. PO, even as late as this past Friday, was documenting this as a 3-6 mo transitional GH placement and they were ordering it.
OK, maybe they didn't know what they were doing but wouldn't they have looked into it before Friday or yesterday when difficult child's release date is tomorrow and PO and super have been adamant that they could order this? Wouldn't someone from the GH at least mentioned to PO that he can't do this?
because as it turns out, PO forwarded the application from the GH to me yesterday at lunch time. It is titled "Post-dispositional placement application and agreement". It says if placement is made by court order, court order must be attached. If placement is made at request of juvie CSU (PO), parent must consent.
Did PO honestly think he could sneak this by me without anyone noticing?
Now here's where we are today- difficult child was scheduled to be released tomorrow. On Friday am I was told to pick him up from Department of Juvenile Justice on Wed for transport to local GH only and I would sign him in there. I said no. If difficult child was being transferred and not released to my custody, they are responsible for transport. Central Department of Juvenile Justice office agreed. They call PO and PO says it will have to be this coming Friday then instead of Wed and issued paper to Department of Juvenile Justice saying he would pick difficult child up on Friday to bring him to GH. That's when PO called me (late afternoion last Fri by that point) to tell me I'd "have" to sign this agreement with GH first. I told him to email iit to me so I could see what they were expecting me to agree to since this was being done under a PO order. That's the app I rec'd from him yesterday. Apparently they originally planned for me to transport difficult child on Wed, show up at GH, and they'd slide me the signature page only under the pretense that I was just signing that as a check-in. How crooked!! Yesterday mid-afternoon, I write a letter to PO saying I'm not in agreement with post-d placement at this time because it's double jeopardy. If difficult child comes home and is not behaving, I'll reconsider because that's different. And I ask him to confirm that difficult child will be released to my custody now. I called yesterday, too, and left VM to make sure he'd rec'd this and knew I was not consenting. I've rec'd no response. difficult child called last night and said his counselor spent all day yesterday changing paperwork from Feb 8 release date to Feb 10 release date due to PO's order.
So WTH? Maybe PO is trying to get a judge to order this as I sit here typing this up. If a judge did order it, I would appeal because 1) I'm not there, 2) PO is probably over in court lying or at least mis-representing things in court. I don't know- but I can't believe how much- whatever this is- incompetence? manipulation? down-right lying?- WTH were these people thinking? Were they going to these extremes just to try to save face because PO's super backed them in a corner by saying she was ordering something she had no right to order without my consent?
My letter to aclu will be rec'd by aclu today. It charges these things- violation of difficult child's rights by lack of due process, double jeopardy, and unlawful detainment; violation of my parental rights by refusal to return child back to my custody upono release from required incarceration; 3) breech of trust of public servant and abuse of authority due to several violations of state law and state Department of Juvenile Justice regulations. aclu doesn't take many cases and only chooses those that would effect the rights of a lot of people. I'm thinking there are a lot of kids/parents whose rights are being violated this way in this state.
I could take the state Department of Juvenile Justice to court for all this but I can't afford the high-cost attny it would require to stand a chance against the state AG. The only thing left I can do is wait to see if they still follow thru, if GH accepts difficult child or PO tries to put difficult child in detention or whatever, then file complaint with fed DOJ and go public via media. I don't think general public pays too much attention though to a news release about a kid coming out of Department of Juvenile Justice and his rights being violated.
So does anyone want to wager a guess on what PO is doing today and why I haven''t heard back from him yet? Is he trying to get a court order or is he trying to get his foot out of his mouth?
And, DJ- if you read this- thank you again for letting me know in a persistent way that the previous PO and GAL had BSd me big time about threatening me with putting difficult child in custody of half-bro if I didn't jump thru their hoops. When I looked into it and found out for sure that you were right and they had flat out lied to me about that, knowing about the potential for sex abuse, etc, and how this was tearing me up emotionally but costing me everything I had, that's when I started keeping a more watchful eye on what is going on now with these people. Otherwise, I'd continued on thinking they were people to be believed and trusted. Ha!
I think the fed gov ought to check on where their funding is going, too, because that stream isn't supposed to cover this GH and there are a lot of people in this state with jobs in Department of Juvenile Justice and financial and personal interests in these "youth services".
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