Do you have to go when your PO calls?
When your PO calls you stop everything you’re doing and go when you’re called.
I recently met a young man who was in a drug program and was kicked out of the program for leaving work when his PO called and said “get here now”! The program had found a job for this young man and did not like the fact that this young man had to leave work because his PO had called him and told him to go see his PO at that moment. Now the employer understood that he had to leave and it wasn’t like he wasn’t going back after the PO visit or the next day. This young man’s PO even called the program and stated that they had called the young man and said get to my office now. However, the program insisted that he had to leave the program because he left the job site.
Programs, ex-inmates and money.
If these programs cannot understand that these ex-inmates have to go when called by their PO’s then the programs should not take ex-inmates into their programs. If it was about money then they have lost the money from this young man by kicking him out of the program and if he had gone back to prison for defying his PO, they still would have lost money because this young man would have been in prison and would not be paying his weekly “rent” to stay in the program.
Requirements of ex-inmates
This wasn’t right nor fair what this program has done to this young man. It potentially could have caused him to relapse and could have caused him to go back to prison for a situation that was out of his control. Luckily, he has some friends, that he had made in a very short time at that same program, willing to help him find a different program , job and place to live.
There should be better guidelines for programs. Requirements for ex-inmates need to be made clear before allowing the ex-inmate to join specific programs.