Another milestone!

Yesterday we spent a usual weekend day with Corey at Lompoc Camp, only this visit held a special significance for us all, it was Coreys last day in the RDAP Camp. After 9 months he has completed and graduated from the BOPS Residential Drug and Alcohol Program, and last nite when I checked the BOP Locator (where one can find a prisoners release date as well as where he is imprisoned) I saw to my great relief his release date HAD changed from 4-13-2015 to 4-13-2014 (he was arrested on April 16, 2004 and has spent every single day in custody since then). He has earned the year off with completion of the program, the only relief he has from the exorbitantly lengthy 12 ½ yr sentence he received for his marijuana offense. It wasn’t until I saw it myself with my own eyes, that he was given the reprieve, the only one afforded him aside from the minor 'good time' days credited him along the way. I never fully let myself believe or hope that I’d see him realize the extra time off sentence, the disappointments along the path have been many and one stops expecting anything if one wishes any peace of mind at all. But it’s a fact, its in black and white, on the site!

In less than 6 months Corey will be released to a halfway house and from there, after a few months, or whenever his Case Worker/Parole Officer deem he is “somewhat” trustworthy, he’ll be released to home confinement for the remaining time left on the designated HH 6 month assignment. Mind you, during all the time he is on HC he will have to wear an ankle monitoring bracelet … as a first time offender, never having committed a violent act, he’ll be treated just as a violent and volatile released felon would be. Not to worry, he will be responsible for the cost of this device (or we his family will be) for the months he must wear it so at least taxpayers won’t foot the bill for that, but they will continue to foot most the bill for, not only the past 10 yrs of his imprisonment for a nonviolent crime, but for the next chapter of this sentence, which I’ll describe. Our system of ‘justice’ has evolved from one of justice actually being served (prior to the enactment of the Minimum/mandatory Sentencing Guidelines) into a massive industrial complex where the stockholders and anyone involved/employed by the BOP or private prison contractors ( aside from being the one imprisoned or the loved ones of) are only concerned with their profits, and of growing them.

SO, even though we all excitedly focus on these coming events we don’t delude ourselves that after HH and HC ends, and he is finally released from the supervision of the Bureau of Prison he is finally, FINALLY, free. Oh no, the ‘end’, the freedom our son so looks forward to will still be 5 years in the distance at that point. That is just the point when the ‘second sentence” (as the Judge so aptly called it, all part of the overall punishment for his first time, nonviolent offense in this American justice system) kicks in … five more years of Supervised Release, during which time he will be constantly under the watchful supervision of a parole officer and all the bureaucracy that comes with that. We are finding out, as more and more of friends he’s made while incarcerated have informed us, there is a great deal of bureaucracy that continues to place hurdles to full integration back into society difficult.

But I won’t ‘whine’ about that, its nothing less than we’ve come to expect, and will deal with it as it comes. For now we are just relishing this new milestone, this new realization something akin to ‘freedom’ is at hand….after almost 10 yrs of a seemingly endless journey in our country's prison system, and all that came with that, the lifestyle we have come to accept as ‘normal’ for the duration, we see the open door just ahead and are filled with anticipation and excitement of what lies beyond.

"If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention". ~Author Unknown