originally posted 9/19/2008
I had a call at 11:00 last night from a scared parolee. Let me tell you about “Renaldo”. He was arrested at about the age of 16 for sexually abusing a six-year-old. He spent 10 years in prison where I visited him. He had become a model prisoner, has commendations for leading anger management groups.
He was released June 23rd and began the solitary role of released sex offender. He lives alone, works for his dad, who cannot visit him after 6PM. This was recently changed to a 7:00 curfew. He has to attend sex offender meetings for an hour and a half once a week, a two hour bus trip from his home. He wears an ankle bracelet and can be monitored or called any time. He is not to be in the presence of minors, even his own godchildren. He has no computer, no health benefits, but if sick is told to get a note from his doctor. However he has no doctor. He works for his father all day but can’t live with him since the father had a conviction 30 years ago. He would like to go to school but knows he would
have to tell everyone his charges.
Last evening he went to a fishing area of town with an adult friend and they were 6 minutes late arriving home due to traffic. He called his parole officer immediately upon arriving and was told to be at the office at 8:00 this morning. This usually means being arrested. I told him to call me this morning. He just did and said he was given a lecture and told not to let it happen again. So goes the harassing life of the solitary parolee.