originally posted 5/4/2009
I need support. I don’t know what to expect. My son was taken from me at 17 in the form of a modern day lynching. It felt that way! I am yet grieving. What is next when he is released from prison?
A grieving mother in Arkansas
posted 7/27/2009
My son, too, was taken away at the age of 13 and just like you, it felt like a lynching to me as well. He was in prison for 2 1/2 years, then was paroled and made to reside at a treatment center. He will receive treatment for a year and then be placed in an independent residential home. He’ll be on parole until the age of 21 and he has to register for the rest of his life.
So, when will my son ever be allowed to come home? The registry will prevent him from coming home for the next 14 years because he has younger siblings who are only 4 and 5 years old. My son will be 30 years old before he will be able to reunite with his family.
And they call this our American Justice…I call it cruel and unusual punishment.
posted shortly after original post
I share your grief and can only share with you what has happened with us. My son also was taken at the young age of 18, and is now 27 yrs old. It has been a nightmare and has been a repeating cycle of in and out of prison for the smallest violations. This nightmare began in 2002 in which he was sentenced to a year county time for lewd conduct with a minor. He had been living with this family in which the mother had picked up my son to go and live with her and her two daughters the mother lied to my son about her daughters age and introduced him to meth this was a party house and my son had been up for four days and one evening when he was laying on the sofa the mother approached him sexually when he refused she stated that he had made the biggest mistake of his life and would pay for rejecting her, this is when she called the local police and made the report stating that my son was sleeping with her 14 yr old daughter when the investigator spoke with my son they interrogated him for hours and he had never been in trouble with the law and was initiated by them and was not in his right state of mind because of the drugs this woman had given him. He did admit to the daughter being his girlfriend and this is all they needed to convict him of this crime. He pleaded no contest and took the offer and did one year in the county jail, when he was released he went into a sober living home and while there he worked in the kitchen and had a confrontation with another live in worker so they were both kicked out and this became a violation his PO took him in and he was sentenced to six months in state prison then when he was released he was out for about six months and then picked up another violation for under the influence and went back to prison. This whole thing really became a horrendous nightmare for us when prop.83 was passed, he was released in 2006 from prison and was not told that he would not be able to live with me and was not told that he would now have to wear this GPS device and so as of today he is back in prison for not abiding to the residency restriction. He was released on March 4 2009 and at the time his PO came out to our home and measured the distance from our home to the nearest school and in fact she measured twice and stated that he could live with me then on March 24 2009, she calls him stating that she made a mistake that he could not reside with me after all; I could not understand why because it is over the 2000 ft guideline, she stated that there was a new order that came out that had been faxed over to her for only our city, changing the distance, which I never heard or seen a copy of this paperwork. So when he was told that there is no where in our city for him to reside that he was to go and sleep in the river bottom you can imagine how upset I was and I even told her off because this was her mistake and No son of mine was going to sleep out there!! I took him with all camping gear and while he was out there his GPS device had some kind of malfunction it needed to be charged so his parole officer stated. The next day she calls him to come into her office and violates him once again and today he is currently in prison this time he was sentenced to six months, but this is going to happen once again because where is he to live or work? The law is made out to just send them right back its a revolving door and he was convicted of a crime he did not commit. I am so angry with our system and here in California I don’t hear of anything being done or anyone trying to do anything about this. The so called victim has stated that nothing ever happened between them and even wrote a written statement and had it notarized stating this. I have called so many attorneys to see if we could reopen his case and they all want 10,000 to start or they just laugh. I just don’t know what to do anymore I would love to start some group here in my city because I am sure that I am not the only mother going through this here. Don’t give up and lets stick together and pray that changes are made quickly, thank you so much for hearing me out.