Federal Release Update

Got some news a few weeks back that initially did not make me happy.  It has taken me a while to make peace with the idea and all that it will entail, but as of this moment in time I feel calm with what lies ahead for us.  I can not say I am excited or thrilled because there are way too many unanswered questions yet but we will face them as they come.

My husband was called into his counselors office and given a letter that denied his request to move into our family members home.  Reasons were given that if was "too far off the grid" and he had no direct connections to the area.  That federal district declined his transfer to their jurisdiction.  We had hoped that he could go to that house so he could be close to some other family, he would be away from this community and for the time being would keep law enforcement out of my children's lives as long as possible.  While he is under BOP supervision they can come into our home at any time and search whatever and where ever they want.  We wanted to keep this away from the kids as long as possible. 

What choice did we have now, well now he has no place else to be released to except home.  Initially I was very upset because we had made plans that we thought were in the best interest of everyone involved but the government now regulates so much of our lives that they are telling us that we can not do what we wanted.  Now we have to start all over and face the reality that he has no place else to come home to except here.

The first step was reconciling it for myself.  Part of me is happy that he will once again be in the house but I am scared (that is the word) of the unknown.  I have no idea how this is going to impact our lives.  It has taken us many years to get to the point where we consider our lives normal and now that will all change and I have no control over how.  I fear for the imposition on the lives of my children and yes, they are still children.  Wiser minds than mine have pointed out to me that I have a "date", a real "date" when he will be transferred back to this area and it is within this calendar year.  That is so much more than they have, they still have abstract release dates somewhere out in the future. 

The next step for me was to tell the kids, being that my oldest will be in college, it had very little impact on him, my youngest was just excited that Dad would be coming home, but my daughter, who is way too much like me, is torn between having her father home and the potential problems that come with him.  We talked for a while and decided that it was silly to worry over the unknown at such an early time.  As it stands today, we all have our thoughts on how things will play out, but we are just living and enjoying the time we have now.

And for those of you who are wondering, I had hoped that I would be able to pick him up on his "date" and take him to the halfway house myself so we could spend some time together but the government said no to that to.  Apparently the BOP has a rule that if it is more than an 8 hour drive they REQUIRE the inmate to take public transportation.  WHAT?  They are the ones that placed my husband so far away from us and now they are dictating how he gets home.  He will now have to spend 17 hours or so on a Greyhound bus because it is a 9-10 hour drive home.  Guess what that means for you as taxpayers, that means you are paying for his transportation and money for any food and necessities on his way here.  Instead of me footing the bill and giving him a chance to spend time with his family, he will come back to the area on the taxpayers dime while subsidizing the Greyhound bus system.  The BOP claims that they have had problems in the past with car trouble and delays with inmates getting where they need to be on time.  I took my fair share of buses in the past and I can tell you that they have a far greater chance of not being on time than most people would.

So what have I learned this month?  I have learned that you do not make any plans or assumptions where the federal government is concerned.  They will do the complete opposite of what is in the best interest of the taxpayer and they always act contrary to the wisdom they espouse, but that is a topic for another day.