Violation of Probation, Prison on Lay Away?

Its a setup! A trap! A tool to get a solid lock on a guaranteed extended stay at the Department of Corrections Express?

Maybe?

In talking this afternoon with one of my respected colleagues, a ballsy trial lawyer in the Law Firm of Bollinger and Anderson http://www.pcnotguilty.com/ (hint: Lisa Anderson) the issue came up about a case where a prosecutor is trying to make a sweetheart offer to admittedly overcome the suppression problems only to prevail later on the violation of probation. This discussion motivated my (http://www.donpumphrey.com/) ranting for the evening in the form of this blog.

As with everything in the practice of law, the answer always begins with, "It Depends".

History tells us that the Florida Department of Corrections began in 1821 (http://www.dc.state.fl.us/oth/timeline/index.html ) and has evolved to present day "warehousing" instead of Rehabilitation.

Probation is the lay away program for (in many instances) the State of Florida.

Probation officers, as a whole, are underpaid, under appreciated and down right understaffed. Heck, they are State Employees. Probation officers attempt to perform their job within the guidelines set out by whom ever (current Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections is Walter McNeil http://http//www.dc.state.fl.us/) is the currently at the helm. It seemed like some time ago you could not complete probation. Neither Gandhi nor Mother Theresa (with all due respect to both) could complete simple state supervised probation (we will not even address house arrest or felony drug offender probation) http://www.dc.state.fl.us/facilities/comcorinfo/definitions.html (go to this site for definitions involving community supervision)http://www.dc.state.fl.us/facilities/comcorinfo/general.html (this cite has frequently asked questions about certain aspects of probation). Do probation officers receive telephone calls and emails from the prosecutors? Absolutely! Do probation officers listen to prosecutors who call them? You figure it out. I often question communications between prosecutors and probation officers on the front end (front end meaning when a person is placed on probation as opposed to the back end (no pun intended in reference to prison life) when an affidavit of violation is filed to acquire a warrant for the probationers arrest. Nevertheless, the probation officers and the department are very concerned with misconceptions of probation http://www.dc.state.fl.us/oth/ccmyths.html.

For example, every person on felony probation with the State of Florida is required to submit to drug testing http://www.dc.state.fl.us/pub/annual/0607/randomdrug.html. Seems simple enough.

Testing reveals that the only person determining the result (many times) is the one dipping the "stick". However, they have never published nor produced the data on false positives and in many instances it is the word of the probation officer (his or her interpretation of the data) that determines the next 5, 10, 30 years of a probationers freedom.

Why? Your reading this, go to the hyperlinks and you will figure it out. Its all about the "Lay Away" Program. Moral: avoid probation in most situations or reserve the guest sweet at the DOC Inn Express.