And now even another month

klmno

Active Member
difficult child called and told me what some counselor told him Monday. This isn't a therapist but a "behavioral counselor", which basicly means the staff person assigned to keep up with his Department of Juvenile Justice paperwork on the unit he lives in, now that he's completed the behavioral requirement for Department of Juvenile Justice (which was an anger management class). Anyway, the Department of Juvenile Justice policy is that a kid has to be free of "moderate" charges for a certain period of time before being released and since difficult child got into that fight at the end of Dec., it would have pushed his release to the end of March. But he said this counselor told him on Monday that he couldn't even go up for release (which means requesting it from his treatment team) until the end of March. That would mean he couldn't possibly get out before the last of April but more likely early May. Something isn't adding up. I don't think he's lied to me about Department of Juvenile Justice stuff since being in there but I'm wondering if he's lieing to me about this being a moderate charge and maybe it was a major instead. That would be dumb because the PO or someone will tell me. It just doesn't add up- I have read the regs myself and the kid is eligible to request release around 30 days before their earliest eligible release date. That is because it takes 4-6 weeks to get packets of info ready and delivered to parties who have to have them 30 days before the actual release.

Ok- I'll regroup. In a way this is better than difficult child being home the time of year that has me extremely stressed over how he was going to do. But this release date staying up in the air makes me nuts and the loonger it goes on, the more I wonder if difficult child can ever get out of this system or if he'll just continue to get deeper and deeper into it.
 

Steely

Active Member
I would be super worried about him becoming caught in the legal system as well. I wish there was something I could recommend. I will be sending hugs however.............hang in there.
 

klmno

Active Member
There are only 2 thoughts in my mind right now. The first is my defensive one- if difficult child messes up at home it always ends up with me being blamed for it, if he messes up in Department of Juvenile Justice's control, they say difficult child is "responsible for his own choices" I honestly don't see how they can defend both positions at the same time. The second- I wish I could find a way to put this boy in a military boarding school when he's released from Department of Juvenile Justice. He loves the comradery of living with other boys in his age group and the psychiatrist at the last psychiatric hospital, along with me and a couple of others, have felt that could be just what difficult child needs to make him thrive- without having more of a Department of Juvenile Justice record. But between trying to get a kid with a record accepted to one and then not being able to afford the tuition, I don't see how it's possible. They would say if he needs that kiind of environment to make him thrive, leave him incarcerated in Department of Juvenile Justice. Never mind the criminal aspect and lack of visits home, educational aspect, etc.
 
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