Okay, so I have finally gotten an answer to this "one schedule" ordeal on house arrest. Lets say that I have work from 9-5 and I have a Dr. appointment at 10am. If I go to work, I cannot go to my Dr. appointment and vice versa. Explain that to me. Yes, I understand that I am serving a punishment and yes I understand that the rules of life are never fair, but lets be realistic for a friggin minute. Plenty of Americans take off work for a couple hours for a Dr. appointment or go into work/leave work early to go to appointments. So basically if I am to work on Monday, I cannot go to a Dr appointment. I can only do ONE thing per day. How incredibly ridiculous is that. Again, I get that I am serving a punishment, however lets go back to the argument that my PO continues to use. "If you were in jail you would not be able to do this." I know for a fact that if I were in jail and on a work schedule that I would still be able to attend visits from family, get haircuts, be seen by medical, have yard time etc. I truly believe that the house arrest program needs tweaked. I have learned that there are what is called risk levels: high, medium, low. Once your risk level is determined you are entered into a category of how often the PO needs to visit your house, search your house, require you to give urine samples upon visits, restrict your access to the outside world and so forth. Let us again use the example of prison or jail. If you are a low risk, you spend your days in what is called general population and depending on the layout of the jail, you are more or less in a large open area with bunk beds surrounding you and you roam free during the day. Now, if you are declared a high risk or lets say level 6 you more than likely, again depending on the jail and their tier level, are going to be in a cell the majority of the day, have one hour of rec a day, 3 showers a week (which is the mandatory min. the facility has to offer), and make phone calls from your room on a given cordless. See, low risks or general population have more privileges than the high risks cases. Therefore, why is it not like that for house arrest? Yes, those anti-house arrest persons may say well because you already have more freedom than you should and so on. Depending on how you look at it or the crime that was committed, I could see why you would feel that way. However, if in in a facility the low risks are given more privileges than the high ones, why would we not carry that out on the outside? One thing I have been getting a lot of is "well you are a criminal and this is how criminals are treated." Since when does mistreating a person become justified based on a mistake they made? Do we jump to conclusion about those who got a speeding ticket that they are terrible reckless dangerous drivers? Remember early on in this blog, I made the comment in regards to just because someone made a mistake and is considered a criminal by law does not make them a bad person?! It remains true and not just because I am one that made a mistake. But because I believe people can make irrational irresponsible careless choices in which lead to a change in their lives but does not entirely make that person a bad person. It means they made a bad choice, for whatever reason. Everyone makes mistakes, from having a few beers then getting in the car and driving home (guess what you're a criminal who didn't get caught), to forgetting to pay a bill, reading the ingredients wrong and the food not turning out to having alcohol in the house and the teenager helped themselves to (you're considered a criminal for providing alcohol to a minor even though it was not bought with that intention). But those mistakes, big, small, in between and 'I wont get caught' are all MISTAKES and you wouldn't wanting someone to judge you or call you a bad person for a poor choice you made. Give others the same respect. We all make mistakes, some get us caught by teachers, parents, friends, other family, and law enforcement. It is not our place to judge someone, it is the Lords place. We have have skeletons in our closet we don't expose to people for fear of rejection, judgement, embarrassment, or what not. Imagine if you could not hide those skeletons, how would you feel dealing with the opinions and wrath of those criticizing you and judging you based on something you are already ashamed of?!
Bottom line, just because someone makes a mistake does not mean it is right to treat them differently than one who has never made a mistake!
How am I supposed to follow probation rules of having a job and keeping that job if I am not allowed to attend work and a Dr. appointment in the same day?!!!!
