The 'halfway' house scam

[serryjw]

I was on the bus today where I met a young gal that is almost finished with her halfway house incarceration. She was convicted on 'possession' when she was smoking, but in a home with 2 lbs of marijuana( wrong place at the wrong time). The sentence was 9 years!!! and did 3 years. She got out and got a job but was picked up for not showing up for her parole meetings........IF she did she would have lost her job....so instead she got convicted again and spent 3 months for parole violation.

HERE IS THE SCAM!


180 gals in half way house spending EITHER $10 or $17 daily for food or shelter.That is somewhere B/T $675,000 to $1,117,000 for a private non profit. How much does food cost? Multiples live in a room with double decker beds and one cheap dresser. Her home where her husband lives in a few miles away from the halfway house. Does it not make more sense to go home with an ankle bracelet and get a a F*CKEN job and check in with a parole officer weekly?

She said JUDGES own the halfway houses? Someone is making a shitload of money Welcome to Babs Bush's world

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Parole is a scam too.

[yella_dawg]

2. Do the research.

Incarceration, in all it's various forms, is a scam of astonishing proportions in this country. I got into researching this for a while some years ago, and was so sickened I had to drop it. It is staggering.


And nobody gives a shit, 'cuz their "criminals".

[H2O Man]

13. Jail/prison

is a huge business. No doubt about that.

[Marie26]

25. Check out the private prisons

Making oodles of money creating sub-standard jails while bribing local officials to look the other way.

[pooja]

3. The sad part is that in a situation like that... the bust was

probably for someone bigger or for more info.. so the person they were after went back on the street with probation.

[niyad]

4. real scam with halfway houses here, $17/day--even if you check out

at 12:01 AM--and they charge another person the full day as well!! must check out how much they are making

[sandnsea]

5. Oh man

Nine years for possession, and you believe her?? And you believe she went back to prison just for missing ONE parole meetng?

I'm an advocate for addicts and alcoholic, but come on, this is a bold faced lie. That's what addicts and alcoholics do. See George W Bush, poster boy.

No, judges do not own halfway houses, although some may sit on boards. I don't know about your costs there, some non-profits do have Administrators that make a tidy sum and I think it stinks. BUT, the reason she doesn't have an ankle bracelent in her husband's house is probably because the 2 lbs of pot belonged to him in the first place. Or that was where she was living when she was on probation for possession and was THEN busted for dealing with 2 lbs of pot in the house and THEN sentenced to 9 years.

You're an easy mark and trust me, that's not a good thing.

[serryjw]

6. Yes I believe her

She didn't GO BACK to prison for missing ONE parole meeting...she went to the halfway house for missing TWO meetings

She admitted to smoking at a home that had 2 lbs in it but she said it was not her's(Yes, I believe her. She will never see me again, had no reason to lie.)..NOT it was NOT her home or the home her hubby lived in......BTW, I care more about the halfway house rip off. I do not KNOW if HER halfway house was a non profit but it was NOT a gov't housing....SOMEONE owns these and we know that Babs invested a lot of money in prisons...now a BIG business

[sandnsea]

7. That's what they do, lie

I don't mean that as a condemnation, it's just a reality. There doesn't have to be any purpose whatsoever to an addicts lie, it's just what they do. It's part of the "woe is me" mentality that allows them to continue using. But since that isn't your primary issue, I'll drop that.

As to halfway houses, the ones I know of are all non-profit. That's how they're set up. If a privatized for profit group has moved in to that arena, it wouldn't surprise me but I just don't know about it. For profit isn't always worse than non-profit anyway. Some local non-profit businesses can make quite a tidy sum by paying themselves a large Administrator's fee.

As to Babs, I can't quite see how she could be making money off halfway houses unless there is some new privatized company that has moved in on that turf. OR, son Neil is selling them all his educational software to help them get GED's, which wouldn't surprise me one bit.

All in all though, halfway houses are a good thing and distinctly better than the prison this girl would be in otherwise. That's mostly what concerned me about the alarm in your OP, that people start turning against halfway houses which would not be a good thing at all.

[serryjw]

8. I am sure glad you are not sitting on

the jury.......She's an addict? She lies?...Shit, I don't know anyone that has NOT smoked grass, including me.

[sandnsea]

9. Gee, I'm on a discussion board??

Holy shit, I must have taken a wrong turn from the court house.

Look, I know I'm not on a jury at this moment and frankly, you couldn't get a better jury member than me because I happen to know the difference between my opinions and facts, or the prosecutors' opinions and facts, or the witnesses' opinions and facts.

But this is a real world conversation and in the real world, people do not go to prison merely for smoking grass. There has to be something else going on, prior convictions, etc. And if somebody doesn't have the presence of mind to adhere to parole or probation, and uses, then yeah, they're an addict. Why am I qualified to say that? Because I worked in the treatment profession and helped develop and facilitate programs, that's why.

[serryjw]

10. You're truly amazing

I know our judicial system is 100% fair and equitable, nobody has gotten railroaded. It's nice to hear the facts from a professional.

[H2O Man]

15. While the justice system

has a high rate of failures -- including wrongful convictions of the innocent, failure to convict the guilty, and overly harsh sentences for victimless crimes -- it is also worth noting that often, people who are incarcerated, and people who have issues involving addiction, are not the most accurate of reporters. In the case you describe, there is obviously no way that anyone can say for sure if what she said is true or not. As someone who worked for decades with people who had situations including legal and addiction issues, I can say that I heard this type of story many times, and it was never true. I have, on the other hand, had experience with numerous failings of the judicial system through my work.

[datasuspect]

11. ". . . people do not go to prison merely for smoking grass."

what startling naivete.

plenty of people go to prison for shit they didn't even do.

and yes, in many locations, smoking grass can get you a stint.

depends on the extent to which the jugde is a dick.

[dsc]

14. I want you to find one, just one, person who went to prison for at least

a year, for just smoking pot. Seriously, I have literally never heard of such a thing, and I have been in AA for several years. I am cutting it way down from what the OP has. I want just at least a year.

[datasuspect]

16. i mean this in the most polite way possible

but what you WANT means zero to me.

[dsc]

17. You are claiming a fact

that people routinely go to prison for smoking pot. You should back your fact up. It is routine after all, thus you must have literally a rolodex full of examples. I am asking for a mere one. Or are you just plain wrong?

[datasuspect]

18. you said "routinely"

i did not.

the legal system, the manifold jurisdictions, the inherent wealth-bias in the legal system all prove my point sufficiently to me. and anyway, i'm not going to spend any period of time researching convictions at local, state, and federal levels to get this "proof" that you require.

if it is that important to you, you look it up yourself.

or just stick your head out a window.

look around you.

i have never tried to apply academic research methods (or scientific standards of proof) to what is the equivalent of an electronic bathroom wall (internet discussion groups).

this is not a competition for me.

if you want (or need) to be right, then you win. you are right, i am wrong.

sounds like someone needs to call their sponsor though.

keep going back. it should eventually work if you work it.

[dsc]

20. spoken as someone who can't back up his words

which is fine. I find it beyond absurd that someone got nine years for smoking pot. I might see getting months with a dick as a judge (though that would be jail, not prison). Maybe even a year and a day so it became prison, though I haven't heard of that. You evidently can't or won't back up your facts so now you simply resort to personal attacks. It isn't I who has an attitude problem but you. BTW I have been sober for over 6 years.

[datasuspect]

22. you are presupposing

that i actually give a fuck.

and i really don't.

[serryjw]

30. Colorado drug penalties

NOW I never asked what the relationship was with the person that had the 2 lbs. Colorado may have gotten her for cultivation.
quote.......
Any amount (with payment) felony 2 - 6 years $2,000 - $500,000 ($1,500 surcharge
end quote......
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=4526&wtm_view=penalties

I don't know how long ago this was. I do know that Colorado felony laws for ANYTHING are tough. Somehow we got on to her penalty and that was not the point of the OP.I don't see someone that smokes as an addict. I think the COST of halfway houses are outrageous as stated by other posters.SOMEONE is making big money. I can bet that someone is making hundreds of thousands on this ONE hwh.

[dsc]

33. A couple of things

One you copied, by mistake apparently, the sale part. There is a possession part that has over a year (1-3 years for over 8 oz.). I think though that possession of that amount is considered to be a dealer which is why the penalty is so high. Simply smoking pot, even in public, only gets you a petty crime charge if you appear.

[serryjw]

35. You didn't read what I said

quote......
Colorado may have gotten her for cultivation.

end quote.....

It was never my intention on the OP to discuss HER crime. I never got details. Maybe the owner of the home had a PRIOR conviction and she got caught in it by just BEING there.
As I have said before; MY OP was on the SCAM of the halfway house cost.

[dsc]

47. Then you didn't read mine

I asked for an example of someone getting a year for smoking pot not growing it.

[madmusic]

31. 10 years

"Even first strike sentences can be tough as evidenced by the case of a Ms. Renée Bojé who has no criminal record. Currently living in Vancouver, she is facing a minimum of 10 years in prison for watering a marijuana plant on a
balcony in California should she return to the U.S."

http://ww2.psepc-sppcc.gc.ca/publications/corrections/199912_e.pdf

[dsc]

32. I can't get your link to open

so I can't see any context, which I would like to see.

[Marie26]

36. A "marijuana refugee"

She's got a website & defense fund. Claiming refugee status in Canada based on persecution by US marijuana laws! Good luck.

"Boje, 30, who claims to be a victim of political persecution in the United States, was released on bond of nearly $3,500.

She faces at least 10 years in prison if convicted on the drug manufacturing, distribution and conspiracy charges in California.

Boje is one of several medical-marijuana advocates who were arrested in 1997 after investigators found thousands of marijuana plants at a Bel Air mansion and three other leased locations.

Officers saw her and another woman watering some of the pot plants and also observed her smoking a pot pipe, according to police reports. Police say they planned to sell their crops to the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyers Club, which has dispensed marijuana since Californians voted in 1996 to legalize it for medical use."

http://www.reneeboje.com/ap.html

[dsc]

48. Then she isn't facing 10 years for watering one plant

but for many other things. Now do people get over charged? Yes. Did she? Quite possibly. But that is a much different issue than the OP had stated.

[Marie26]

49. Not exaclty one plant.

More like a boatload of drug manufacturing, distribution and conspiracy charges. But I'm rooting for her anyway.

[dsc]

52. I certainly agree she shouldn't have been charged

in that way. I think pot should be legalized. But I don't think we should be dishonest when advocating for such legalization.

[Marie26]

53. For me it's more

about the way the federal gov. is trying to bully California after they passed the medical marijuana legislation. The state medical marijuana legislation has already been passed, it's just that the feds are trying to overturn it through federal prosecutions. It's so over-reaching & undemocratic. Oh, and I agree on your point that people shouldn't make junk up to support their position. :)

[dsc]

54. That is outrageous for all the talk of state's rights

the minute a state does something they don't like it is off to court.

[Marie26]

55. Pretty much.

They've done the same thing w/state consumer protection legislation. But anyway..

[Marr]

29. What a shitty thing to say.

But I guess the poster deserved it, for asking you to back up your ridiculous claim and all.

[IdaBriggs]

24. Please do not confuse the drug user advocates w/facts or reality.

It brings them down from their buzz, and that isn't "nice" -- don't you know that the REAL problem is how all the non-users are so uptight? :eyes:

[MissB]

43. I don't have a dog in this fight, but I think Nevada

has some of the strictest possession laws, iirc. Felony conviction on the fourth time caught possessing with a multi-year sentence. Not selling, just possessing.

[sandnsea]

51. FOURTH time possession

Not just poor dumb girl smoking a joint and going away for ten years. That's what "priors" means, something else going on than just smoking a joint and missing a parole meeting.

And anybody who is going up on their FOURTH possession charge and doesn't LEAVE THE STATE to go somewhere where possessing small amounts of pot is a misdemenaor is an idiot - or an addict. Or a drug dealer.

[MissB]

56. You asked for something, I gave it to you.

Like I said, I don't have a dog in this fight.

Possession isn't a big deal. Selling or dealing is. Unless you live in Nevada.

I'm not sure why you brought "priors" into the example that I used. The first three times are considered misdemeanors in Nevada, the fourth time is felony.

I find that odd, not to mention draconian.

Since I've already said that I don't have a dog in this fight, and provided you with an example, I'm going to step out of this particular discussion. There are examples out there of people getting thrown in jail for multi-year sentences for possession.

[sandnsea]

57. No you didn't

I didn't ask for anything, but even so, you didn't give an example of somebody who went to prison for no other reason than smoking grass. Priors matter, as everybody has said. It doesn't matter whether they're misdemeanor or felony priors. The point of the three misdemeanor law is that the likelihood of a casual user getting busted at all is slim, getting busted 3 times isn't going to happen unless someone is actually dealing. So you didn't give an example of anything, except how far the judicial system goes to keep harmless citizens from going to prison.

[SoCalDem]

39. A LOT depends on the attitude of the person

(as does MOST of what happens in society).. Poor people are most likely to end up in jail..and that's sad, but it's just a fact.

It might be more of an "upbringing thing" than the actual lack of financial capability. If a person is belligerent or disrespectful to law enforcement when caught red-handed...or in court..well...they will not have a happy outcome.

Young people who end up in jail, often go because they have a long "rap sheet" that goes back YEARS into their teens, and at SOME point they reach the "magic age" where they get the book thrown at them...
The WORST thing that anyone can do is to "skip" ANY required meeting. THAT act alone shows a disregard for the requirements of their parole. It's unlikely that they were hired without the boss knowing they had these requirements.

People who have ended up in custody, often have years of alibi, excuses and often are very convincing in their tales of woe..(It's a common thread for incarcerated people to NOT accept their share of the blame). I know that we are edging closer to a police state, but the police I know are way too busy to just arrest people for the hell of it, and our courts are very lenient most of the time.. THAT's part of the problem. Probation is given so many times, and when the hammer finally comes down, the young person is shocked that someone finally is going to punish them. (I know this from personal experience with one of our sons)..

Lots of young people do start to clean up their acts, but are ashamed of their past, so they can embellish the truth (even to themselves) ..

All that said, SOME halfway houses are probably run by unscrupulous people, just in it for the money, but a LOT of them are not, and for the people IN them, it's got to be better than jail.. They just have to follow the rules.

[Jara sang]

40. Somebody "uses" marijuana and they are an "addict"?

[sandnsea]

50. In violation of "probation or parole"

Why do you think it's beneficial to make up something that I didn't say??

[Marie26]

28. Jeez

Rule number 1: don't believe an addict. It's a good rule & should serve you well.

[Lars39]

21. There was a half way house for boys in middle TN

that was owned by a judge and his brother. They'd been operating it for years.
It was closed within the last few months,iirc.

on edit: iirc, the judge was a Juvenile Court judge.

[lectrobyte]

12. Does the judge really own the halfway house? If it is a private non

profit, then their books etc. should be open. $10 to $17 a day doesn't sound like much to feed and house someone, even on a larger scale, but I suppose there could be some profit etc. going to that private non profit...

Here, any judge with that obvious of a conflict of interest would have been buried by someone from the other party, or by someone in his own party wanting the slot when he was up for reelection -- maybe you could help get some Democratic judges elected, keep digging, you could be onto something important.

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. $17 per day for bed and food seems reasonable

Compare it to a university dorm (also non-profit):

One semester = 2 8 week terms = $1067 + $1010 = $2077 = $130 per week = $18.50 per day. I would assume there's a bit more supervision in a halfway house, too.

[OzarkDem]

23. Many are run by Christian fundie groups

Its a huge scam, with people floating in and out of the system for years on end, being yanked back in by parole guidelines that don't even allow them enough freedom to work.

[serryjw]

42. Interesting reading

quote.......
It was Patrick Ungaro, Mayor McKelvey's predecessor, who, between 1993 and 1995, offered state officials and private-prison owner Corrections Corporation of America (nyse: CXW - news - people ) free land and, in CCA's case, a seven-year 50% tax abatement and new water and sewer lines. In return Youngstown builders and suppliers got $127 million worth of contracts, the city received an annual $895,000 boost in tax revenue and upward of 900 people obtained jobs as guards, janitors, cooks and health care workers.
end quote........
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2006/0522/195.html

Private prisons can be very profitable
quote.......
For selling the bonds for the project, Lehman will receive a fee in excess of $2 million, according to people familiar with the deal.

David Lavelle, Lehman's lead banker on the North Carolina transaction, served as a crucial intermediary on Provident's next prison deal. In mid-2000, according to Mr. Hicks, Provident was looking for more business when Mr. Lavelle suggested a potential prospect: Cornell Cos.

The prison company had grown rapidly since going public in 1996. Its revenues had risen more than five-fold, as it acquired dozens of prisons, halfway houses and juvenile-detention facilities. The No. 4 player in the private-corrections field, Cornell had roughly 7% of the market, behind such companies as Corrections Corp. of America and Wackenhut Corrections Corp.

end quote......

http://www.prisonsucks.com/scans/prisonaccounting.shtml


quote.......

there is probably no sector of the economy so abloom with money as the privately-run prison industry.

Consider the growth of the Corrections Corporation of America, the industry leader whose stock price has climbed from $8 a share in 1992 to about $30 today and whose revenue rose by 81 percent in 1995 alone. Investors in Wackenhut Corrections Corp. have enjoyed an average return of 18 per cent during the past five years and the company is rated by Forbes as one of the top 200 small businesses in the country. At Esmor, another big private prison contractor, revenues have soared from $4.6 million in 1990 to more than $25 million in 1995.

end quote........
http://www.loompanics.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/Articles/America.html?E+scstore


The moment you add profit motive to building and sustaining private correction facilities you have the seed for corruption in legislation. They must maintain a 95% filled level to get the profits that stockholders expect

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Prison_System/America_Gulag.html

[Laughing Mirror]

45. with more than 2.2 million locked up, they've got quite a captive market

Surely some of the posters in this thread would be thrilled being stockholders, if they're not already.

[Marie26]

26. I'd suggest looking

into how halfway houses work. $10 dollars a day is cheap. Judges don't own halfway houses; they're mostly run by non-profit organizations or church charities. Maybe you shouldn't believe everything this person says.

[tjwash]

27. I think you may need to...

...take with a little grain of salt, what total strangers you just met on a bus tell you.

My wife works for the drug court here in San Diego. I just read her this, and she had just sort of rolled her eyes. It sounds like every "woe is me-the law is keeping me down-it wasn't what it looked like-it was all a misunderstanding" story she hears on a daily basis, from her clients.

Just saying...

[serryjw]

37. Read my post

about penalties for smoking less than 1 oz.....It isn't even a misdemeanor, but a $100 fine! I wonder how many on DU SMOKE!. This gal was not a pot head. She was 41 & and articulate. If you met her under different circumstances, you'd like her.To condemn her for doing something that most already do is ridiculous.

[dsc]

34. My rent is $425

and doesn't cover utilities or food. $17 a day doesn't seem out of line to me. I do think that people in half way houses should be permitted to work though. It shouldn't be that hard to get a degree of supervision that permits work and still makes sure they are on the straight and narrow.

[RobinA]

41. Around Here (SE Pa.)

you HAVE to get a job at the halfway house. You have to be able to support yourself, have a place to live, etc. before you can leave. I'm not sure what people do for time off for PO visits, but I never heard of anyone getting thrown back in for two missed visits. More like a year and a half of missed visits and then a flunked drug test. Maybe they just don't have enough criminals to fill the jails in Colorado. Around here I had a guy get one year for kiddie porn that he was caught red handed with by the cops. Now, he DID get thrown back when he sent a love letter to one of his fellow sex offender program attendees, but he was out in no time.

I've actually seen halfway houses work well for people. Avoids throwing them back on the street with nothing except the lure of the lucrative drug trade.

[Freddie Stubbs]

38. What motive would a judge have to own a 'non-profit' haflway house?

Perhaps your friend from the bush was telling stories.

[Heddi]

44. Addicts lie. Period.

Now, I'm not saying that someone who smokes pot is an addict--I do not believe that someone who smokes pot (even very large, mind-blowing amounts of it) is in the same category as someone who does heroin, meth, cocaine, crack, etc.

I work in hospitals. I deal with addicts daily. Not in a rehab facility. Not in mental health. I'm in med-surg, ICU, telemetry settings.

They lie. They don't even realize they're lying. THey're used to lying to their family, their friends, their jobs. First to hide the addiction, then to excuse it. By lying, they get sympathy which makes it easier to get money or funds or means to continue their addiction.

One guy that I dealt with had a history of being a heroin user for 20+ years. He had no useable veins and the only way to get an IV in him was to do a central line placement--meaning the IV had to be put into a major vein basically going straight to his heart.

According to him, though, he'd only been using for about 5 months---see, he's a firefighter and saw his best friend die during a really bad forrest fire a few years ago.

Then the next day, *HE* wasn't a firefighter, his friend was, and he heard about his friend's death months later and that's what turned him into an addict.

Later that day, he didn't know any firefighters at all. His wife, see, was setting him up so she could get their kids when they divorced. She said she was giving him insulin and the WHOLE TIME she was shooting him up with heroin so that he would look bad in the eyes of the court.

Later on still, he had never used heroin in his life and the track marks were from some experiments they did on him when he was a kid.

On and on. Every 2 hours there was a different story as to why he was in the hospital. He came in as an OD. Well, that's what THEY want you to believe. The reality was (according to one tale) that it was his wife who gave him some bad food and called the cops so she could get their kids. Or was it that he was given a pill to take and he did and thought it was for sinuses and the next thing he knew he was in the hospital? Maybe the REAL story was that he wasn't doing anything wrong and this is just THEIR way of getting him "out of their hair" and in prison ,where THEY can keep an eye on him.

---

Woman in her mid 30's came in--found unresponsive in a parking lot. Did a UA and found every conceivable substance known to man in her system. Some of them had to have been ingested/inhaled/injected relatively recently because they don't stay in the body that long.

Oh no! She's no drug addict. See, the doctors LIED and FALSIFIED her UA. See, she's never done drugs before but they just want to take her kids away. SHe's never done heroin, even though a needle was found stuck in her subclavian vein while she was passed otu in the parking lot. No, she's never done heroin, even though NarCan (an opoid antidote) brought her immeditaely out of her coma. No, she's never done meth, even though a bag was found in her pockets. No, she's never sold drugs, even though nearly $1500 was foudn in her pockets along with indiviually baggied packets of meth and she admits to being homeless and unemployed.

----
My family is full of addicts: drugs, alcohol, gambling, shopping---and my family is just as full of enablers as well. I don't look down on someone who's an addict, or think they're weak, or stupid, or deserving of it. I treat them with the utmost respect and sympathy. But you have to look at the REALITY of their situation. They will say and do WHATEVER it takes to get YOUR sympathy. To get YOU on THEIR side so that way YOU can look at them and say "Well, hell! Who WOULDN'T be an addict in her situation?" "WHy, I'd be a drunk TOO if I had to deal with what he deals with".

Addicts see life through a fog of drug abuse. They do not see situations realisitically. Nothing is their fault. Even if it IS their fault, someone else put them up to it, mislead them, gave them wrong info, set them up...ANYTHING to absolve themselves of guilt or wrongdoing. It's always someone else's fault. Always someone else's problem. Never them....someone is just misinterpreting the situation, or lying about them, or whatever.

---
Chances are, this woman wasn't arrested for smoking pot. Chances are, she may smoke pot but that's not the drug that caused her to be sent to a halfway house. Chances are, her story is a bit more complex and detailed than she would have you believe. Chance are, this was not her first brush with the law, and that she did more than miss one parole meeting.

Chances are, most of the story she told you was bullshit. It was an effort to gain sympathy. don't take it personally. She probably trots this story out for anyone who has no knowledge of her or her background and 5 minutes to spare. She wasn't doing it purposefully most likely.

----
Oh, and all the halfway houses I"ve ever been associated with (through friends and family who have gone there, to ones I've referred patients to through social services) allow residents to hold down jobs. In fact, many of the halfway houses REQUIRE that the residents have jobs and will not consider them fit for living in normal society if they cannot get one, or do not hold one, or go through a succession of jobs.

I lived across the street from one for nearly 3 years. They had an 11pm curfiew for everyone EXCEPT those who worked past 11. THey were quite accomodating and held weekly classes on filling out job applications, making resumes, doing weekly and monthly budgeting, how to fill out a check, how to balance a checkbook---basic skills that many of these people lacked and sorely needed in order to live a functional life without the strains of addiction.

---
Oh and by the way, non profit doesn't mean "no profit". It means that they can make a profit but a certain percentage of the profit has to be used directly for upgrades, etc, to the facility.

She's paying $15 a day for food and housing. That's not to fecking shabby. Also considering that the facility probably has to have some sort of liability insurance due to the number of people living there. DId she mention that she most likely gets some sort of counceling while she's there, too? That phone calls and internet access are most likely free as well? Hell--a rent-a-day hotel room runs $20-30 a day WITHOUT food. WITHOUT counceling. WITHOUT structure. WITHOUT the things that she undoubtedly needs or else seh wouldn't have been sent there.

[bloom]

46. I doubt that "JUDGES own the halfway houses"

Though I do know that there seem to be some kind of "Christian" halfway house type of things springing up.

I knew someone considering one that was very cheap ($60/week or something) and must have been getting some serious gov't money - was all I could figure. It sounded like some kind of "faith-based" initiative.

[Egalitariat]

58. If she's already out, and she spent 9 years in prison....

was her conviction and her sentence on Bush's watch?