Triumphs and Trials: The Parolee's Battle Against Addiction in Public Safety

I'm Harriet West-Moore, and the grittier side of the justice system is where my stories unfold. The latest episode of Women in Public Safety Podcasts takes you through the stark realities faced by parolees battling drug addiction, as I unveil the heart-wrenching chronicles from my days as a state parole officer. You'll hear the tale of a man's fight to stay clean, a story tinged with hope and shadowed by the specter of relapse—a sobering reminder of the strength and fragility in us all.

Join us bi-monthly for our Case Chronicles series, where the unsung stories of resilience in public safety and human services come to life through your voices. Your experiences become the lifeblood of our discussions, adding depth and diversity to our journey. Together, let's foster a community that celebrates the triumphs and faces the trials head-on. Subscribe, like, and comment to be a part of this shared mission, and tune in as we bring more of these compelling narratives to the spotlight. Stay safe, and remember, feeling blessed is part of our story, too.

Email: publicsafetybywomen@gmail.com
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:27

Welcome. Welcome to another week of Women in Public Safety Podcasts. I'm your host and producer, harriet Westmore. This is the podcast where I talk about various aspects of the challenges and triumphs for women who work in the public safety and human services type fields. So this week I'm not doing a particular episode. I'm actually going to do what. I'm going to be calling it case chronicles and I will be talking about real life case, incidents that I had to deal with.

Speaker 1: 1:07

I'm a state parole officer, if you guys don't know, and I wanted to kind of share with you real life cases that I had that I have to deal with on a daily basis. Of course, when I talk about these cases, it would be in general terms. The names and all parties involved would be changed, if I will even mention names at all. But I just wanted to showcase case chronicles at least twice a month, to kind of shed light on what we, as women officers and it's not just about women, but all officers or all people who work in working for the public the type of cases and incidents that we have to go through and endure and see on a daily basis as part of our job. So, with that being said, I'm going to tell you about a case that one of my colleagues had, and actually it's two cases, but it's the same concept, the same type of two different people, but same type of case.

Speaker 1: 2:34

I'm a first start off by saying anybody who deals with drug addiction. It's very hard, and especially hard for those of us who are law enforcement officers, particularly probation and parole officers, where we have to supervise these individuals who have drug charges or drug cases, because that for us, that's where the social work piece comes in and trying to help them maintain sobriety and putting them in different various social service treatment centers and things like that, to try to help them get clean number one and be more productive in society once they are released from prison. And in my opinion, I think drug cases and dealing with drug offenders, they're one of the hardest, they're one of the challenging caseload to deal with, because you either want to help or you're just not ready. And when you're not ready you're not gonna be. You know you're not gonna get the help that you, you know that's being offered to you, you're not gonna be ready to accept it. So, but this particular place, like I said, it's a two-part but two different people, but the same type of scenario.

Speaker 1: 4:12

This first case one of my colleagues had an offender who was just released from prison and you know he decided to live with his. He didn't have any other failing member other than his daughter, so he moved in with his daughter. You do as any you know parole officer, probation officer no, you do the initial paperwork, you meet. You make sure the placement is approved up to standards and policies of parole or probation, that there are any weapons in the home, that there are any other persons who live in the home that are on any type of state or county supervision. So this individual he wanted to live with daughter. Daughter agreed. He did pretty well.

Speaker 1: 5:10

His case is charges for drug related. He did pretty well. He got out, actually got him a job and he was doing really well. So every time we would see him, my field partner and I, you know he would, you know, do. He looked well, he was doing what he was supposed to do according to his conditions he and was working Well. That went on. Let's see that was he was pretty much compliant.

Speaker 1: 5:47

I would say maybe six months since his release. But after the six month, going into the seventh month, when we went to see him. We noticed something different about him and anybody who has done been on this, been on this, have done this job long enough you pretty much know that something's just not right. And you know my partner was saying you know, I hope that he hasn't relapsed. So next thing, you know, we decided to kinda, okay, let's hold back and let's just see where you know what's going on, so we next time. We saw him.

Speaker 1: 6:38

Well, first of all, he contacted my partner in to let her know that he has moved to another address. Part of the conditions of supervision that you have to inform us as parole officers, or probation, that you inform us of your change of residency prior to moving. And I don't know personally, I don't know what is so hard about that, but that's one of the hardest things that offenders need, you know. Grasp that concept Call before you move, don't call afterwards, because you have to make sure that new place, that new residence that you're wanting to go to, is approved by us. But you know they seem to wanna call after the fact. Oh, I've already, I just wanna let you know I moved over the weekend, I moved a week ago or whatever. That's not how that works, but anyway. So okay.

Speaker 1: 7:42

So he moved out of his daughter's place and then to living with a friend. That's always another red flag going up. So what was going on? To where he's no longer living with his daughter? Well, in between, I guess my colleague had a conversation with the daughter who informed her that her father is apparently is back on the streets. He has relapsed and she just didn't want that type of, she just couldn't have him at her house anymore, which you know, we totally get that. I mean, you know, and it's kinda sad that you know you gotta put your own parent out of the house because you are, you know, not doing what you're supposed to do. So she gets a hold, my colleague Gisahode, of her offender, of the guy, and he wanted to get approved to this new address.

Speaker 1: 8:55

So we went, we finally went to this new place of where he was staying. First of all, when we first got, I mean, the site of town that we went on, it was already. We already knew what it was, because it was one of the. You could tell it was a drug area and you know. And when he, when we pulled in into we parked on the street, she called him and he came out of the house. We found the house, you know, found the house number and everything. But she called him to come out and when he came to our vehicle and she was talking to him, you know, I mean we can tell he was just geeked.

Speaker 1: 9:41

He was geeked and so, you know, she asked him I mean, what's going on? Oh, nothing, me and my daughter, just, you know, I had to leave. My daughter asked, you know, she's getting married and I, you know, so I had to leave and now I'm living with a friend. And then, you know, my partner just asked him flat out are you back using? No, not, I mean, I've had a joint or whatever. And we don't know, we don't know, based on the way he looked to he just looked geeked that it was more than just marijuana. So she challenged him. She said, well, if we do a drug test right now, will you be clean? And he said, well, I'll probably be dirty for marijuana. She said, well, you know, let's go in the house, go in your house, and then I want you to drop a urine for me. So I mean, he agreed. He didn't, you know, deny or say anything else. He agreed.

Speaker 1: 10:55

So we walked up into the house. And I'll tell you guys, when we walked in that house, that house was actually a shell of a house. Everything was down to the studs. There was no. I mean, it was like it was being in the process of being, it was gutted out and being reconstructed and he was living in another room. I mean, there was no bed, no, nothing. Everything the concrete was torn up. All you see was a stud of the frame of the house. And I personally never seen anything like this in my, you know, in my years of working as an officer.

Speaker 1: 11:48

And we're like what is this? He said, well, this is a friend of mine's house. He let me stay here. He's, you know, in the process of remodeling this and we're telling him there's no way you're gonna be approved to stay here. You can't stay here. I mean, this is not even nobody, it's not even a livable place for anybody to stay. So I said there wasn't even like a toilet, a running toilet or anything. And, like I said, everything was like down to the studs. And Usually, you know, we walk through a house, but there was no way.

Speaker 1: 12:29

I was not walking through anything. I was waiting for something to come. You know, jump out and start running across the, running across the floor or whatever. I mean it was just that bad. So but I said, well, you gotta. You know she's told him what you. You know you need to take a test. We're gonna take a test anyway. I don't know how you're gonna do it, but you need to. You know dropping this cup because we always keep our you know drug kiss with us.

Speaker 1: 12:59

And so he went off into a corner somewhere and Dropped into and while he was trying to urinate, you know, we were looking around into at least, went into the it was like I guess it was the dining room area and and all this was was again, it was a bunch of seen. I mean like this house was gutted and All I was like a little table we had. I mean there was nowhere for him to sit other than a table and a chair. And I saw, we saw like a little Aluminum foil and we looked at each other because we already know that means and so he's, he's, you know, doing heroin. So he came back with the cup and we checked, she checked the cup and of course he was, he was positive for I think was cocaine and and there was other things that he was probably because we did a 12 panel type drug test so we didn't arrest him. I mean, first of all we didn't have the Car facility, we didn't have a cage vehicle to where we can arrest him. But she Ordered him to come, find a way you got to come into the office, she gave him a date and time and when he apparently did, and so at that point I think he was arrested and and she ordered him into you know treatment, inpatient treatment, and we found him a place that took him and he was getting treated. But I mean, I'm saying that to say you know, those are the scenarios of what we deal with now.

Speaker 1: 15:00

Fast forward, there is another similar situation, except this also happened this past week. A colleague, my field partner. She had another Gentlemen who just was released from prison and this was our first meet-up to meet him at his approved address and he got out Tuesday. Let me give you the date the Tuesday was February 6. We went to see him for the first time. So she called you know. Protocol is when an offender gets out a release from prison, they have 24 hours to call your PO. You're assigned PO to let them know that you are released and you are at your Approved residents and then we will come and make a contact, face contact with that, with the person for them to sign. Their Conditions of supervision is on their paperwork. So she, so he did, you know, he called my partner and so she set up the time. Well, we'll go come and see you on Thursday, which was the eighth, mind you. He got out the six.

Speaker 1: 16:15

We went to the residents on the eighth and His mom answered the door and she Informed us that he overdosed. He overdosed and you know, at that, at that moment, he was in the hospital. He don't know if he survived. I think they, I think from what she said, that they were getting ready to move him they got him around and go move him into a Impatient treatment facility. Again, my point is he just got out, and I mean I think he did some years I I'm not sure how long he did prison time, but he got right out and went right back to what he was doing before he initially got arrested and sentenced to prison and two days later he owed his and, matter of fact, his mother was the one who found him overdosed. So the mother, I mean, was definitely upset and distraught, which I mean this is your son. Your son just got out of prison and now, two days later, he's overdosed on drugs and I think it, you know, heroin once again.

Speaker 1: 17:45

So these are the things that we deal with, one of the many, many in situations and incidents that we deal with as field officers. I'm sure there are plenty of more stories and real life cases that you know being in corrections, being as a social worker any medical health professional have stories like this all the time, and with that I would love to hear your feedback and I would love to tell your story of what you deal with as a public safety and professional. You can reach me at public safetybywomenatgmailcom, send me an email and, like I said, I keep these stories you know, in general terms. I don't, you know, give names or places or you know locations or anything like that, but I just want the public to understand what public professionals have to endure on a daily basis. But you know the first story well, it's one of the worst ones that I've seen and I've, you know, seen.

Speaker 1: 19:11

You know I've encountered and had to deal with a lot of drug cases, but actually going to a, you know, usually out, you know the street word trap house where you know everybody you know goes and do drugs and all that. At least there is a somewhere to sit or couch or something. That house didn't have anything and you know for him to live like that. Now, luckily it was in the summertime that we this incident happened, so it wasn't like it was in the winter. So I mean, but still, I mean it was still, the elements are still out there and plus, it was in a bad neighborhood. Anything could have happened no electricity or anything.

Speaker 1: 20:08

But these are, you know, some of the this is the first of case chronicles and they're going to be more. Like I said, it would probably do this type of segment twice a month and but I want to hear from you If you want to tell me your story and want me to tell well, I was put it this way If you want me to tell your incident and your stories, please email me and give me the information and, like I said, just keep it in general terms and just give me the gist of the case and I will make sure that your story is being told on my channel. So, with that being said, I encourage everybody to hit the like and subscribe button is bringing. I'm trying to get more subscribers and, to you know, bring out the, bring the algorithm up to a, to a nice status as far as on my YouTube channel and I again, please comment below, tell me your thoughts and give me your feedback, and I just want everybody to stay safe and be blessed and I'll talk to you next week. Bye.