I met with my case manager a few days after the meeting and was fully expecting her to tell me that I could leave the halfway house any hour. But she informed me that upon approval by the community board, there was still a lengthy process for getting me moved through the system - government bureaucracy at its finest. When I asked her how long she thought it would be, her response was a breath-taker, "4-6 weeks". I called Sallie and broke the news to her - even though I had been approved, we still had to wait for the paperwork to be processed - we had to wait for the government to do their thing.
Normally, Sallie and I wouldn't have been too worried about waiting a little longer to bring the family back together but we were up against a deadline - Sallie and the kids were moving back to Logan, Utah.
Long before I was sentenced to prison, my business partners and I had decided that we wanted to move our company (Spartan) headquarters back to Logan. We recruit a lot of engineering and construction management majors out of the Utah and Idaho schools and Logan offered a central location for that. We also all have family ties back to the area and after living away from family for so long, we were all ready to live back closer. Fortunately, Spartan is now at a point where we are all comfortable moving the operation back there. Once we knew that I was getting out of prison, Sallie and I started contemplating selling our house and were eventually approached by some good friends about buying it. In turn, we bought a house in Hyde Park, Utah from some good friends and the trifecta real-estate deal was done. We pushed off moving out of the house in Colorado as long as possible but ultimately, our new buyers needed to move in and our kids were anxious to start our new lives in Utah. So we set a moving date of May 5.
I was approved to move home on April 11 so we figured that I would get some amount of time at home before everyone moved. As a matter of reference - I will not be able to leave the State until early September (assuming that I am granted parole in June). Anyone that is sentenced to prison will have a period of time after their sentence is over called "parole". Parole is a time where you are still monitored by the state but are free to live a pretty normal life. I will see the parole board in June and they will determine if I am rehabilitated enough to be released from the Colorado Department of Corrections. Going before the parole board is one of the most dramatized events in movies involving prison. When I think of the parole board, the most classic movie scene that comes to mind is Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption -
Parole Board : Ellis Boyd Redding, your files say you've served 40 years of a life sentence. Do you feel you've been rehabilitated?
Red : Rehabilitated? Well, now let me see. You know, I don't have any idea what that means.
Parole Board Man : Well, it means that you're ready to rejoin society...
Red : I know what you think it means, sonny. To me, it's just a made up word. A politician's word, so young fellas like yourself can wear a suit and a tie, and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?
Parole Board: Well, are you?
Red : There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret. Not because I'm in here, because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try to talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone, and this old man is all that's left. I got to live with that. Rehabilitated? It's just a bulls**t word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don't give a s**t.
Movie Excerpt - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5wHe-B7JJ4
As much as I love everything about Morgan Freeman's response, I'm thinking that's not the way I'll respond to my parole questions. Anyways, I digress - even if the Parole Board approves my parole, I'm not going to be leaving the state before September 4.
So...after weeks of waiting for the Department of Corrections to release me from the halfway house, they finally gave me a date where I could move back home - May 6 - one day after Sallie and the kids left. It was totally disheartening - my bed, that I had been dreaming about sleeping in alongside of my beautiful bride, was on its way to Utah (with the girl and our kids) before I ever got a chance to sleep in it again.
So now, for the 2nd time in less than 18 months, I am living alone, miles away from my family. Fortunately, we have some amazing friends, who had an empty house (nor far from the one we just sold), that they are letting me live in. I did request that our dog Zeus get left behind to keep me from being too lonely.
So for the next 3 moths it's just me, a Canine Greek-God, an empty house and a lot of patience. But for the first time since this whole ordeal began, the end is in sight...yes, the end is in sight.
Brandon Stephens, Weld County Jail, Wood Group, Sentenced, 5 Years, Prison, NFL, DRDC, Rifle Correctional Center, Colorado Department of Corrections, Jail, Judge Quammen, Steve Wrenn, Weld County, Executive, Oil, Gas, White Collar, Wood, BYU, Masters Degree, Colorado State University, SWIFT, Firefighter, Wildland, Sawyer, Fire, Inmate, Brandon Stokey, Miracles, Centennial Community Correctional Center, Delta Correctional Center, DRDC, Denver Diagnostic and Reception Center, Felony, Sallie Stephens, Greeley Tribune, Judge Thomas Quammen, DA Steve Wrenn, Weld County Court, Oil & Gas,. Halfway House, Centennial Community Correction Center, CCTC, Centennial Community Transition Center
 |
| Me and my daughter Elizabeth |
 |
| Me and my daughter Navy Brandon Stephens, Weld County Jail, Wood Group, Sentenced, 5 Years, Prison, NFL, DRDC, Rifle Correctional Center, Colorado Department of Corrections, Jail, Judge Quammen, Steve Wrenn, Weld County, Executive, Oil, Gas, White Collar, Wood, BYU, Masters Degree, Colorado State University, SWIFT, Firefighter, Wildland, Sawyer, Fire, Inmate, Brandon Stokey, Miracles, Centennial Community Correctional Center, Delta Correctional Center, DRDC, Denver Diagnostic and Reception Center, Felony, Sallie Stephens, Greeley Tribune, Judge Thomas Quammen, DA Steve Wrenn, Weld County Court, Oil & Gas,. Halfway House, Centennial Community Correction Center, CCTC, Felon, 416 Fire, Silver Creek Fire, Spring Fire, Cabin Lake Fire, |
No comments:
Post a Comment