So close, Yet so far...

Three weeks ago, I sat down for my weekly meeting with my Case Manager at the halfway house for our weekly meeting. The case managers use these weekly meetings to gather information on how residents are doing with their employment, finances and social behaviors - for so many people the transition back from prison to life is a HUGE undertaking - and these meetings allow the halfway houses to gauge inmate readiness for full release back into the community. My case manager is a sweet, kind, Chilean, middle-aged woman who has been very helpful and accommodating during my time at the halfway house. As I sat down to begin our meeting, she was broadly smiling and I sensed that she had something to tell me. "Mr. Stephens, you have been selected to go before the Community Board for release from the halfway house". It was kind of cute just how excited she was to tell me the great news - she knew that I had been waiting 6+ months for those words to come out of her mouth, and here we finally were.

In Colorado, when you have completed the programs associated with the halfway house, show stability in your employment and finances and have non-violent crimes, you can transition to "ISP or Intense Supervision" which is a dramatic way of saying that you can move home, live with your family but must wear an ankle monitor. It's something that Colorado has gotten right with their criminal justice system - inmates who earn the right to be back in society sooner than their sentences indicate are given the opportunity to do so.

So, a few short days later, Sallie and I drove to the building where the Community Board meets. Although you are not given the opportunity to speak at the meeting, you are asked to be there in case the Board has any questions. The Board consists of judges, attorneys, businessmen and other community reps that can hopefully provide an objective decision on inmate readiness. I dressed how I would for any business meeting (jeans and a sport coat) so I didn't think I was trying to hard to impress - but it was funny to Sallie and I because when I first arrived some of the board members thought that I was one of the new members of the board and asked me to sit at the conference table (they were expecting a couple new members that hadn't been introduced yet). I quickly informed them that I was "Candidate A", they all awkwardly went back to reading their dossiers and Sallie and I diverted from the invitation to sit at the table and instead sat down on the aisle of shame.

Sallie is actually quite familiar with some of the members of the board and the approval process because of her tireless efforts lobbying to get me moved from prison into the halfway house. She was relentless in calling, emailing and visiting the board - just trying to get me closer to her and the kids. Of course, unlike Washington, lobbying the Department of Corrections is an exercise in futility, but Sallie was relentless and unwavering - and I can't help but think that at some point the board thought, "she could probably manage this guy better than us"... and gave in. (This community board is the same one that decides if inmate candidates are eligible to transition from prison to the halfway house, and just 7 months earlier, this board had approved me to be released from Rifle Correction Center (Prison) to the Centennial Community Transition Center (Halfway House)).

As the meeting was called to attention, I found myself going over different inspiring one liners that I was ready to spew out to show my readiness to move home. I even considered just invoking my inner-Mel Gibson ala Braveheart and just looking them all in the eye and yelling, "FREEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM!" but as it turns out, none of my cheesy, inspiring speeches were required. The meeting opened, they presented my file, asked for a vote and just like that, unanimously, the 12 members of the Arapahoe Community Board voted for me to be released to my family. It had been 16 months since I had first entered prison, 16 months since I had slept on a real mattress, not worried about missing a check-in, not worried that a poppy-seed muffin could cause a failed drug test...After 16 months of dreaming of spending the night in my own bed, it was finally within reach.

But little did we know, father time had another trick up his sleeve - and despite our excitement coming out of that meeting, spending that night in my own bed with my beautiful wife was not nearly as close as we thought...


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