The transitional housing that Daniel is involved in is sponsored by a Christian organization. They do daily devotions and they encourage church attendance. They are divided into 2 groups, the lifers and the rest of the guys. The lifers are people who've spent a lot of time in prison and they really want to get out, so there willing to obey the laws an do What they are told. The other group are people who been in prison for shorter periods of time and they are using this transitional housing as a means of paroling.
The lifers have more privileges than the other group. The way it was explained there are 4 cycles of learning which takes 6 months total. The 1st 2 cycles are completed within 60 days and then if you can get a job you can go to work, but you still have to return to the transitional housing.
When a person starts transitional housing they do a drug test and drug tests can be administered any time Parole officer want. So if they want to stay in this program they have to keep their noses clean.
In Daniel's case, he has a lot of liberty. Anytime after 10 AM I can pick him up and return him by 11 o'clock at night. But, that's way past my bedtime. I did pick him up today at 10:15 AM. I took him by my Sweatshop. Then I took them to a special place where Harriet and I used to go to lunch occasionally, George's at the Cove in La Jolla. I've done a lot of work for the owner including reupholstering many of the items in his restaurant. It has the proverbial million-dollar view of the coast including La Jolla Cove and North along the coast all the way up as far as you can see.
I want you to think of Daniel as being 35 years old, fully grown adult, very intelligent, but lacking in adult experiences outside of prison. I'm trying to broaden his view of his surroundings. Including places that his mother and I used to go that were special.
Then we came back to my house. The temperature was almost 100° in Santee California Thursday. Which means it's time to go to the pool. We have 2 pools in our Park. One is being remodeled (great timing, why couldn't you do it during the winter?) But the larger pool was available and when it's hot like this I've noticed that people don't go in the middle of the day because they want to go in the cool of the morning or the cool of the evening. So Daniel and I went up there and Daniel swam laps. It's been a long time since he's been able to do this.
He will stay at my house until this evening and then I'm going to take him home. On the weekends, I can check him out on Saturday morning and then I must return him by 3:30 PM on Sunday afternoon. So I can tell you that I feel that it's much more lax than I had anticipated.
After Labor Day weekend on September 7 he starts the new program which will probably have a little bit more structure and he'll have to attend some classes during the day. From what I can see so far, these people in charge are trying to do a good job and trying to make sure that these men are set free from their life of crime. As I mentioned they do encourage church attendance.
This is a picture of Harriet and my brother, the Big Guy (Woof) about 1998.
I will be able to pick up Daniel in the afternoon and he will be at Bible study we have every Friday night at church. I'm currently teaching the book of Revelation we are in chapter 3.
I hope that answers all questions and if you have anymore, let me know,
Frank
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