Release Date Changes

On February 20, 2011, I received the tweet below from @madisonghope 

@PrisonDaughter will you share some more? What is a typical visit like with your fiance? When is his "out" date?

Well, @madisonghope, I would like to start by saying that prison visits are very rarely typical. One of the main goals of the CDCR is to make visiting as frustrating and time consuming as possible. This is to discourage us from visiting. As for myself, that will never happen. They can transfer him to an underground prison in Zimbabwe and I would still be there every Sunday, faithfully.

As far as his release date, well, that's a subject he and I just do not discuss much anymore. Officially, the latest release is January, 2014. But, due to the prison overcrowding conditions in California, many changes have taken place in 2011. The California Prison Reform policies have opened up new categories that will allow many inmates to be released earlier than originally expected.

The following are some of the categories that he has fallen under that have and may cut his time short:

• He has never been written up, which caused them to recalculate his "good time." (Yes, "good-time" is back!)
• He's a Level 1 prisoner, who actually works off the grounds. As time goes on, more L1 prisoners may be released early, as these prisoners are not considered to be "threats to society."
• He has already completed 70% of his maximum sentence. If overcrowding persists, the percentage of time serve may have to be lowered.

So far, in 2011 alone, my baby has received two notices informing him of new expected release dates, totaling about 15 months off of his time. He is also due to see his counselor for his annual review in the upcoming weeks. According to guards whose opinions he trusts, his counselor will probably give him even more time off and/or "good-time credits" due to his Level 1 status and good behavior.

So, with all that said, I will just say that he will be home sooner that we both anticipated. We have both agreed not to actual start calculating until he speaks to his counselor later this month. Our idea is that if the counselor deducts even more time, not that would be very exciting to calculate!