Expert: Paul Edward Zukowski - 3/29/2007

Question
My husband was arrested in 2001 for ROBB. GUN/DEADLY WPN, he served 4 years in
prison and was release with 2 years of community supervision. Six months after
his first release he failed his urine test with his probation officer and was
sentenced to 22 days in county jail.Just this pass weekend he was picked up by
the police and he had marijuana on him and he was arrested and charged with
possession of marijuana less than 20grams, He plead quilty to the charge and
was given 2 days time served. However this charge cause a second charge of
violation of probation. He goes to court next week for this charge. He only has
6 months left on his community supervision. My question is if he goes back to
jail how long do you think he will have to serve...Will he just have to serve
out the remainder of his probation of the 6 months plus more time depending on
the judges discretion...Additionally do you think the judge would consider
placing him in a rehabilitation facility in lieu of sending him to prision.
Prison causes him to have flash backs and nightmares of the people he saw
killed and raped. This is the reason he says he uses marijuana.He says it takes
his mind off of those thoughts and makes the memories eaiser to deal with. I
dont know how true that is because I dont do drugs and have never smoked a day
in my life. Do you think it would be possible for him to get treatment because
I fear that if he goes back to prison he will come back even worse because he
will have more memories to add to the present ones and I am very worried that
he will end up in a never ending cycle of going in and out of prison. The only
good thing about him going to prison is that it deterred him from committing
more violent crimes.


Answer

Given what you said he needs psychiatric treatment.
He should start asap. A MDs opinion could have an effect
on the outcome.






There is no way of know how long he will be sentenced to as a result of the new felony. (VoP is seperate crime and can send you back to finnish the sentence or in some states have addition time as a new crime.)
The recomendation from his PO will likily carry great wieght with the judge.

I think the flashback story for the drug use is an excuse.
If he was bothered by this he could have asked his PO or a physcian for a referal to treatment for sleep problem and or post tramatric stress disorder. People with ptsd often wake up screaming or thrash around like fighting. Does he???
Murders in prisons normally get reported in local papers near the prison. Did you read of any???

You can ask for treatment but there is AA/NA in virtually every prison in the country. You have to want drug treatment
for it to work.

If you think he can be going in & out of prison it seems you kinda, deep inside, know he is a career criminal.
There will be nothing but grief and disappointment for you.
If you have kids it a serious at risk factor for them get in trouble. Since you mentioned violent crime, do you really want that in your life?
You need to think about this.