I'm Late To The Party On This

Some good folks are trying to set up a halfway house in Chico for folks which have gone through Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Facilities (SAFPF). Let me tell you how SAFPF works: It starts as a six month in-house drug rehab program run by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Yeah, it's basically the pen. From there, they are released to a 90 day halfway house like they are trying to set up in Chico. Ninety-nine percent of the time, SAFPF it is a condition of a drug probation that was part of a plea bargain that a defendant reluctantly accepts to avoid a potentially long prison time. (And all those that go through the program aren't "felons" because some are on a probation that did not result in a conviction.) I've had several clients that would much rather have just "regular pen time" than SAFPF because once they would be through with the six months incarceration and then the halfway house, they would be back under the thumb of probation. And if they are under the thumb of probation, they can still end up having that probation revoked resulting in a prison sentence anyway -- Even after jumping through the hoops of SAFPF. Of course, that has nothing to do with the fact that the proposed halfway house in Chico is being confronted by the "not in my backyard" crowd.