Simon S. wants to know about parole. Do you have an obligation to tell your parole officer

Steve Palmer: All right, Lawyer Talk Off The Record on the air. Q and A. My alarm on the phone is going off, reminding me that it is time to answer some questions. Before I do that, though, check us out. Lawyertalkpodcast.com. uh, this is taken off like wildfire for wildfire. For those who used to follow me long ago on the old Lawyer Talk podcast. Thanks for, if you've returned, thanks for coming back. For you new listeners, check out the old catalog where you're right there@lawyertalkpodcast.com. or wherever you get your podcast. We now have a social Media, uh, experience for you. Also, Facebook rumble, maybe, I don't know all the ones where you guys know about. I don't because I'm old and I'm a lawyer and I'm just not that hip. Anyway, I do know how to answer questions, and that's what I'm doing right now. One from Simon. Not going to tell you where, but maybe we'll, we'll change the names and the locations to protect the innocent. Um, um, if you're questioned by the police, Simon S. In a county you now live in about a crime, but you are on long term parole from a suspended sentence in a different State far, far away. I'm leaving out the locations. Do you have an obligation to tell your parole officer when you only have a few months left on parole? My friend is on five years of parole. So asking for a friend, proverbialily, anyway, asking for a friend. Simon wants to know about parole. So I think a couple things are probably helpful here. One, uh, the difference between probation and parole. In Ohio, of course, we don't have probation anymore, typically not. Anyway, we call it community control. So when I have my clients who are going to be, uh, placed on probation, I tell them, look, if they say community control, if that's what you hear the judge say, it's probation, parole, typically. And that happens, generally speaking, if you plead guilty in a trial court and they don't send you off to prison, you are placed on probation, or in Ohio, community control instead. That means if you screw up, the judge could send you back to prison for the original sentence day, the judge suspended in the first place. Parole generally speaks about if you've already gone to prison and you get released. Um, um. And you screw up, you could go back to prison. In Ohio, we used to call it parole. Now we call it post release control. So in Ohio, if you're, if you're following me here, you think community control and post release control in other places, traditionally, we call those probation and paroles.

Almost every term and condition of parole or probation requires notification of law enforcement

All right, so we got somebody on parole for five years and they had contact with law enforcement. Um, um, in other words, law enforcement has visited this individual and asked them some questions. Here's the deal. I don't know the specific answer to this. This is one where I would need to see a couple of things. I would need to see the terms and conditions of this individual's parole. So, typically, parole works this way. You don't just, they don't just send you off into the universe and say, don't get in trouble. They send you off to the universe with an instruction Book. An instruction Book has a list of things that you can and cannot do and some things that you must do if, uh, other things happen. Generally speaking, almost every term and condition of parole or probation I've seen requires, absolutely requires the supervisee, the person on parole to notify their parole officer if they have any contact with law enforcement. There's no exception for being almost done. There's generally no exception for being far, far away, uh, in a county or galaxy or wherever else you are. You almost always have to do that. So then, you know, you can ask, uh, I've only got a few months left of parole, so should I notify my parole officer? Well, I will say this, not offering, uh, legal advice here, but generally speaking, get some legal advice, or it, uh, sounds like you just want to let your conscience be your guide, and maybe you won't get caught and maybe you'll just terminate from parole if they never find out. That could well be true, but I certainly can't tell you to violate the terms and conditions of your parole. Certainly not on a podcast and not in my office, not on the phone, not here or there, not anywhere. What I say, don't do what your parole conditions require. Why? Because you could get revoked. Um, generally speaking, what happens is, uh, I guess before I go there, it's helpful to note and sort of implicit in this question is this, you can't get revoked after your parole terminates. They have to file. So if your parole officer wants to violate you and send you back, generally, uh, he has to file a complaint or a parole violation, uh, proceeding against you. It expires before the term expires. After the term expires, it's too late. Now, there's a whole ball of wax we can get into about what happens if they do file a statement of violation. That's what a formal parole violation would be called. You do have constitutional rights. They're not as broad sweeping as generally a, uh, trial would be. But, yeah, due process applies. And there has to be a hearing where you're called to answer to the charges or the allegations of violation. Uh, you're entitled to counsel. And, and, uh, you can fight it, you can mitigate it. You can do a number of things. And the judge doesn't have to send you back or the parole board doesn't have to send you back to prison. There are some other options, like extending the length of your parole by increasing the conditions or making them more restrictive. Um, or maybe just saying, no harm, no foul. You're almost done anyway, and you've been a good boy. We'll let you go either way. Best thing you can do when you're faced with this kind of scenario, get a lawyer, wherever you are. If it's in Ohio, call me. If it's somewhere else, call me and I'll refer you if I can. But, uh, don't, don't just, uh, take matters into your own hands here and think you won't get caught because you might. And a lot of times what happens is before law enforcement goes and talks to somebody, by the way, they will look to see if that person's on probation or parole and start with the parole or probation officer. So it may be the case that this individual already knows and waiting and is waiting on a call. Get a lawyer. That's the best thing you can do. So. All right. I hope that helps. Steve Palmer coming at you with another Q and A session at Lawyer Talk, where you can check us out. Lawyertalkpodcast.com, coming at you each and every week, at least until now.