caught up

Offenders taking offense to my calls, wanting to know if they have violated their conditions of parole or probation. I can’t get over how offended they become when we call—they were only out on the porch, the deck, the backyard, the driveway, the yard. When the schedule’s all wrong, we still have to call, but they and their families become incensed when I call, not that I want to call, but we have to. They are so above-board and holy-than-thou and telling us what’s what because here we are trampling on their rights and harassing them and haranguing them for no apparent reason.
There are good and bad agents, and every color in between, just as there are compliant and non-compliant offenders. The issue at hand, however, is that these people are on probation/parole due to whatever reason and they need to jump through whatever hoops come their way. No, it’s not fair, and there are going to be situations and people to deal with that don’t make the whole process very easy, but thus is the way of it.
A debt has to be paid and god knows the victim never gets just compensation, but it’s the society and the system that screams for retribution and they get what they want. The debt sometimes get paid by going to jail, sometimes by doing community service, going to anger management, substance abuse, and a whole slew of other considerations. Tether is just a tool---it keeps people from crowding the jails and they can live their lives at home or at their home placement. They can work, go to school, go to all their meetings and appointments, go see their probation/parole agent/officer and get on with their lives. One hopes that they have learned from the experience and that they fly right from now on, but it is only a tool. It can’t force someone to change or do any of those things if they don’t want to.
One hopes that they come to understand that the system that society has created to handle whatever it is that needs to be dealt with has become a large unyielding behemoth. Its screeches and careens along and overall does what it is that the society has asked it to do, even though the victim has become an afterthought, even though the society as a whole is still sick and puking and creating more and more offenders everyday. But it is what we have to work with and its in everyone’s best interest not to get crushed by its massive treads and to do what you need to do to extricate yourself from it.
Its in everyone’s best interest not to get caught in its tracks, but while you are under its jurisdiction you can only do what you must do and make the best of it. The behemoth has no brain, or perhaps has too many, so logic doesn’t work at all---get through this and move on. Do what is asked of you, pray that there aren’t too many complications or hoops to jump through, and keep in mind that this is what you face if you offend again. It’s far from perfect, but society demands that the debt be repaid and once you are in its grasp, you are “caught up.”
Families, lovers, friends and offenders don’t seem to understand all this, but this is what you signed up for. This is the choice that you’re faced with. Comply or don’t, but realize that the bowels of this beast will strip you of your freedom, your humanity and it would be in your best interest to put up with the inconvenience of me calling as opposed to taking your chances with whatever else the behemoth has to offer. I am only a minion of the beast, and I do it’s bidding for the time being, until I can extricate myself, so please don’t give me your excuses, sob stories, attitudes, frustration, anger or any other crap, because I have plenty of my own to deal with, thank you.