I've been on probation for about a year and a half now. I was arrested approximately two years ago for possession of psilocybin (Schedule 1 drug) for which I was charged with a Class A misdemeanor. I was a college student at the time and had never been in trouble, or even to the principles office in high school. This entire situation occurred in a small rural town. I was sentenced to 3 years of probation in the county I actually lived in and ordered to do 150 hours of community service.

The problem is that I'm now halfway through my probation sentence and I cannot complete the community service due to a back injury that occurred about four months after I started probation. The reason I cannot continue as told by my officer is that unless I can pass a full physical, I cannot do my community service. I cannot pass a physical; I am on light duty where I work as prescribed by my doctor and can only lift a small amount if necessary.

The officer has told me that if I don't complete the community service for whatever reason at the end of three years I could be sent to jail, or asked to pay a large fine. The officer also told me that at this point if I had completed my community service, he would recommend to the judge that I be taken off probation immediately.

Is there any way I could just be excused from probation because of my inability to complete the probation terms? I've always held a full time job, and I've attended college part-time for two semesters while on probation and currently hold a 3.3 GPA.

Hello semlo:

Excused?? You got to be kiddin. Not only are you not going to be excused, if you don't get your community service done, they're going to hang on to your butt for a while.

Look. YOU got to take the responsibility to get your sentence completed. It's NOBODY'S fault but your own if you fail in that task. Blaming some dumb bureaucrat ain't going to cut it in front of the judge when you're violated.

You can't do physical community service... Ok... Do you think you're the only one in the world who is on probation but can't do physical work?? Surprise, surprise - you're NOT. How do you think those people complete probation??

There IS community service available to you that does not involve physical work. It's up to YOU to find it. If you have to go around your dumb jerk PO to find out about it, then do it.

excon

There is as excon said all sorts of community service, food kitchens, helping at a senior citizen center, reading for the elderly at a nursing home, I often have young people doing things for our church.

So you bring in the complete doctor info and if they probation officer is not working with you, get your attorney ( or a attorney) to present this info to the judge to be assigned other duties.

I'm sorry I didn't mention this, but where I live I can only do community service with one organization which is the county sheriffs office at the county jail. Because of problems in the past, no one is allowed to do their community service anywhere else. The jail's policy is that you must pass a physical in order to attend and do community service there, I was told this was for insurance reasons.

Hello again, semlo:

Then enjoy your time in the can.

excon

Then hire an attorney and file motion to have your community service vacated, and honestly because of the ADA they can't discriminate for handicaps and physcial problems.

So if they try to do anything to you because of a phsycial limitation, you have a great law suit against the probation department.

I would say lawyer time myself.

Could you ask for a job that does not have any heavey lifting