Community Service

[DeadCat (OP)]

I have a question for anyone with related experience.

As I've mentioned here I recently fought a DUI charge and after a lot of resitance got he charge reduced to takinga "Careless Driving" charge, which is far less serious and my lawyer and I both consder a cvitory, if not a complete one. The DA, not wanting to completely lose I think loaded up the penaltis for a relaively minor offense to mirror thise a DYI would incur. Mostly it's reasonable fines sand a probation visit, dotor's letter and one item they wouldn't give up on was havingto do 3 days "Sentencing to Serve/Community Service" with 1 day suspended, menaing 2 days of manual labor, probably mowing public lawns in the MSP area.

Theer3 are 4 locations, 3 require work from 7:45 Am - 4 PM but the one most onvenient to my  current location is only weekdays 10:45- 7 PM. In my experience whic was all many years ago, when doing this kind of work it's better to get an early start and an early finish, espcially in th hotter months. I hac essenrially the next 2 eks to get the 2 daya done.

The reqiremensts are that I schedule the work days at leat a day in advance, ut spaces fill up so planning farther ahead is preferable.The isntructions are as follows:

Crewsbworknoutsidein a kinds of weather so dress for working outdoors. For safety reasons you mustwear long pants, a shirt with sleeves, socks, ash supplwotk shoes. (Do not wear sandals, leggings, shorts, capris or sleveless or revaling tops.) Do notbring headphns or mobile devices. No smoing, drugs or alcohol[ at any time. Photo ID required!!  (Emphasis theirs)

We are lso required to biing:
* A Bag Lunch
*Work Boots ot tennis shoes, Wotk Gloves
*Rain Gearand/or Heavy Coat as needed for Weather

I KNOW this is a lot better than any jail time altough if given a chice I'd rather do 16 hours in a cell or pay an equivilent fine but those weren't options available to me. In some ways I see this as basically fair, I wasn't driving well, it could have been much worse and iafter these 2 days are done I canall but put this behid me. My probation officer thinks I can go to completely "Unsupervised" probation after this.

The fair part is I underatand that my actins could weren't "civically responsible" I misjudged my attentitiveness and becasuee the blood test only showed resifual lorazapam fom the day before (and not etizolam for the morning of) this is a way to own up to my irresponsible (bit CRIMNAL) decison making that could have cost myself, others and the state MUCH more had I caused an accident.

The thing that bothers me about it is there is some impliation that an honest day's labor to omprove your community is "punishment," assigned to people convited or pled to criimes and is salso some sort of implied public humiliation. I'm sure we will be out in orange vests doing uard work so thusands of peopl can drive by and sare at "the losers."  Fortunately I know maybe 3 people in th entre county where I will do the work so it's not like having it happen in a small home town.

A concern I have is bringking my buprenorphine. My preferences is to (snort) a feew milligrams over the course of the day. I dkno I will  not be able to do that but will have to use them sub-lingual, it just wsn't clear if we can even bring meds. Worsrt case I could load up in the morning and bring a prescription bittle with a couple tablets in it in case they do allow meds, I can't see how they couldn't to be honest.

It's also neen my experience that taking too much at one time can triggger bad headaches for me and hard work or working out seems to burn it off faster. Is this true for anyone else here?

My othoter question, the one I really worte this about is; "What can I expect to happen/" Are they going to set a fast ace and try to make us "pay" through exhausting or is it like a lot of labor jogs, where you just shuffle throught the day?  I do plan to not work 2 consecutive days in case the work is hard enough to make me extremely sore but having to work on the second day.

All told, I know this could have been much wore in many ways so I'm trying not to be too negative about it. I just chafe at the implication of doing convict labor like something out of "Cool Hand Luke" or "I was Prisoner on a Chain Gang" (a movie based on a true story). I doubt there are going to be bisses with rifles on horses watchin us cut weeds and being second half of Sepember in MN, it shouldn't get too hot.

So I am soliciting any advice or shared experiences, tips to mak things go as easiy as possibl and ptential traps to avoid making things go sideways, liek keping my mouth shut and just focusing on my own work at hand, not aksing for ansy special consideration or showing any "attitude." All being a balance between normal decency and cover your ass caution.

I anyone has anyothing to ass, I will listen. Thanks in advance.

[Opus]

I did some labor type community service when I was about 15. We mostly just cleared a hillside of brush and small trees. There were a bunch of dudes there for the same thing, and after we'd figured it out, we were all smoking bud and drinking on the trails between the hillside and where the brush was being dragged, it actually turned into quite the party after a couple days.

IDK what to say about the bup, doesn't seem that hard to stash a little and use it when you need it? I seriously doubt they're gonna monitor every single move you make..

When I did it, the guy who was running the show only barely cared what we were doing, he mostly just wanted to make sure the job got done. I'd say if you're not the biggest fuck-up in the group (there's usually at least one guy who can't follow simple instructions), you should be fine..

[Griffin]

I guess I feel lucky about my 48 hours of community service I was sentenced to. I can do them where I want out of the places that the state allows. There is a list of about 50 places you can go and do your service, some are churches which I would assume would be very easy and some are a lot harder like building houses and that kind of stuff. My previous job the one I lost because of the methadone DUI is where I am going to do mine it is Habitat for Humanity so it is basically like working at a thrift store full of construction supplies and furniture. I loved that job maybe they'll see me working hard and hire me back thats one of my biggest wishes however I am very doubtful because right before I got arrested I got 2 warnings for being late. I didn't set my alarm one time I thought I did but I guess I didn't move the switch all the way over and was almost 2 hours late.

 About a week later I was driving home from work and that morning before work I had given my roommate a jump. I guess I didn't close my hood all the way and it slammed into my windshield and shattered it on the highway. It was a construction zone at night so there was no shoulder to pull over to it was scary as hell cause it was only 2 lanes and i was at the bottom so they didn't see me completely stopped with my hazards until they got to the top of the hill. I was trying to get the hood back on I ended up zip tying it.. Well the next day on the way to work it happened again because the zip ties broke and I was 30 minutes late. I got arrested 3 weeks after that and couldn't let them know I wasn't going to be able to come in so I got fired.


Can you only do your community service at the place they designate? Do you have to do a certain amount of hours or is it just 2 days of service however long those days are? That seems weird to me both states I lived in give you a set amount of hours that you have to have completed by a certain date and a list of options of where to go or what you can do to get all your hours done. In high school a few of my friends had to do community service for an underage public intox at an OSU college football game and they did them at our high school with one of the coolest coaches and he just made them paint the dug-outs and signed for all of the hours.


Griffin