Locked In with Ian Bick - I Was A Philly Probation Officer - This Is The Truth About The Job | Christopher Vincente

Episode Date: July 25, 2024

Christoper Vincente, a former Philly probation officer, pulls back the curtain on the most outrageous and jaw-dropping stories from his time on the job. He candidly discusses the reasons behind his unexpected firing and sheds light on the unique and often surprising ways celebrities such as Meek Mill are treated within the system. From high-stakes encounters to behind-the-scenes drama, this episode offers an eye-opening glimpse into the world of probation and the fascinating dynamics at play. Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Connect with Christopher Vicente: Ig: hef0304 Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Buy Merch: https://lockedinbrand.com Use code lockedin at checkout to get 20% off your order Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Shootout in North Philly 00:04:03 - Firing 00:07:41 - From Resigning to Becoming a Probation Officer 00:11:27 - Being Honest About Cheating and Career Change 00:15:26 - Probation Officer Training and Procedures 00:18:55 - Violations and Probation 00:22:43 - Unconstitutional Stipulations of Probation 00:26:14 - A Tough Guy in the Department 00:30:03 - Chomos & Probation Monitoring System 00:33:51 - Stories from Probation Interviews 00:37:37 - Probation and testing 00:41:24 - Issues with the Probation System 00:45:03 - Flaws in the Probation System 00:48:47 - Building a Relationship with Offenders 00:52:31 - Establishing Respect in Probation 00:56:26 - Life as a Probation Officer in Philly 01:00:22 - Letting Them Run Loose Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With the RAM Declaration of Deals, we're pledging our allegiance to the American people with great deals on the RAM 1,500. Back with the legendary Hemi V8 and the RAM heavy duty. With the available Cummins Turbo diesel delivering 1,075 pound feet of torque, all backed by a 10-year-1-100,000 mile train limited warranty. Because nothing stops RAM. Hurry in for the Declaration of Deals. Excludes B-EV applies to 2026-mile gear vehicles non-transferable. Visit mopar.com for complete details and a copy of the PowerDrain Limited Warranty. Comanche is a registered trademark of Cummins Inc.

Graham and Hemmy are registered trademarks of FACAUS LLC. Looking to start 2026 with an unforgettable getaway. Fiji Airways sale is on now. Fly non-stop round-trip to Fiji from just 748. Or enjoy a sunny Fiji stopover on your way to Australia with round-trip fairs starting from 839. As a One World Alliance member and American Airlines Advantage Program partner,

your miles go further across the South Pacific. Book now at Fiji Airways.com or contact your local travel agent. Conditions apply. There was a huge shootout in North Philly with the cops. I'm talking about a crazy shootout. The cops came running. It was a big drug ring.

And the cops came running and they ran into the wrong house first off. And they kicked the door in. And there was a drug there in the kitchen. And he didn't know who it was. They didn't say cops or nothing. And he had like a machine gun. He started spraying at them. And they like jumped behind the stairway and they ran upstairs.

And they locked themselves in the bathroom. And they were in the tub. And he was just shooting up at them and stuff. and one of my probationers was in the house. So I had to lock them up because of it. Chris, welcome to Locked in. Thanks for having me, man. This is your first ever podcast.

First ever, probably last. I don't know. People might hit you up after this. Yeah, not many. And the thing that makes you unique about this is that you are our first probation and parole officer on the show and not that many people in my position get to interview that because a lot of them are currently active and won't do the show. And then a lot of people don't want to talk about it anyway.

Yeah. But you emailed us and you're like, hey, dude, I got some great stories. I would love to tell you our perspective. Yeah. So you're allowed to talk openly and freely about things. It doesn't affect like retirement or anything like that. You know what? Let's talk about that.

Let's talk about that. That's a good starting point. So March 5th, 2020, the day after my birthday, right before COVID hit. I got fired. Yeah. I was there for 13 and a half years. So I got fired because we had this system. It's called J-NAT, right?

And basically it's ran by the state police. And it gives you access to background, like, arrests, license pictures. So basically what I was doing, the whole time I worked there, always was just, like, bored at work, just looking at people's license pictures, just for fun, right? So they hired a new guy who oversaw that part. So they said they ran like a background. And they sold it.

I looked up in 2019, like 26 pages of people, right? So when I come into work and they're like, you got to bring a union rep upstairs, we got to talk to you about it. I'm like, what that could have been? I'm thinking, well, I don't know what that could be. You know what I mean? I'm thinking, is it that?

Look in a PennDOT? It's called PennDOT for license pictures. So I had to get it, I had a union rep. I go up there and they just break out the papers. And they're like, ask me why I looked up this person? And the union rep told me to say that It wasn't me that I left my computer unattended I'm like, that's not gonna work 26 pages

There's like 20 people on each page, right? So I denied and denied it, denied it. And then the guy was like, you're not fires, just an investigation And then one day I was walking in to work, thankfully I was like 10 minutes late And I'm walking in, my boy calls me and I pick up the phone and he's like, yo, where are you at? I'm about to walk in the door. I was like, turn around.

Turn around. Turn around. I'm like, what? So I turn around. And I'm like, thinking, what that? You know? And I'm like, man. So I call it a union president or a vice president.

And he's like, go resign. Go resign. And I'm like, you know what? I call my supervisor and said, I'm calling out. So I took a week to figure out what I'm going to do. And then I went in and got fired. I just went and got fired. You didn't want to resign?

I didn't want to resign because I wanted to appeal it. Okay. Because I didn't do anything. I still didn't think I did anything. wrong. I broke policy. I definitely broke policy. But my thing is this, and I'm going to say this right now, I want to thank Darlene Miller. The, the, um, the, um, Darlene Miller was the, um, the chief probation officer. She's the one to fire me. And I'm just going to say straight up, she's a racist because there was other people who did way worse things and got suspensions or nothing.

They did an investigation. It took like six months to do this investigation. And, uh, they found out that I didn't disseminate any the information. Everybody asked me if I was sending girls flowers or stuff. Weird shit, right? I'm like, no, I was like, listen. I finally told her, I'm like, look, I wasn't doing anything shady. I was just bored at work. Just looking up random people. I wasn't trying to stalk anybody or anything like that.

And even in my paperwork it said no dissemination was found and they still fired me. Who are you looking up? Former inmates or just random people on the street? It's like your friends? Yeah, my friends. Like, hey, say if I went to school with Ian Beck.

So what Ian? I ain't seen in 10 years. See what he looks like. Just dumb shit. But aren't like cops allowed to do this just as long as they don't give out the info to people? So here's the thing with that. They're supposed to report it to the state police saying that they found one of their workers, one of their employees doing something wrong, which I did.

I admit to that. I did something stupid. It was childish. But I've been doing it for years. Right? Instead of either suspending me. So they're supposed to report it and then tell them what? what they did about it, they just went straight to fire me.

They didn't even, this one dude, I'm just going to be, this is why I think it was racist. There's other reasons why, but she's a black lady. Her name's Darlene Miller once again. Thank you, Darlene. I want to thank Darlene because it changed my life, but be honest, which I want to really thank her for firing me and being a racist.

So one of my good friends, he's my buddy, he was in my unit. He was looking at license plates. He was running license plates. All I was doing was looking up people's names. It's not even like you have to go through someone, and you just type it in. It's nothing crazy. He was looking at a license place.

He got like a weak suspension. Nothing happened to him. I got fired. You had nothing else in your file? No. Wow. No. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And I tried to sue and all. And it was during like 2021 when all that BLM stuff was going on. They were lawyers laughing at me because I wasn't black. They're like, you can't suit them. I'm like, it was racial discrimination. I could prove it.

They're like, me ain't taking that. Nobody would take the case. I thought with like, union and stuff you're protected. They didn't want to touch it. So it's just you're automatically fired. That's it. You can appeal, which I did.

I was going to, so I was hoping, I thought I was getting my job back because they took forever to come back to me. It took like seven, seven, six, seven months. And I was going to, I was going to get my job back. I get the back and get the back. They shot it back. They shot it back. Did they say why they shot it back?

They just said, I broke policy and it was their, I don't know. So I just let it go. You said, you know what? I'm just going to let it go. What they say was like a severe policy level or something? Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it wasn't really a fireable offense. And ironically, the guy who was in charge of overseeing that, making sure people were following policy, he just retired.

He was there for like 40 years, right? He was the main. I saw him at a retirement party after that. He grabs me, pulled me aside. He goes, I'd talk to you. I said, I'd talk to you too. He goes, if I was still there, you wouldn't have lost your job. He's like, trust me.

He's like, I know all kinds of stuff on her. I know stuff she's done. He's like, there's no way that I would have you fired. I said, bro, I'm glad you weren't there. I'm glad they fired me. It was the best thing. I was making $60,000 a year. Maybe you were just a little too out there for them.

Maybe a little too cool, a little too. Well, that's the other thing. I was a very good. I'm a straight out. I was a very good PO. Very good PO. Like, there's so many dirtbag POs in there, dude, that don't give a shit about the people. I cared about the people, dude.

I got in trouble probably like eight years before that, but it doesn't follow me because actually my director made my supervisor rip it up. I had this young lady on my caseload. She was a mess, dude. She was raped and molested her whole life. She was a mess, dude. I felt terrible for the girl, right? she left a drug facility and escaped.

And I gave her my phone number because I knew she was out of her mind. She calls me and says, I left. I said, where are you at? I picked her up and drove her back to the facility. I was late to work. I came and I told my supervisor straight up. She said, I had to write you up. I was like, all right, do it.

I mean, I was trying to do a good thing. The girl was a mess. And my director came up, rip it up. He was doing a good thing, even though it was against policy. You know what's interesting by you telling us all, is that when I have like former inmates come in and sit down and addicts, we know how their story ends either in jail or whatever. So like we just got the backstory of how your story kind of ends in that sense from your career. Yeah.

So let's find out how your story begins. Okay. What made you want to become a probation officer? So I never want to be a probation officer. Never. I went to college for education. I was a secondary ed major. I came out of school.

I taught for one week. And I was like, I don't want to do this. I just didn't like it. Wait, you graduated school, got through the whole thing. Got the whole thing. Taught for one week and they came in on Monday and told the dude, I was like, I'm done. I don't want to do this. What was it?

A couple reasons. One, I'm not, I know I became a parole probation officer. I'm not authoritative. I'm like, I don't like the old kids. You know what I mean? I let them do whatever hell they want. I was let them do whatever they want. So I told the dude, I was like, dude, I'm not the main for the job.

I'm going to let them do whatever they want. They weren't mean to me. Because I treat everybody with respect, but I was let everybody go to the bathroom. Everybody's lying up. I'm just giving them passes. And I swear to God, that day when I came home from resigning, I had a letter in a mail to take the probation officer test.

Because my boy was like, yo, let's take the test for probation officer. I was like, alright. Wait, you didn't realize in college that this was not what you wanted to do? No. You know what? I didn't have no guidance. You know what I mean? My mentor was my wrestling coach. I wrestled since I was little. And he was a teacher and coach.

I said, I guess that's what I'll do. I didn't know what I want to be. Where do you go to college? Wainsburg, you Williamsburg College it was called back then in some southwestern PA, like an hour south of Pittsburgh. And you grew up there? I grew up in Philly. In Philly. Yeah.

Both parents, big family. No. Single mom. Five kids. Welfare. Poor as hell. Five. Five kids all by herself.

Lived into like a blue collar white neighborhood. It was kind of rough. In fact, I don't know if you ever heard of Kensington. Yeah, of course. We had someone come from the shop. I grew up poor wrist. It was right next door. Yeah.

at that time it was the same neighborhood now it's different it was fistown kensington port rishman they're back then they were all the same neighborhood basically fish town became like gentrified like huge it's one of the most gentrified neighbors in the world port rishman stayed stable Kensington is now zombie land

as you know it's crazy but at one time kensington was the most productive neighborhood in the whole world because of the river had factories everywhere I guess what my tattoo is based on it's like the factories and the shipping industry garment industry, it was huge back then.

And then once all the factory was closed, then there was no jobs. And then it just went to shit. Wow. Yeah. So I grew up, I grew up renter. Now, you were telling me you're not married and you didn't want to get married and you're single. Is that because you had a single mother growing?

No, you know what? I think it's people try to say it's because of reasons of why, you know, different reasons why is that. I think it's hereditary. My grandfather, my dad, my uncles, they're all. womanizers. So I grew up, I didn't even grow up around my dad.

I'm just like them though. Just like them. But I never even really, when I got older, I was around them, but like I didn't learn anything from the dude. It's just,

you know what it was, dude? I'll be honest with you. I tried to be in relationships, but bro, all I did was cheap. And I just felt bad. I got to a point

where I was like 38 years old. I'm like, dude, I gotta stop doing this to women, man. At least you're honest. I know. And before I was a liar.

I look back and I'm disgust with myself. Now I'm just straight up honest since the best thing I've ever done, dude, just be honest. Why do you cheat? Because I can't, I can't, um, I love women.

I can't, I can't, it's never satisfied, I guess. So just be single, hop around. That's what I'm doing. That's what I'm doing that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but at the time I was younger. I didn't know, you know what I mean? I tried to convince myself I could do it.

I would try, but I was like, this ain't for me. You got to tell him out there. I'll tell him. I'll tell him. That's funny. Okay, so you decide, School isn't for you, like to be a teacher. Yeah.

How old are you when that happens? I was 26. 26. So did you graduate college late? I graduated college when I was 24, and I had to pass my boards and stuff, and I kept missing about one or two points. So I was like, I was just floating around, I was coaching, wrestling, and doing, I was work for my buddy's plumbing business.

So then finally I got a job, and about it then, I was 26. So I was like, I think I was 25 at the time. By the time I got hired the probation office, I was 26. What are the prerequisites? You need a bachelor's degree in anything. That's it. That's it. So there's no criminal justice.

No criminal justice. Any bachelors. Wow. Any bachelors. And this is a state position for Pennsylvania. It's city. For city. Yeah. Okay.

You're hired by the city. Hired by a city. But it's a state job technically? It's a court. It's the courts. So it's like first judicial district. Okay. So it's like it's under city government.

But I think we get paid by a state or something like that. I forget how it works. Now you get hired starting pay. How much? Starting pay was $385. And what year was this? 2006. And I was living in Fishtown. I had a, I was with my roommate. We had like two and an hour a month. We had to pay each. I was living it up. What's the cap on a probation officer maxed out now? Or in 2020 when you left.

I think it's like around 64 or something. 64, that's it. I think I might have been maxed out. So the thing I realize with my probation officer is you're like always on call. Is it worth it? That's parole. That's parole. Well, and the feds, it seemed like they were always, like, you text them, they always have to be available. That might be different.

The feds is different. Okay. Yeah, feds is different. I think that, I think, but the city's different, you're only on the clock for eight hours. That's it. Yeah. Unless there's different units. Some units have to work at night sometimes, like go chase people around.

I don't know that. So you were just desk job easy. So when I first started, it was, it was, when I first started, it was, it was set up differently. It was by the neighborhoods. so like west west west it's like west philly that had northeast south central east and i was in west which was pretty rough um and it was like called a general just a general caseload but then they had like specialized caseloads like uh like uh like sex offenders and like mental health um gun court stuff like that so at that time i was doing uh just just general supervision at 140 people

like 140 that's a lot of people supervised they got to come in once a month. But then they start this new program was called low risk supervision. It's called administrative supervision. Yeah, I had that. So we had to go on Monitor Connect? So you have to report on your phone? I don't know if it was that actual site. We had something different that it was called. Did you have a report on your phone? It wasn't on the phone. They didn't have an app. It was a website. It was a website. It was a website. I don't even think they had an app at that point. So I was one of the first officers to be involved in that. So I know the ends and out of that. And it was a mess, dude. Like I had 400 people in my caseload.

Now, they had to report to me At first it was different. Like, they had to report in person the first time and then call in three months and then report back in three months and later, but then they changed it to just report online.

Now, some of these dudes were bad dudes. Like, nobody knew the criteria of, it was ran by Penn University of Penn. So they never given a bunch of money to do these. Base was research, that's what it was. And nobody knew what the formula was they had these people on low risk. Like, I'm looking up these people.

I got murder convictions. I'm like, why is this dude on low risk? He's reporting on his phone. But I'm like, whatever they want to do, I mean? What's the training like to become? Once you get hired, are they sticking you in anywhere? Is there gun training? Because I know some probational officers are armed.

We didn't have to carry guns. All right, no guns for you guys. So what's the training like? So the training list, probably maybe three months maybe. So it was like, it was like you're in school. Like you go to training, the training room every day and you, like, learn stuff. But you can learn on the job.

It's like anything else. You didn't really learn much in training. But we had to go to court, like, talk in front of the judge and stuff, stuff like that. Just as part of the training. Yeah, like, you ever have to go back in front of your judge? After sentencing? Well, when you're on probation? No, not during probation.

Nah, just like for like a checkup or anything? No, only if you had a violation. Well, if you have to violate, if you violate it, you go back in front of judge, you just give the judge a report. Yeah. That's what we did. Now, in the state, is it similar to the feds where the probation officer is very hands-on with a judge, like pre-sentence report, Were you doing pre-sentence cases? We have a pre-sentence unit.

They do all that. Okay. Where they're doing that? They do all the right. They go into the prison, do all that, and they give it to you. So when do you take over a case? It depends. Well, usually it's right after, it's two ways.

One is I get arrested for offense. I go to court. I don't go to jail. They give me two years probation. They send me down an intake unit. They say go meet your officer, Chris Ficente, go over to the building, meet him, and then that's when I set them up.

Or they get paroled. Say if that like a city sentence, like, like, what was it, 11 a, 11 and a half to 23 months sentence. If they get paroled early, then they come to May. That's why it's probation parole. But usually most of them have probation tail. So it's like, say if they did half it at, they got to walk off the parole, and then they start the probation sentence. Now, do they have like 48 hours report to you? Yeah, 42 hours.

I think it's 72. 72 from the time they leave that jail. What's like something wild you've seen someone do? in those 72 hours before reporting to you. Because technically the way it's written, the rules, that you could pretty much do whatever you want, like until you report.

It depends on the answer, too. Yeah, and how much leeway you have? Yeah. Was there anything crazy you've witnessed? Not in a 72 hours, not that I could think of. But, I mean,

there's some crazy shit that happened. Some crazy shit. Like, right before I left, there was a huge shootout in North Philly with the cops. I'm talking about, like, crazy shootout. The cops came running.

There was, like, I don't know, it was a big drug ring. And the cops came running and they ran into the roll. house first off and they kicked the door in and there was a drug there on the kitchen and he was he didn't know who it was they didn't say cops or nothing and he had he had like a freaking machine gun he's like start spraying at them and they like jumped behind the stairway and they ran upstairs and they went they locked

themselves in the bathroom and they were in the tub and he was just shooting up at the bathroom and stuff and one of my probation was in the house so enjoy every day like it's the weekend at treasure island with special rates of only seventy nine dollars midweek could it get any better it does get at free parking too at Treasure Island while staying in the center of the strip. With summer coming, enjoy all your favorites, steps away from your room, including their world-class spa, classic Vegas steakhouse, and tropical resort-style pool. It's all at Treasure Island, Las Vegas. Visit Treasure Island.com to book your room for just $79 a night.

That's Treasure Island.com. I had to lock them up because of it. Why was he in the house? He was in there. He was in there. Who knows? Who knows? He was saying they didn't do anything wrong, but he was in the house.

So when a scenario like that happens and they find someone that's on probation in the house or involved in something like that, do you get called right away? No, I get an alert in my system, like maybe like the next day. So when I come in the morning, you have an alert, like a red thing, and you'll click on it and I'll tell you somebody got arrested. And then you check the arrest. Now, if somebody got arrested, if they're on low risk supervision, I got arrest for retail theft, these dudes are allowed to do whatever the hell they want it. If you got arrested for five major offenses, then I have the lives of detainer. So it's aggravated assault, murder, rape, arson, and aggravated assault. Yeah.

Yeah, so I think it's five. And then you have to send them right to jail. Alarja's detainer. They're in there until their case is disposed of. And then we go back in front of the judge, whatever happens. If they get found guilty, then it's the direct violation. But the funny crazy part about it is if they get found not guilty, it's still a violation. It's still a violation.

Yeah, because the bar sets so low for a violation. Yeah. is a violation. Okay. Even if you're feeling innocent. Yeah. So when someone gets pulled over on probation, do you get alerted right away?

How much access to the police have? Can a police officer see that this person's on probation in the system? I've always been curious about this. You know what? I've seen that. I've seen that like when I watch shows and stuff. They're like, I see your own probation. Usually they had like they find out like their appointment card on them or something

or like their PO's card or something. or they tell them I don't think they can see it they may be able to just see their arrest I don't think they can see their convictions or if it's still active yeah for a stipulation was three years probation they do the math

they're supposed to tell us if they get stopped by the cops but they don't tell us all the time but they they do like the minor connect supervision thing has like eight questions have you any contact with police have you moved have you changed jobs and they're supposed to tell us but now you did 13 years as a probation officer did you see time

shift over the years of, you know, the bar being set higher for petty crimes or like petty petty violations. Got lower. It got lower. So they were violating more? Well, no. No, I'm sorry. The bore, the bore, the bore basically when they came up with low risk, it was, it was, it was,

the intent, the intent was good. They're trying to, they're trying to cycle in people who don't really need to be supervised. You know what I mean? Like people, like people get DUIs, like normal dues. They got, they made a mistake. you know what, like retail theft, shit like that. But some of these people didn't need to be, I don't know where the formula came from. They didn't need to be on there.

They need to be somewhere else. I mean, they need to be really supervised. But, no, they were not to do whatever they want. They don't have to do whatever they want. Like, for instance, D.Y, if you had to do all these stipulations, you have to do, like, driving school, joby safety school, you have to do, like, drug treatment. They were just, the name of the game was closed the cases out.

Close them out. If they didn't get arrested, it got to the point where if you look at, the case expired and you look at it, ran the background, they didn't get arrested, just close it. To say that you referred, you referred them. So they didn't have to do nothing. Now, how often do you have to go visit individuals at their home and do on-site? I didn't have to. In my unit, we didn't have to.

Ever. Yours was just easy going. We didn't see them ever again. They came in from court, hooked them up the Monarch, never seen them again, unless they got arrested. See, that's what I had when I had state alcohol violations or whatever from the club. I had that, and I was on probation with the state, never heard from them. So the first year I was out, and then I got the Fed time. time. So I never saw them again, but I went in once. They helped me up.

They probably closed that case up, right? Yeah, I never heard from them again. I hope you don't got a warrant. No, I would have been pulled over since that and stuff. Yeah, but it was just probation. And when I took the plea deal for state probation, they knew about the Fed case. I was already charged. It was an open case? Yeah, the Fed. So it wasn't like a violation of probation. No, no, it's because the arrest date was after, was before. The probation date was after the arrest date of the Fed case. And that was part of the deal. So that was part of the So your state case is closed out. Yeah, my Fed case is done too. It's done your probation in 2020.

You're free man now? Free man, yeah, yeah. What was it? Monday closed? 2012. Oh, good. I got very lucky with my probation. I had a very chill officer.

I mean, some of the rules and stipulations are so silly. Like, in my case, can't open up new credit cards without approval. Well, I guess it's because of your charges? I get, they blink it all fraud cases the same. But when you go to ask for permission, they're not giving you permission to do it. There's all these rules. They can't find out anyway. How do you build?

No, they can because in the feds, what they do is once, this is how I got lucky. So once a year or every six months, they give you a giant packet where you have to fill out the financial packet and you give them permission to run your credit. What? Yeah. So they run your credit. You have to say bank account numbers, everything, assets, whatever. I see my constitutional with me, bro. Yeah.

So it's nuts, right? Well, you sign them all your rights when you want this is this. This is the problem. Yeah. So then COVID hits. I got lucky and I opened up a bunch of credit cards. Oh, because you had to go in that year because they didn't have me fill it out.

And it wasn't until the tail end where they had me fill one out. Oh, yeah. And then I got like a, they gave me a warning, this and that. And then I opened up some more. But I wasn't doing anything illegal. It was just like a rule. Put in stipulations. Yeah, it was just a stipulation.

Yeah. So talk about like the stipulations, how they're not actually laws. They're just like kind of rules. It's a great area. It's on the umbrella of the probation. Like, because basically what they say is what, Once you get convicted and you're under their jurisdiction, you got to play by the rules.

That's the problem. Like, you know what Meek Mill is, right? The rapper. That's how he got screwed. This is the whole thing. I used to see him down all the time. The dude, I'm going to tell you straight up. The dude never, he might have gave one hot urine.

Never gave any hot yorns. He was doing okay. But the judge had a horrid for him. She wanted to make the news, you know what I mean? And his PO, I knew her personally. She would tell everybody in anybody his business. I'd be on an elevator. Meek.

I'm like, tell him me for it. None of my business. You know what I mean? Give me his old information. Like just blabbering about him. So she was out to get him? She just wanted to get him. She just wanted to clout too.

She went, oh, I got meek mill. You know what I mean? Now, on the flip side, are you seeing people in the probation world when they're dealing with a celebrity, let them off easy? Because the meek mill case, he got screwed, but are there other situations

where there's a celebrity where they're, you know. There's this one girl. Katia, Washington, Miss Kat, you ever hear of her? She's a video vixen. She's squealed to Drake. Yeah, sounds familiar. She's the most beautiful woman. I've ever seen in my life in person.

I was walking. I came in the office one. I was like, what the hell's going on here? And then her P.R. boys with him, he would let her do whatever to her she wanted all the time.

He'd have her in a booth. It was like a booth. I don't know if you had to report. It was like they came in one door and then on the other side. It's like a little room. He'd have her in there for like an hour, bro. Just talking to her,

you know what I mean? He let her do whatever she wanted though. Don't you think that's kind of unfair though? To the people that they jam up? You know, it's crazy? I'm sure you know. You got lucky. You got a good probation officer.

The first time, pre-trial was miserable. Oh, God. She made my life hell. Let me tell you some, bro. They can ruin your life. I'm telling you, I would guarantee it. I've had thousands of probationers. I would guarantee there's not one probationer I could ever say one thing bad about me.

They love me. They loved me because I was fair, and I shot them straight. Never lied to them. You weren't supposed to, like, if they got arrested for one in a five majors and they had to come in to get it, turn themselves in, or if they came in and they didn't think I knew, I would tell them straight up, I'm like, oh, you got to go in. like but you ain't supposed to tell them because like they can run out and shit they never disrespect them I'm like they've respected me that I'm telling them like damn really I'm like

it's out of my hands I gotta take you in they respect me because I was always straight out with them now are you the one physically doing the arrest like no I have a warrant unit I feel like TV is kind of like like you see them with the parole and probation uh jackets and stuff and they're they're on the teams

they do god do but it's not as much as I don't I don't feel like it does no it's depends what unit you're in if you're in high risk unit yeah because it's a broken them a high risk, moderate, and then low risk. I was in low. So high risk, they go out with cops, they like going

bang on doors and shit. I wasn't doing that. But yeah, your probation arm makes a break, the whole experience, dude. So I'm going to tell you, right before I got fired, they sat this dude next to me who was the biggest jerk off PO ever in the world. And dude,

I'm telling you, he would talk to these dudes on the phone like trash. Like, I don't care. I don't care if you lose your job. You're coming here tomorrow, shit like that. I'm like, I'm like, so I had enough one day. And I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm trying to be conversational. He hangs up with the phone. He talked this dude like garbage, like, grown man. You know what I mean? These dudes who killed this dude if they wanted to, but he's being a tough guy. And I mean, he's like, this big. Then, um, he hangs with the phone. And I'm like, I'm like, bro, if you're at my PO,

I'd be in state prison. He's like, why's that? I was like, because I come down here and fuck you you up. He's like, whoa, whoa, Chris, I thought we were boys. I said, bro, I ain't fucking boys when anybody talks to people I get. I'm like, when you call the bank, do you talk the dudes like that on the phone? I'm like, they're regular people. He's like, well, I'm like, yo, bro, I said, you step over this line. I'm gonna knock you to fuck out. Like, I got really made.

I just walked out and just left for like two hours. Why do you think people are like that? Tough thing, because I know why he was. He got picked on high school. I mean, I understand. Like, he just, now he had the badge. So now he's the tough guy, you know what I mean? Yeah, on the topic of the badge, do you see a lot of officers that couldn't make it in,

and say, law enforcement, like a police officer that take this route? because that's a rep you guys get in like corrections and stuff like that. Like mall cops, they call them. Yeah, well, P.O.s are a little, I mean, because they need a bachelor or so. Most of these dudes could get other jobs. Usually when people do it is they use this job as a stepping stone to get like a federal job or, you know, a better job in law enforcement. But some people are stuck there.

I was content because I thought it was sweet. Now the benefits got to be pretty good for a city job. It was it. Listen, I'll tell you what. The only reason why I hated it was two reasons that I had to be there. I mean, the pay wasn't great, but I had to be there, which nobody wants to be somewhere for eight hours. They don't have to be, right? And the administration.

They just, they never talked to us, and we were the ones on the front lines. They just always thought they knew what they were talking about. They never knew what they were doing. I mean, I missed the people. I missed my probationers. They were awesome. I miss some of the people I worked with. But then you got tough guys like that who think they're tough.

It's so sad, dude. What do you think was the most interesting case you had? or someone else maybe in the department. I'll tell you what crazy one, man. This is messed up. I had a dude who was on my case, Lude. He got, he got, I locked, I locked them up. And he got out.

When he was in jail, he made friends with this dude, right? And the dude was going to be in there for a while. So he thought it was this boy. He's like, yo, man, do me a favor. When you get out, I'm going to get me my address. Can you go by my mom's house? And make sure she's all right. This is an old lady.

Oh, yeah, no problem. Gives him the address, knocks on the door, says I'm so-and-so's boy from jail. He probably called him and said, my boy's going to come. She lets him in. He rapes her and rapes her dog, bro. Dog?

The dog. This dude's the men. He raped an old lady and a dog, bro. And this was supposed to be his boy. This is supposed to be his boy. And the guy that did this was on your caseload? Yeah. So he had gotten out already.

He got out, yeah. He's going now. God knows. How many years did he get out? Yeah, second. So you violated him and had to lie. Yeah. What was his initial charge? I don't remember.

Holy cow. Yeah. He got out, dude, and did that to her. Rape the dog. So what do you say? What goes through your mind when you hear that happens and when someone's telling you this? Well, I read the police report. So I didn't never get the seated dude again because he just wanted to lie to the same. Well, he wasn't coming out anyway.

Rape the lady. You know what I mean? Did you ever hear backstory? Nah. Nothing. No. That's kind of. I just remember reading a police report.

Like, oh my God. And it was probably over something silly. and that happened in prison. He was with the robber. No, he just went the robber. He robbed her. But he was like, I might as well rape her in her and dog. I don't know.

Crazy, bro. Now, on the topic of weirdness and what weird things people do, there's a big fascination with sex offenders, chomos. What are some of like the stipulations that these individuals get when they get out and they're on probation? For the sex offenders? Yeah. I've never been in the sex offenders unit, but I know a little bit.

Like you're not allowed to have, um... Is it true about like no internet? No internet access? Yeah. They can go through your phone. You can go to your computer. They can go in your house. They can do whatever to how they want.

How do they monitor no internet in 2000, in 2020, in any age right now? Probably. They probably check, they got a router in their house, maybe. I mean, you don't even need internet because it should be on your phone. But there's ways around that you probably have a burner phone. But if you have a regular phone, but these sex offenders are dumb. You know, they're dumbest shit, dude. There's dummies.

They're always messing up. Wow. Yeah. I just know that no internet. You can't, there was one, like, can't be around kids. Like, dudes have girlfriends that have kids. they try hiding it. And they find out

they live with a kid get violated for that. So you do see these guys going to get girlfriends after? Oh yeah. Really? There's girls

that friggin let them have their kids. You're here about that shit? No. Oh my God. Women meet dudes and let them have sex to their little kids. Really?

Yeah. This happens? This happens, dude. Crazy, bro. I don't know what it is with them. I don't know if they just, they're weirdos. Well, the women's got to get charged, too.

Oh, yeah, no doubt. No doubt. Wow. That happens a lot. So now on an individual's file, how much access do you have? Like, what can you see when you first get a case? Well, when we first get a case, for me, for low-risk supervision, there's disqualifiers. So if he scores low-risk, whatever to frigging, I don't even know what the criteria is, nobody knew. He scores low risk, he comes to me or he or she comes to me.

I have to immediately do a background check. It's an NCIC check. It's nationwide. And I can see all their arrests, all their arrests and all their convictions. And if they were convicted of any sex crimes, they get shipped out right away. They're not low risk. If there's any sex crimes ever, you get shipped out. Or if you have aggravated assault within the last five years anywhere in the country, you get shipped out.

Who else has access to the system? It's any government agency or just probation officers? Probation, parole officers, cops. I guess. Federal agents, of course. Yeah, they all do, yeah. Okay. And so that system.

right? If someone like scans a thumbprint or something and that pops up, say they get booked, that goes into that system, everything populates into there? Yeah. Yep. It's nationwide too. And how accurate is that? It's accurate. It's accurate. It's real accurate. Okay. Yeah, real accurate. How is technology advanced in the probation world since when you first started versus when you ended? So right when I got there in 2006, they used to have things called street books. It's like a big-ass black binder and had like a file for everybody in there. And when somebody came in, you had to like write in the notes of like, so when we were, reports are like probation are reported today on time.

Same address, same job, no new arrest. He's going to make a payment on the way out. Back then you'd have to write that all in. And then they switched over computers. So everything's on a computer. It's a system. It's called monitor. It's called a monitor.

Then that was the biggest tech model? Yeah, so many people retired after that. Like the old heads, they're out of here once they got the computers. Do they give you guys two phones to use? We didn't have any phones. You had to use your own personal cell phone? No, well, we were in the office, so we had regular desk phones. Okay.

Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. And was there any other tools? Like, did you get a car? Did they give you a car? There's cars, so for me, low risk, we didn't leave. We didn't need cars.

But like, modern supervision went out like once a week. So you had to, like, schedule a car. Like, you know, put in for a car. And then, like, gun court, they go at night to have cars. Like probation cars. Like, like, a little cop cars. And then they got the new fancy. It was, like, probation on the side of it and shit.

It's iron on top. I haven't seen those. Yeah, yeah, they got them. What's some unique and interesting ways you've seen people on probation or parole kind of like avert or avoid detection on probation, either on your case load or someone else's? Because I'm sure the officers talk in the office. Avoid detection. How in what way? Like if they got into trouble or they like they try to cover it up.

There's no way to avoid it. I'll tell you there's one way to avoid if you're a bad probation officer. You don't do background checks. There's some people that don't. Like for me, we had to do one every three. months on a person. Oh, really? Just to make sure that anything can rest in Florida. Because look, you're a monitor connect. We don't know where you're at. There's no

GPS on it. You can be in freaking Montana for all we know. Yeah, so one of the stipulations is like you have to report, like when you're on the low level, you have to say that you're leaving the state. Yeah, you get a travel permit. Yeah, do most people actually ask for that travel permit or not. Not them do. Then I'm going to get in trouble. I'd give everybody one. I gave one dude to Africa one time. And so no one's checking you. Like you don't have to

My grandmother slept on a futon her whole life. Lived a 96, walked every day. I thought that wisdom was lost. Then I found Air Weave. The Japanese Futan reimagined. Extra firm support that honors tradition, but answers to science. My mornings feel different now. It's like I'm connected to something that understands my body

and lets me customize its features. Airweave is where ancient wisdom meets state-of-the-art technology. Discover more at AirWeave.com. Go to permission? No, no. Okay. Yeah, like in the feds, they normally have to ask the court of like expression Yeah, I understand.

Yeah, but I had 400 people. Like this dude, this one dude I had is African dude. He was the nicest guy ever. This guy got, I think he had money, got 20 years probation, $100,000 in restitution he had to pay. You know why? He was one of those dudes. They had like DVDs and CDs.

This Africans, they saw, in Philly. They sell DVDs. Well, back in the day, I don't really anymore. He was in a house. stash house with all the DVDs and they put it all on him he was just he was just putting the he was just putting the um covers in he was just and he got arrested with all these DVDs and sony won a hundred thousand dollars from a little african dude and he's like can i go back to my country i'm like yeah man i gave i gave um travel permit let him go a couple times he came back now does anyone ever call

you when people travel out of state just to verify no no never not never got a call as long as they got the paper my signature on it oh they have to try yeah yeah you try it yeah yeah yeah they have the paper I told him I wanted to bring the paper with you. All right. So on that topic of traveling, how do you feel about one of the rules that's in a lot of these stipulations about you can't associate with felons? Is that even, is that rule changing in today's world? I think that's only, that's only federal. Okay.

I think the state doesn't have it. I think state might have it. It seems like such a silly rule because a lot of people have a felony. It's just another way to send you back to jail. It's all it is. You think it's set up and designed to be dealt. I do. I do. I do. I do. It's a system.

You know, it's a whole system. It's a whole game. this whole jail shit. They're locking people. So here's another scheme that we're done with the DUI shit. And it was mostly racial profile and I'll be straight out with you.

Blacks and Puerto Ricans in the city. The cops would say you rolled through a stop sign which is back then they didn't have cam, you know what I mean? So you can just say do roll through a stop sign. They pull you over. They say they smell marijuana,

which they didn't. Then they take you in for blood test. I could smoke a week ago. I'm going to pop from marijuana. marijuana, DUI. That's how you're getting on, now you're on probation for DUI, right? Now, you live in the hood. I had this one dude, he got arrested for selling drugs.

He literally, this dude did not, this dude was a working dude. He worked late. He got off the train. I read the police support and I talked to him. I believed him. He said, bro, I got out the train. Somebody asked me for a cigarette. I handed the dude a cigarette.

He's in cuffs. They said he did a hand-to-hand. Now he's locked up a drug deal. Because he had money in his pocket. Wow. I know. Now he was already on probation. Now he's got to sit in.

And he didn't even do anything wrong. It's because he lives in the hood. How strict are you guys on weed towards the end of your career? I didn't drug test anybody. I stopped drug testing people because there was no really stipulations on low risk to drug test people. So I just stopped drug testing them. Plus, they had to report. So I didn't drug test anybody.

But in general, in the office, are they popping? It depends on the PO. It all depends on the PO. Do you feel like there's too much discretion? There is too much discretion. These POs can really. fucking, dude. And I witnessed it, bro. They're animals, dude. And they're protected by

the rule book because it's within their requirements that they're allowed to do that. You know, I used to do when I was in moderate, and this is to help the people. I wasn't never trying to, I wasn't never trying to set nobody up. So if I had a dude, right, and he had a drug testing stipulation, my supervisor, back then it was only had 140 people.

She could go through my caseload and say, yo, you didn't drug test this dude in a while. I'm like, all right. So I'll tell a dude, I'm like, yo, you're getting drug tested next time you come in. I would tell him, right? Now, if he comes in and he pops hot, then he's got a problem, right? Since he already knew.

So now I can help the dude. You got a problem, bro. I told you you were getting drug testing. You're still going to pop. But if it was for weed, man, what happened was back, eventually when it was still illegal, they would give you like three tries,

and then they would have to refer you to treatment. So it wasn't that big of a deal. Oh, did it become legal in Pennsylvania? Yeah. So how did that, did they have to change the, rule books in the court systems? I think that was after I left. Okay.

But I'm pretty sure, yeah. Some POs start, because remember, they made it for medical use at first. So if you had a medical card, you were good. Did you ever have anyone, like, try to circumvent the testing at all, like putting a bag in or anything? Come on Whizzinators and shit. It was a Wizzinator. A fake dick. And are you looking?

Were you on those offices? No, no. We sent him to the lab. There's a lab. You sent him to the lab. No, but are you looking at him? No, I didn't have to go. They had the lab attendants.

Oh, they had the quest diagnostic. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Back in the day, probationalists had to do everything. They had to do the own arrest. They had to take them, do the piss test and everything. Yeah, if you get sent to, like, a quest, they don't check you. Well, this was in the house. This was on my floor, actually was on 11th floor.

There was a urine lab, we called it. Yeah, like the Fed subcontract for pretrial out, and you get, they'll randomly call you on, like, every couple weeks. They'll randomly call you for a test. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You get a text, wouldn't you? A text or a call. And if you didn't show up, then you get violated. But if you go in, if you got a cool guy, there were some that were like, oh, you know, this is an inmate.

We're going to, you know, jam them up. But others would just stand outside if you got a chill one. They're not looking so you can easily swap out the pee or do whatever. Oh, shit. Yeah. That's good, man. Some of these POs are just on a power trip. Dude, just like cops. So did you catch someone with that rubber dick?

No, I never did. No, but I've heard. I've heard. This one dude, I had this one dude. this funny. He got popping for for coke. I knew he was smoking crack. But he was, he worked. He was like a nurse. And he kept popping. I'm like, bro. I'm like, oh, man,

you're killing me. He's like, nah, nah, no, I'm lit. Nah, this time I ain't do it, man. He said, oh, you know what it was, man? I had this white girl, she threw some coke on my dick. I was like, hold on, what? I was like, hold on my dick, man. It had to be that. I was like, nah, bro. I don't think it works like that, dude. That's what he told you? That's what he told me.

So did you have to violate him? Yeah, I had to take him back to court. Oh, shit. I forget what happened. I don't think I violated, but. So, and what, for violations, do you have the one-on-one with the judge during the violation here? Yeah, yeah, so we go to the court and sit in court and he's in there, whether he's in custody or he just comes, and I'm in the front row waiting, and they call my case up. I walk up with the report.

I just presented a judge telling him why he's on probation and why we're here, and what do I recommend? And how many times are you recommending going back to prison? Only when it's policy. Like he got new arrest and got convicted. So it's a direct violation. I have to. I have to request that. But if it's something else like the case got thrown out or he tested positive three times,

well, like, Your Honor, we're just going to refer him to treatment and just moderate that way. Now, can there be any real change or effectiveness of probation officers if you have 400 people on your case load? Let me read something for you real quick. I'm going to read our mission statement. Okay. This is funny. What, you got it saved

in your photos? No, no, I got, I wrote some nose down. So the missing statement is this. The mission of the Philadelphia adult probation and parole department

is to protect the community by intervening into lives of offenders. Bullshit. All they do is for you intervene in a negative way for the most part. We hold them accountable

by enforcing the orders of the court, bullshit. We're just closing out cases. Through a balance of enforcement and treatment strategies, we afford offenders the opportunity to become productive law-abiding citizens bullshit.

The APPD provides all possible assistance to the victims of defenders we supervise. Another bullshit. We will provide possible assistance. We referred in places and somebody's places ain't even open anymore because we don't even know. Like we don't even. It isn't like we have like a blanket like list of places to send people. We have our own like over years of like setting people places. And we have like we build our own relationships.

There's no really like book to where I'm saying, look, this person needs this, and I'm here. Why do you think more aren't coming out and speaking out against it like you are? Because you're exposing them to a certain level. And it makes me think, you know, it can't just be one city and state that's like this. Because in my experience, mine's very similar to what you're describing. So it's all over the country. You know what it is, dude? And that's why I should have said this in the beginning when I was talking about the chief

probation orders that fired me is people are going to see this. Some of them, my old coworkers, then think I'm bitter. I'm not bitter at all. I'm just speaking of truth. Even when I worked there, I wrote, you know,

people say, if you complain, then you should have a solution, right? I wrote out a list of 15 things, how to make our unit better, and I sent it to my director, and he's like,

I'll send it up, never heard back. Like, because I worked in his unit from the beginning, so I knew all the flaws, and I was trying to make it better, and they just dismissed it. And the reason why I'm speaking now is because a lot of people are scared to talk about it,

especially people who are still hard. It's still worked there. You can get fired. Like if you talk to the press, you ain't allowed to talk to the press and shit. So do you think there's more to it than just because I know they say, like, you can't talk to the press because of, like, department safety or whatever, but maybe there's more to it. And it's like, so things like this aren't being talked about. I think it's political.

You know what it is? It was funny. There's so many flaws in a probation department, and it never used to make the paper. and I'm like, why didn't ever, like, why is this making the paper? I don't know they're sweeping on the rug. Like, there's shit that was messed up in there, like, violates people's civil rights and shit. And never heard about it in the paper. I don't know why that was.

But I always said, if I ever leave this place, I'm airing this place out, man. Well, you know, a lot of individuals don't have the resources to even fight it. Like, a lot of, I've noticed unjust things all the time in the system. And you hear about it on the show. Yeah. But individuals don't have the resources to fight it. They don't know. But it's starting to change a lot, though.

Ever since, you know, 2021 with the cops and shit, like a lot of people know their rights now. They do, but I still think there's just like a lot of, you know, kickback and roadblocks and whatnot. Like I deal with, like, I invite politicians on. I deal with certain things. And they're all, you know, it's funny. They could go on TV and talk about everyone wants to use reentry, reform. Oh, God. The criminal justice system, right?

But behind closed doors, they don't want to be associated with that. No. Which is why I kind of like love this whole thing with Trump in the world, right? now because he's a political figure who now has a felony on his record. Yeah, I was thinking about that. I was still running for president. He's out there. He's in their face. And that's like the mission of like this show like it. Who cares if you have a felony or not? I know. Like if you didn't kill anyone you didn't want to, you know, like, that's, that's

done for a reason. That's to keep people out of the workforce. Yeah. That's what that was. Like there's people who can't get a job because they have a felony. It's so screwed up. It's crazy, dude. Like I saw something that they were looking at, you know, having the right to have a gun again if you are a felon. They're looking at that, I think, at California, which makes sense. If you're convicted of fraud, right, and you're a felon, right? Or a nonviolent

drug offense. Why are you not allowed to have a gun? Which is your amendment, right, but you can have all the other amendments. That would be like, all right, you can't have social media because you're convicted. Yeah. I don't get that. That's all politics. And I didn't think about it until recently when that came

out. It's like that makes sense. It becomes your norm. People just think it's normal. You know what I mean? So you just think it's normally even though it's probably against, you know, against your rights. Yeah, it's literally crazy. So what are some of the flaws in the probation system that you've seen firsthand? Well, like I said, the probation also has so much jurisdiction over you. Like, literally, I sold people lose their jobs because they, no, you got to come in. I'm like, I don't want the person to lose their job.

Why would I want them lose their job? They don't care. They're on their power trip. So that's one flaw. The other flaw is the, the referrals. Like working with, like, drug treatment centers. Like, just really no blueprint to it. It's like you have your own, you have your own system that you came up.

But, like, I had my own system for referring people to certain places. But that was because I found the shit out of my own. And I mean, there's like no blueprint to it. I also think, and the funny thing is, when I first, when I first got hired, I'm actually, actually my, one of my interview questions was, why do you, why do you want to be a probation officer? I was like, well, I want to help people. And they're like, looking at me sideways.

Like, you know, You can't help everybody, right? I'm like, I know I can't help everybody, but I'm going to try to make a difference, you know what I mean? But it's like all they care about is closing out cases. They don't care about helping anybody, especially people on drugs, dude. There are a lot of people that are drug addicts and shit.

Like, they don't help them, man. Yeah, do you think that the system takes the ones that, the good ones that go in with the right reasons and kind of turn them bitter and angry and along the lines of not wanting to, or not seeing out why they started? Mm-hmm. Also, like, they're scared. sometimes they might have contact with the cops

and that they run, they don't report. There's a little different reason. People are not sure of the rules. Also, the other flaw is a good kid. It could be 18-90-year-old kid, made a mistake, maybe a DUI false arrest for DUI

bullshit, and then he gets into a fight. Now, he gets violated. Now he might be a state sentence. And it could be a good kid in cops. I had a couple of kids that I were in college. They got in trouble and they had in state custody. Just because they made one mistake because they were on probation already. And I mean, it's hard to get out of that.

The never-ending cycle. Like, there's some dudes that'd rather go to jail than me on probation. I've had this. I've had this. I've had dudes in court saying, Your Honor, send me upstate. I'd rather be upstate. So I could walk this off and then be a free man. They'd rather go to jail.

So what were some of the solutions that you presented to them that you think needed to be fixed and your ideas? I think for me This is one of people used to criticize before some of my co-workers Why don't you have them call you Mr. Vesente or Officer Vesente? I'm like, for what? I'm like, is them calling me Chris going to stop them from getting arrested? Like I would try to build a report to the person That wasn't, I wasn't, like I wasn't the authority over them

Basically, I, my theory was that they didn't want to let me down Literally I was like became like their friends where they didn't want to let me down they would call me up like, you know, Chris, man, I'm sorry, man, I got arrested. I did something wrong, you know what I mean? Like, other times, they wouldn't even want to call her POs are scared. So I think building a report with them and actually being their friend, I've given dudes my phone number.

Like this one dude say was going to kill himself, I'm going to kill myself. I'm going to kill myself. Call me. If you're going to kill yourself, call me. And those guys' policy, I didn't care. I think building a report with the person was my theory of the best way to do it. Not fear.

I was trying to scare nobody, you know what I mean? And just be up front with them and be straight up with them. So do you think most of the issues come from understaffing or? Oh, yeah. We needed, at the time, I think when I was there, I think we needed like another 100 POs. A hundred. Yeah, I had 400 people in my caseload. What should it actually be on your caseload, realistically?

Um, I would say for, for low risk, I would say 250 maybe, because we don't see them. But still, it's still a big caseloom, but people get arrested. We got to do, we got to do, you know, we got to look up their case old. every three months. It's a lot of audits. We call them audits. So it's a lot of work. But I got to the point where, dude,

I was coming now. I wasn't doing nothing, dude. Because I got so fed up, nobody cared. Nobody cared. Nobody cared about trying to help anybody. So I would help people when I could,

but I wasn't like doing my job to the point where I was like doing artists, running backgrounds. I just, I got jaded. Eventually. Now there are good probation officers. There's very,

very good probation officers. There's very good supervisors. Okay. Yeah. So they're not all. Not all. No. Okay.

No. So what were some of the good experiences you saw in the probation system? I saw, I saw, I, I've seen supervisors come in and help offenders because maybe the PO didn't know what to do. Like, they didn't have to do that, you know, come in there and really help people, like really help people. Like, I've walked, I've walked people to drug treatment before. I wasn't allowed to do that. There's like a drug treatment center not far away. I walk people there.

So let me tell you this. So let me explain something to you. So when you walk in the door, right, of the probation officer, right? you walk in, you got to do metal detectors. Sometimes there's a line. There used to be a long-ass line. Back in the day. They got away with that.

But, um, so you walk in the building, right? Your first experience is what a, what a security guard who's a jerk off, who's mean to you. Take all your stuff at your pocket seat. Tuck your belt off. Like, yelling at them and shit. And they're like, they're already disrespect.

And, you know, disrespect's a big, that's a big issue anywhere. Especially when you're in prison, right? Disrespect's a huge deal. So, again, disrespect by them. Then they get in an elevator. they come upstairs. Now they had to go to the window to talk to the secretary.

And they're rude, right? Sit down, your PO will be out. Then you got POs make dudes sit out there for two hours, bro. Sitting out there waiting for the probation officer for two hours. It's just, it's ridiculous. I never made anybody wait. It's ridiculous. And then, um, so now they're pissed off.

Then they go into the seat of PO and their PO's being in them. You know what I mean? So it's like they got all this disrespect all the way through. And then they're late. Maybe they got to go to work. They're two hours late to work. It's crazy, bro. Yeah, it's never on it.

It's so many, it's never ending. But like I said, it's not all the time. The respect thing is a very big thing. That's funny. I love me. So the other thing is, say, so it's called an intake appointment. When they first come from court,

they come over to see me. I got to sign them up from My Honor Connect and go to order information. Makes sure I got no information right, their job, where they live and all that. Some people come in pissed. They're mad. Maybe they got railroaded.

And some people don't like that. I was, you know, I wasn't, I wasn't, I wasn't, I was, I'm here in Puerto Rican, but I look white. And, like, some people don't want a white probation holder. So they're rude to me, right? You know what I'll do? I kill them with kindness.

I'd just be nice to them. I understand your man about court, man. I'm sorry about that, bro. And, like, just be friends with them. I'd have them in my hands within two minutes. That's simple. Other POs, they start screaming out of, get the fuck out of here. Fucking dig your talking to.

Great things come in pairs. Dr. Matthew Nykel brings you breasts by design. Custom natural-looking results from breast augmentation's tailored just for you. This summer, love the way you look in a bikini. Ready for your glow up? Schedule your consultation today. And don't just take our word for it. Check out the transformations on Instagram at SoCal Plastic Surgeon or visit SoCal Plastic Surgeons.com. Confidence looks good on you. And it was a big issue. You know what I mean? So I just treated people respect. Yeah. What do you say to those individuals that have kind of like a bad taste in their mouth about law

enforcement that come and are now sitting in front of a probation officer and kind of giving them you know doubt right off the bat and not a fair chance i would i would like i said i would just kill them with kindness i wouldn't i wouldn't get all upset because i understand i understand it can happen to me i could have been on probation you know i mean so i just treat them with respect right away and um just let them let them get it out and uh just tell them that you know i'm not trying to i'm not i'm a fair probation officer you know i'm not trying to hurt you and i'll just be straight out with them. And eventually, literally, within two, three minutes, I'd have them

in my hand. What advice would you give to an individual that's on probation, but has a officer that's out to get them or is not treating them fairly? What can they do in that situation? You got to call a supervisor, but that shit don't always work, too. That can hurt you. Because if the supervisor is going to tell them

that you've had a complaint against you by so-and- It's tough, dude. You can request a new P.O. That doesn't always work, though. Okay. It all depends on the supervisor, too. Some supervisors don't give a shit about nothing. They don't even do their job. But, yeah, you can request a new PO. You can talk to the supervisor.

And if the supervisor does their job, maybe they can talk to the PO. But the PO find ways to jerk you off. You know that me? Yeah. Now, you were telling me that you joined the Navy? Air Force. Halfway through your career? I was 32 when I saw my contract. Okay.

So I was a boot game at 33. So they let you take time off from the probation office? Yeah, they have to. They have to pay you for a year. year, I think. So I was in boot camp for eight and a half weeks, and then I was in training for my job for six months, and they had to pay me the whole time. And I came back. Then I got deployed. I got deployed from 2015 to 2016. I was a lot. I was in Qatar, Kuwait, and Jordan. Oh, wow. Yeah, it was beautiful. Yeah, it was beautiful. And what was your actual position? What were you doing?

I was an electrician. Okay. Yeah. So do you do electrical work now? Nah, I just, I'm a retired vet, disabled vet, 100% disabled vet, and I have real estate. You got her overseas? PTSD. I was diagnosed 100% disabled, all PTSD. From your time overseas? Yeah. Wow.

Yeah. So I'm retired. So once I got fired, six months later, I got my 100%. That was, how long does it take you to get actually designated as disabled? It depends on your case. For me, it took about two years. So initially I applied. I got 50% and then I appealed it.

And then I appealed it again and hired a lawyer and they got 100%. And they give you full benefits. Full benefits for life. Wow. It's amazing. And a monthly salary, all of that. Yeah. Yeah.

Tax free. That's why I moved across the bridge from Philly. I live in Jersey. It's no tax. I don't have to pay any taxes. Property taxes. There's no property taxes in Jersey? None or is.

But if you're 100% disabled weight, you don't have to pay them. Just in Jersey? Not anywhere In the country You were saying you moved I moved from Philly Because the taxes in Jersey Are high

I won't be able to live there If I had to pay the taxes I got out of Dodge Wow so you don't pay any property tax My property tax would be $8,000 a year I don't know how it is up here And do you own a house or? Yeah I own my house

And I got real estate in Philly Okay So I'm a landlord too Wow Yeah And then how do you stumble across this show all I watched is YouTube Ever since 2021

When all the freaking political shit going on I stopped watching TV So all I watch is YouTube Your show just popped up I think no I think I've seen you on the Connect Ah and Johnny Mitchells Yeah

Yeah yeah yeah Yeah Then I still watch your show Yeah yeah yeah Oh so a few months ago When I did Johnny show Is that when you did it How long ago was it?

November it came out Yeah About then Yeah Do you watch any other prison YouTubers Um Who else is there? What's the name?

JD, maybe. Nah, I don't know that one. He's the shirtless guy. All the tattoos. He was on my show last year. I think I've seen that, dude. He's a shirtless dude. He doesn't wear a shirt in all of his stuff.

I'm trying to think of a dude that's, he don't show his face either. Black dude, just got out of jail. He used to wear the butt. Hirk, big Herc. Oh, I've never heard of a name. I don't know. I don't know what I'm talking about.

I forget the name of his show. Do you think that law enforcement, probation officers, anyone could learn from watching channels like Learn on what way Learn about who inmates actually are As a person They know They just don't care

They don't care So it's about not caring They don't care They don't care Prison guards are terrible too You've seen it But you got some cool prison guards too It's like anything else

Yeah It's the same thing with the probation gig You got some prison guards You know what it is dude You know what it is for me I know why I'll tell you why I was a good PO And I can get along with anybody

Any color, any race, any religion I went to public school in Philly for first to 12th grade. I'm talking about my middle school was the breeding ground for state prison, bro. I'm not kidding. It was rough. And I just learned how to get along with everybody and just be, I was friends with everybody. You know what I mean? So if you're not worldly and you want to grow up, I'm not saying like you want to

private school, you can't be a good PO. But like you don't understand certain people. You know what I mean? You don't understand certain cultures. You can't talk to certain people a certain way. You know what I mean? Just the way it is. You're going to have to fight them.

So I learned to be I think I became a good P.O. Just because I'm with the public school do. It was rough. It was rough, bro. Real rough. Do you ever miss it being a probation officer? Nah.

I miss the people. Like I said, I missed some of the probationers. First of all, they were funny a lot of them. And I miss some of the people I work with. But then again, like, I got fired. Some of the dudes I thought, both women and men, I thought were my boys, like, For my friends, I didn't even reached out.

I mean, kind of messed up. I talked to some people still. And what do they think about you getting fired? They think it was bullshit, too. Literally, I'm telling you, it was really, I think it was, it was racist. I mean, it sounds like you might have just been a little too easy go in there, and you didn't fit the mold, and they had to get rid of it. Nah, I don't think that's what it was.

I don't think that's what it was. Because that does happen, and, you know, if you don't fit the mold in some of these places? No, it does, but I don't think, I don't think anything to do with that. I just think I wasn't the right color at the time. I really do. Because there's people that had to be way worse shit that kept their jobs. People got to rest it, kept their jobs. I didn't do anything wrong.

I broke policy. I didn't break, I didn't do anything, anything demonic. I mean? Besides be a good PO. Yeah, I thought I was a really good PO. I'll stand on that. That's awesome. Well, Chris, thank you so much, man, for coming on locked in today.

I appreciate it. I have fun. You got some great stories, great energy, and I wish you were my PO back on day. You know, sometimes though, real quick, sometimes I'm like, man, I'm probably not a good PO for this person, man. I'd probably be a little more strict, I mean, let them run loose. Yeah, see, maybe that's why they wanted to get rid of it. Who knows.

That's awesome. All right, buddy. I appreciate it. Thanks.