Before watching the documentary, Life on Parole, I wasn’t aware that parole could be revoked for relatively minor offenses or for arguably not important offenses. I believed that it would take more major offenses to have parole revoked. However, the documentary showcased that there is a broad spectrum of offenses that can get a parolee sent back to prison t the discretion of their parole officer. As stated by one of the parolees, “Some people think being on parole is you’re free. You’re not.” While parole is viewed as having more freedoms than while in prison, the documentary highlighted how many more restrictions are present while on parole. Much of the parolees' live are supervised and scrutinized. For example, one of the parolees in the documentary, Erroll Bradley lives with his …show more content…
Rob Sullivan was placed on parole for seven months. During his parole, Sullivan was placed in a halfway house which took most of his income out of his hands. Rob Sullivan was also not allowed to see his daughter while in the halfway house. This left Sullivan in a poor situation, as it left him unable to provide for his daughter. Exasperated by these terms within his parole, Rob Sullivan decided that being put back in prison was more tolerable than being on parole. As a result, he fled the halfway house to get dinner and a birthday present for his daughter. Sullivan was then released from jail in a shorter amount of time than he would have been on parole. This is interesting as visiting and providing for his daughter are seemingly reasonable requests. I understand that the halfway house had policies, but if they had worked with Sullivan to put measures in place where he could achieve his goals such as setting aside a larger allowance or implementing visitation with his daughter, he may have been more successful in transitioning into a more independent