What should I do if a parole retaking starts under the Interstate Compact?

When parole supervision is transferred, the application includes a waiver of extradition. ICAOS Rule 3.109 requires that waiver, and compact states waive the formal extradition process for supervised people who are fugitives. You generally cannot stop a return the way someone fights a governor’s warrant in an ordinary extradition case. That waiver does not erase the probable cause hearing. Rule 5.108 still gives a supervised person who may face revocation a hearing before a neutral officer, in or reasonably near the place where the alleged violation occurred, unless a rule says the hearing is not required.

This guide is for someone on parole who transferred under the compact and now has a violation report, a warrant, or a demand to return to the sentencing state. Probation uses the same hearing rule. The probation version is What should I do if a probation retaking starts under the Interstate Compact?. If no transfer has been accepted yet, start with How do I transfer probation or parole to another state under the Interstate Compact?.

Good to know: The hearing the rule is talking about is not the parole revocation hearing back in the sending state. It is the earlier step: is there probable cause that you violated a condition that would justify retaking you?

Do not treat the old waiver as a waiver of this hearing

The extradition waiver was signed so that, if you absconded, states would not have to run a full extradition. A retaking for an alleged violation is a different paper. Rule 5.108(c) says a waiver of the probable cause hearing is not accepted unless you admit at least one violation that would lead the receiving state to pursue revocation and that requires retaking. Tell the supervising officer and the hearing officer, clearly, that you do not waive that hearing.

The receiving state is supposed to hold it within 30 calendar days of the sending state’s request, unless a postponement is granted. The rule’s list of rights at the hearing is written notice of the violations, disclosure of non-privileged evidence, a chance to be heard and to present witnesses and documents, and a chance to confront adverse witnesses unless the hearing officer finds a risk of harm. Morrissey v. Brewer and Gagnon v. Scarpelli are the Supreme Court cases ICAOS points to for that process.

Two situations skip the hearing. A judgment of conviction for a new criminal offense is conclusive proof that you may be retaken, under Rule 5.108(d). And an admission that meets Rule 5.108(c) is a waiver. A charge that is still pending is not a conviction. Pending felony or violent charges cut the other way: Rule 5.101-1 says you shall not be retaken until those charges are dismissed, the sentence is satisfied, or you are released to supervision on the new offense, unless both states agree to the retaking.

What the hearing can actually test

The report you want in your hands is the violation report requiring retaking. At the hearing, the question is whether there is probable cause for the violations in that report. People contest three kinds of problems:

• The report is wrong. The date, the test, the check-in, or the description of what you did does not match the record. An alibi or a corrected test belongs here, not in an argument about whether parole is fair.
• The rule that was used does not fit. Ask whether the sending state issued its warrant within 15 business days of receiving the violation report, which is what Rule 5.105 requires. Ask whether the behavior is the kind ICAOS treats as requiring retaking: conduct the receiving state could not address with documented corrective action, and for which that state would pursue revocation. A small technical violation is not automatically enough.
• You are not available to be retaken. Open felony or violent charges in the receiving state are the Rule 5.101-1 point above. Raise them at the start.

Rule 5.111 says that once retaking procedures have started, you shall not be admitted to bail or other release conditions in any state. If you are held only on the compact warrant, the probable cause hearing is the immediate challenge to that hold. It is not a bond motion.

If probable cause is not found, the rule says supervision continues, and a warrant that exists only for the retaking is supposed to be vacated. If you are in custody on the receiving state’s warrant and probable cause is not established, that warrant is vacated and you are released back to supervision within 24 hours of the hearing.

If the facts change after the report

Later messages about the same retaking are supposed to travel as a violation addendum: more detail, the hearing result, a change of location, or a change in whether you are available. If a test is thrown out, a charge is dismissed, or the receiving state decides the violation was handled locally, that is the document the compact office uses to update the report. An addendum can change what the states are looking at. It does not guarantee that a retaking stops.

A lawyer in the receiving state — the state where you are, and where the hearing is — is the person who can appear at that hearing and deal with the compact office there. The sending state is where a revocation hearing would happen if you are returned. Logan Mussman Law PLLC consults on Interstate Compact questions, including parole retakings. Request a free consultation and bring the violation report, the warrant, and the signed transfer application.

How the firm describes this work is on the Interstate Compact page. The rules are on the ICAOS website.

Summary

Signing the transfer waived formal extradition. It did not waive this hearing.

1. Demand the probable cause hearing

• Ask for the hearing in the receiving state before you are sent back.
• Tell your officer, and the hearing officer, that you do not waive it.
• Once retaking procedures have started, the compact warrant is not a bond situation. The hearing is the immediate challenge.

2. What you can challenge

• The violation did not happen, or the report is wrong.
• The sending state missed the 15-business-day window to issue a warrant.
• Pending felony or violent charges in the receiving state. Say so immediately. Retaking waits unless both states agree.
• The states skipped corrective steps and went straight to a retaking.

3. If the facts change, use a violation addendum

• New information, a bad test, or a violation handled locally can go on an addendum from the receiving state’s compact office.
• A lawyer in that state can take it to the compact office. An addendum does not guarantee the retaking stops.