**Attention Ny Members ~ BEFORE YOU ASK, Read!**

[Manzanita]

PTO Rules, Etiquette & Information

It is VERY important that all PTO members Read & Review on occasion the rules listed in this thread. Everyone will be expected to follow them while at PTO.

• Legal Related Posts & Issues:
Prison Talk Online DOES NOT endorse any legal advice given anyplace within the Prison Talk Online community. We highly recommend that members and guests get the advice of an accredited legal expert whenever possible and never rely on just one source.

• Professional Members:
PTO welcomes professional members (i.e. lawyers, paralegals, etc.). Your input could be that of an enormous value to our members. However, any member soliciting business for themselves will be banned. While we appreciate your professional input, we do not condone trolling this site in order to gain clients. Any member approaching other members offering paid services (either by posts in the public forum, by private messages, or by email) will be warned and/or banned


• PTO Community Purpose:
The purpose of the Prison Talk Online community is Prisoner & Family Support, Information and Assistance. While we welcome people with other view points seeking to learn more, anything beyond friendly questions will NOT be tolerated. PTO is not a forum open to debating whether or not anyone should be in prison, should prisoners and their families have rights, etc. Anyone who is hostile to our purpose will be immediately blocked from the community and all of their posts will be deleted. This will be the ONLY WARNING and no notice will be given.

• “Freedom of Speech”:
While we believe very much in the freedom of speech & expression, you DO NOT have an absolute right to say whatever you want in this community. Anything that goes against our core beliefs and the purpose for which this community was designed may not be allowed. Posts and comments that are meant to incite conflicts between members or outside parties are strictly prohibited. PTO Administration has the absolute right to edit, modify, close or delete any content found in this community. While this rarely, if ever happens, we will not tolerate individuals or groups creating problems with the overall membership.

• Advertising & Promoting:
PTO has a NO advertising policy with the exception of our community sponsors. This includes discussion forums, message boards, chat sites, commercial businesses & services, personal websites, etc. (You may however post a direct link to an outside site given that the information is RELEVANT to a question someone else has requested, or you believe it will be helpful to others.) This also includes links in signatures which cause commercial popup windows to pop up in threads (sometimes found imbedded in some counters, including ones from sitegadgets.com). Sneaky advertising will not be tolerated. If you have a business or service that you think will benefit the members of PTO, please e-mail advertising@ prisontalk dot com (in proper e-mail format) and a member of PTO Administration will contact you. For those of you who would like to post your site (commercial or not), we have a “Resource” (links) section located on all PTO top menus, where you are free to post most any prison related web link along with a full description. It can also be found at: www.PrisonLinks.com

If you violate this policy you will be warned once and the posts will be deleted. Further abuse of this policy will most likely lead to you being permanently banned from the community.

• Soliciting Financial Assistance:
Soliciting financial assistance in the forums, chat or via PM is strictly prohibited. As much as we would like to assist in helping those who are in grave need of it, there is no way to easily and effectively determine the accuracy of someone’s financial situation. Countless people have been scammed on the internet and message boards, perpetrated by people who come into a community with nefarious motives and preying upon others who are kind and want to help people in need. Any posts of this nature will be either edited or deleted and the member contacted. Repeated abuse of this rule may lead to loss of posting privileges.

• Directing Contact Outside of the PTO Community:
Directing members to contact you for more information at your Website, via Email or PM is not allowed, unless the information is sensitive or of a personal nature. One of the purposes of PTO is to provide our members with information on a variety of topics relating to Prison, Prisoner Support, etc. Promoting discussion outside of the forums will prevent this information from helping others in the future.

• Inviting outside Contact:
“Inviting” is termed as a post where you invite other members to contact you to find out more information, rather than post it in the forum. This is not allowed and any posts with emails or invitations to contact for more information will either be edited or deleted entirely. Repeated abuse of this may result in loss of posting privileges.

• Posting Links / URL’s / Email Addresses:
While we prefer that all content be posted in the forums themselves (unless it is a copyright violation to do so) so our members will always be able to access it, we realize that some information must remain on remote sites as it may be too extensive to re-post. Posting links/URL’s in the PTO forums is allowed as long as they substantiate a post, or are summarized. Please don’t post links with a comment such as, “Check out this link”. Let members know what the link is about, rather than surprising them with it. We also do not permit the posting of personal email addresses in public forums due to privacy issues. If you want someone to contact you privately, please post a note at the end of your post to be contacted via PM as long as it is a personal issue. The posting of your personal email address in ANY public forum invites SPAM from people creating mass email listings. Believe it or not, there are people who get paid to spend all day searching newsgroups, message boards, discussion forums, and chats just to collect email addresses that are posted.

The Rest of PTO Policies, Rules & Information - All Members MUST Read & Follow these!
http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/sho...threadid=23755

[Manzanita]

Attention all members:

*When answering members please quote who you are talking to...

*Try to explain things in a way so that those of us who are not LAW savy can understand in plain english what you mean. What you think is plain and simple is Greek to most of us

*Do not post that you know something as FACT or LAW when it is not...and if you do not have a SOURCE to show PROOF of your facts.

*If you are not sure about a law or rule, do not post to a member a guess, because it is confusing and later on a new member will come here and be lost!

*No one here is your lawyer, you need to talk to your lawyer or your loved ones lawyer before you start asking us to answer questions about his/her case, PLEASE!

[Manzanita]

How much time do Offenders REALLY serve?
Offenders with FLAT bids must serve at least 85% of the total BID which is 6/7 of the time (for example: 3 years...will serve at about 30 months) Keep in mind, if they have a flat bid, they will not be paroled, but they can be discharged by Conditional Release

Offenders without a FLAT bid (for example: 12.5-25 years) must serve at least 66% of the total BID which isr 2/3 of the time (in this example, 66% x 25 = 16.5 years) Unless the Offender is Paroled sooner.

In NYS Offenders with a VO have a hard time getting paroled.

Conditional Release Date (CR DATE)`
What is it how does it work?
http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=175173

What is the Time Allowance Commitee?
http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=155502

Sentencing Chart for Determinate Sentences
http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=179820

This is from Basic Rules Thread!
http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/sho...19#post1671619