Our ordeal with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) began November, 2001, and continued far longer than it should have.

Granted, the law is an intricate tapestry woven in usually hard to understand sentences - the pattern sometimes becoming hard to follow through the many years of amendments. But we assume that those who run TDCJ are kept apprised of the changes, and how they should be applied. That is, after all, what your hard earned tax dollars are paying for. But you know what they say about the word “assume” ...

Through this web site, we will show how TDCJ denied Bobby Rogers the restoration of his parole time, also referred to as "street time," accorded through the benefits of House Bill 1649; and, instead, wrongfully used current laws that could not be legally applied to him due to his conviction date.

These types of situations continue to exist in spite of Texas court rulings to the contrary in other cases. TDCJ follows their own interpretation of the law unless ordered directly by the courts to correct it, and even then it is done only for that specifically named person instead of finding all of those within TDCJ that it would apply to.

To be fair, the blame is not wholly with TDCJ, though the brunt of it is. Other entities such as the Governor's office and State Attorney General's office say that neither has any jurisdiction over parole issues. However, TDCJ's own web site states that The Board of Criminal Justice oversees the functions of prisons and paroles, and its nine member board is appointed by, and answers to, the Governor. The Governor should be interested in ALL aspects concerning this state, and if not, then it's time to elect someone who is. It sounds to me if the buck is passed often enough, they hope one will lose sight of whose hand actually has control of it so you will tire of trying to find it.

Finally, when TDCJ had no other recourse but to return his parole time and release him, he had been kept for a year and a half longer than he should have. No doubt this would have been a less timely effort if we could have afforded the services of an attorney, but alas ... justice in Texas does not come cheaply. So it is our hope that as we relay here on this site what we have gone through it may help others achieve the desired results without the needless hassle we faced.