My husband is currently at DVI/Reception. My husband has been there for 45 days now. He has yet to hear about visitation approval, from counselor and we both can't wait until he is transferred. How long ago was your loved one in DVI, how long did it take before you were able to visit, before he seen a counselor, and before he was transferred and where was he transferred? Did you have problems sending him/her mail or packages?

My husband is currently at DVI/Reception. My husband has been there for 45 days now. He has yet to hear about visitation approval, from counselor and we both can't wait until he is transferred. How long ago was your loved one in DVI, how long did it take before you were able to visit, before he seen a counselor, and before he was transferred and where was he transferred? Did you have problems sending him/her mail or packages?
My son was sent to DVI February 8th, and was mainlined to DVI around the middle of March, I think it was the 20th. He didn't even know who his counselor was when he was mainlined and then got a different counselor in a couple more weeks. He was in the gym at DVI at first, then he was transferred to the "ranch".

I haven't had many problems getting his mail, but some of it just disappears. He's gotten books, cds, stationery packages and letters I've written. He's had a quarterly package 3 times now already. I ordered the first one the day I found out he had been mailined! I've written him 3 letters in the last couple of weeks that he hasn't gotten yet and he says he's sent me letters I haven't gotten so it seems like they may be behind again with the mail. It was getting to be pretty quick, within a week both ways. And I'm in New York so that's really fast.

He had a problem getting the visitation forms at first, then no one told him to sign it before he sent it to me. The 2nd one got lost. I called the visitation office (over and over until I got through) and they told me to mail a copy of the form and they would get it processed. Lucky for me, I had kept a copy so that was no problem and they did get my approval. I went to visit in June and it was so good to be able to see and even hug him. When I called the visitation office I was ready to buy my plane ticket so they were very helpful but I had already been waiting for approval for over 2 months by then. My son has had no visitors since he's been there except when I was able to fly out to California in June.

I think he finally saw his counselor after he was mainlined, he didn't even know his counselor's name. I think they had some sort of committee meeting but I'm not really too sure of all the details.

I don't know all that much, but feel free to ask and I'll help if I can.

That's correct. He will see either the Committee (prison staff who form a committee to handle various issues) or a counselor. It will be determined what Level he is. There are 4 security levels 1,2,3,4. Level 1 being minimum security and often these men are sent to camps. Level 4 being maximum security.

The Ranch at DVI is their dairy if I'm not mistaken. It was there back in the early 90's when my husband was mainlined at DVI. It used to be a regular programming prison - though a very small one. Now it's mostly reception, but does have some mainline.

It's always good to have your guy send a few SIGNED visiting questionaires (CDC 106) so that if one is 'lost' you have more handy. Just don't have him date them all - you can date them if you need to send in again for some reason. :thumbsup:

My husband and I just had a baby, he was there for her birth but was taken into custody when she was 2 weeks old. We are both waiting anxiously on the counselor because we are both praying he gets fire camp. He was sentenced to 4 years with 240 days credit. I also found an error on his transcripts that we are hoping will come out in his favor, it's a 2 month miscalculation. But staying with the 4 years, it comes out to be 20 months....19 months if the ruling is in his favor. So with Fire camp.....we aren't sure how long he will serve...it's hard when we can't see each other or talk on the phone..

hello, my son was at DVI and it took about a month before i got my first letter from him. It took 3 months before he was transferred out of that hell hole. I wish you all the best!
Sincerely;
nitamac

i think it's going to be awhile for my hubby too, his birthday was on the 30th, and my last letter from him said he hasn't received any mail from me, i send him at least a letter a day, and i've sent pictures of our newborn too, he hasn't gotten anthing since his birthday. i didn't really know anything about prison, this is all new to me, i looked on other websites, and rehabilitation is supposed to be about families too, but lack of communication is really the number 1 thing that destroys families. i guess i'm bitter.....i really miss him

Well......... let me tell ya. I was one of the unlucky ones. My husband was at DVI from December until August!!!! Mail was about a month behind when he first got there, but by the time he left it was only days.

I was getting ready to have a baby in January, so he requested to talk to his counselor. By the time my son was born, me and the counselor had a great relationship. As did, my husband and him.

You cannot send your loved one packages while in reception.

Just keep sending the letters because they will catch up :)

Wish you luck!!

Can I call his counselor, even though he hasn't seen one? Does it help anything calling his counselor? What can the counselor do at reception? I feel for you, that must have been agonizing. Our daugher was two weeks old when he was taken into custody, I'm grateful he was able to be there. What was the hold up in transferring him?

That's right, just keep sending those letters. And don't forget that postcards will usually get to him a lot quicker so send those too. You can print pictures of your baby on the postcards and he'll love seeing those. You can also order postcards and stamps with your own pictures on them from zazzle.com but that will take a little longer. I just ordered some stamps for my son with his two daughters on them but haven't heard from him that he's gotten them yet.

You can also send him pictures while he's in reception. I always put my son's cdc # and housing on the back of the pictures I send so they don't get lost. I put those numbers on anything I send that might be lost, especially pictures and stamps, just write lightly on the back of the page of stamps or the pictures. That way if something falls out of the envelope when they open it up in the mailroom they will know who it belongs to and chances of having it lost are minimized.

I would advise taking lots of pictures of your baby and maybe keeping a diary so you can share it all with him when he comes home. It's got to be so hard to do this alone for both you and your husband.

Don't forget to come here to PTO when you are feeling discouraged and alone, someone is always here to help.

My loved on was incarcerated at DVI from December until April of 2004. Back than it was taking the mail up to 2 weeks to reach him due to the mailroom being short staffed.