Felony while on probation

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MT

My sister is currently on probation for a felony involving drug charges. Without getting into details, she had a long term Rx pill addiction that she supplied by stealing pills from people who really needed it. She was caught about a year ago, and now has a felony (illegal possession of dangerous narcotic, I believe) and is on probation (first offense, no jail time...nobody in the family had any idea of her addiction). She meets regularly with a probation officer, and she stated that she has regular urinalysis. She has not received drug treatment outside of a week of detox and meetings with a counselor.

About 2 months ago, is was discovered that she had again, been stealing Rx pills, again, from people who needed them, and money, and there is also burglary involved. What she did is horrible. She admitted to us that she was taking the pills. I am assuming that this will be another felony.

First question: why hasn't she been charged yet? I would think that someone on probation for a felony that reoffends would be charged quickly.

Second question: Any idea of what her punishment would be? Is rehab vs. prison going to be an option or is that only for celebrities?

Third question: Would someone in her situation be required to have regular urine tests? I don't know why they couldn't detect her drug use.

Thank you!What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

HRE0927 said:

First question: why hasn't she been charged yet? I would think that someone on probation for a felony that reoffends would be charged quickly.

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They have years to make the charge, and they won't charge her until all the ducks are in a row.

Maybe it is not quite as obvious as you might think.

Second question: Any idea of what her punishment would be? Is rehab vs. prison going to be an option or is that only for celebrities?

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Ultimately that depends on what she is charged with and whether or not the state offers a plea deal. If they keep something like burglary or larceny on the table, rehab ain't gonna be an option. But, maybe they'll drop those in agreement to a plea ... but, since she has not done that well on probation so far, they may not see her as a good candidate.

Third question: Would someone in her situation be required to have regular urine tests? I don't know why they couldn't detect her drug use.

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It depends on what she uses, what they test for, and the nature of the test used and the cutoff levels (for concentration of the substance in the blood).

Thanks for your response.

Re: her not being charged yet....we are having a hard time sorting through her lies, and thought we might be missing something.

As far at the pills she took, they were morphine-type pills, and she was taking a very large quantity of them...not aware of the dosage, but I think it was at least a dozen a day when she could get them. The amount of effort and creativity it took for her to obtain the pills is horrifying. I don't know for sure that she is actually having urine tests...i thought she could be lying to us about that so we would think that she wouldn't be able to take pills.

Let me ask another question....is it likely that she will have to serve time for this...either court-mandated rehab or jail time? (Considering that it is her 2nd similar offense and she violated probation).

HRE0927 said:

Let me ask another question....is it likely that she will have to serve time for this...either court-mandated rehab or jail time? (Considering that it is her 2nd similar offense and she violated probation).

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At least for the probation violation, yes, I'd say it is likely.

Will it happen for sure? Who knows?