Blue Warrants: How to Protect Your Freedom

Parole is a privilege that is granted to select felons who meet certain criteria behind bars. Because it is a privilege, it can be revoked at any time with due cause.

However, before your parole can be revoked, the state needs to follow certain guidelines first. You can protect your legal best interests as a parolee by understanding what a blue warrant is and what the process of parole revocation entails.

What is a Blue Warrant?

Blue warrant is a legal term that is used to describe the warrant given to parolees to notify them of their parole revocation. It essentially strips parolees of their privileges and leads them to being re-arrested and sent back to jail.

In most cases, a blue warrant is issued to parolees who violate one or more of the terms stipulated for their early release from prison. However, in some cases, it is issued to felons who never were eligible for parole in the first place but released back into society. 

When a blue warrant is issued to an eligible parolee, however, it usually comes after this person has violated one or any of the terms associated with his or her parole. The terms of parole for most offenders in any state are generally universal and apply to all parolees. However, in some instances, additional terms of parole can be unique to the parolee and his or her particular situation.

Regardless, if you are issued a blue warrant, it is imperative for you to learn immediately for what reason you were given it. It is also vital that you understand the upcoming legal process involving your warrant and what your rights are as a recipient. 

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Reasons for Blue Warrants

If you are out on parole and have a blue warrant served on you, you have the right to find out for what reason it was issued. A blue warrant can be issued to a parolee for a variety of reasons. Some of the most common infractions that can lead to a blue warrant being served on a parolee include:

• Committing another crime
• Using illegal drugs
• Carrying a firearm
• Not attending meetings with your parole officer
• Failing to submit to a drug test or home inspection with your parole officer
• Leaving the state without the parole officer’s permission
• Failing to find or keep a job
• Failing to pursue and get a GED

If you violate any of these or other terms that you agreed to upon being released on parole, your parole officer will notify the state parole board and request that a blue warrant be issued for you. Once it is served on you, you will be placed back under arrest and taken back to jail. You may no longer be able to return home to your family or life out in society until the parole board decides your fate in your parole revocation hearing.

What Does the Parole Revocation Process Involve?

After you are arrested on a blue warrant, you will be taken back to jail to await your hearing. You will not be given the opportunity to bail or bond out of jail. You will have to wait behind bars until your parole revocation hearing takes place.

However, your parole revocation hearing must take place in a reasonable amount of time after you are arrested on a blue warrant. You also have the right to retain your own lawyer, although you may not be entitled to the services of a public defender.

Still, you have the constitutional right to face off against your accusers in this hearing and find out what evidence that they have against you. You also have the right to waive your parole revocation hearing.

However, if you waive this right, you lose the opportunity to defend yourself before the parole board, question those who accused you of violating the terms of your parole and tell the parole board why you should have your parole reinstated. You relegate yourself to serving the rest of your original sentence, along with any new sentence that you might receive for committing a new crime, behind bars.

You also have the right to represent yourself in your parole revocation hearing if you decide to go through with it. However, it may not be advisable to represent yourself if you want the best outcome for it. You may have no idea of what rights that you are entitled to during the hearing, what laws that you must obey and how to get the parole board to find in your favor.

With that, you may find it best to put an experienced parole revocation attorney on retainer. Your attorney knows what processes to follow before and during the hearing. He or she can protect your best interests and work to prevent you going back to prison to serve out the rest of your sentence.

Contact parole lawyer Greg Tsioros today»

Why Hire a Parole Revocation Attorney?

Dealing with a blue warrant can be complex and full of emotion. You may be angry and frustrated that you were arrested and sent back to jail. You also may be afraid that the parole board will send you back to prison to serve out the rest of your sentence.

Because of the complexities and emotions involved with a blue warrant, it may be best that you do not represent yourself during the parole revocation hearing but rather entrust your case to an experienced attorney like Greg Tsioros.

Greg Tsioros knows what questions to pose to the people who have accused you of violating the terms of your parole. He also knows what evidence to use in your favor and how to argue before the parole board to convince its members to find in your favor and reinstate your parole.

As your parole revocation attorney, Tsioros can also make sure that your best interests are fully protected during the blue warrant process. You will bee informed of why the warrant was issued, of what new crimes you have been accused and when your parole revocation hearing will be held.

A blue warrant sends you back to jail to face an upcoming legal hearing and the prospect of going back to prison for months or years. However, law enforcement has to follow certain protocols before it can be served on you.

You have rights that include defending yourself in a parole revocation hearing and confronting your accusers. You can make full use of these rights and protect your best interests in the blue warrant process by hiring a knowledgeable parole revocation attorney to represent you.