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Image of a law book and the caption "What Does Absconded Mean."

Question: What does absconding mean? Here is the short answer but if you want to know more, like what happens to you when you abscond continue reading on.

Short Answer: Absconding from parole or probation means that you have failed to check in and uphold the to the terms of your probation/parole agreement. Think of absconding as running away from home and not telling anybody where you went, only instead of home, it’s your probation or parole officer, and instead of your parents worrying about you, it’s the department of corrections and law enforcement who are concerned and looking for you.

If you have absconded while on parole or probation there will be a warrant issued for your arrest within days of you not reporting in. Keep in mind that arrest warrants do not expire or go away!

Continue reading for more in depth information about absconding while on parole or probation.

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Absconding while on parole or probation

It can be hard for felons to find employment after a long stint of incarceration. Maybe they have few marketable skills; maybe they have been out of the workforce for so long that they’ve forgotten the skills they once had. Sometimes a felon’s prior conviction is so severe it just limits their options for employment and housing. Often these are reasons that felons or ex-offenders will abscond from parole or probation. 

Securing employment is the best way to begin reintegration back into normal civilian life, yet, understandably, many felons end up taking a job they have little true interest in. They accept a job knowing it’ll be temporary, or that they are only going to work there until they find something better. This is very common. But one thing we need to warn about is absconding while on parole and probation.

Felony Expungement – In a number of states it is possible to have your felony conviction either expunged or sealed. Imagine having your record swiped clean! Learn more here.

Consequences of Absconding While on Parole or Probation

Parole, we probably all know, is a phase in which a felon is out of prison but still must follow certain rules in order to stay out of prison. These rules go above and beyond merely following ordinary laws. Parole is considered a part of the convict’s actual sentence, but it is served outside of prison, and under the supervision and guidance of an assigned parole officer. Parole is not a guarantee, and not all felons are granted the chance of parole. So it is important to appreciate the opportunity and not jeopardize it.

Like parole, probation is also a supervised part of a felon’s sentence, served outside of prison. Terms of probation included meeting their probation officer, doing local community service, and avoiding any criminal elements.

Absconding from parole or probation is a serious violation of the felon’s conditional terms of release from prison. It could, in other words, land them back in jail if they’ve left the jurisdiction they were ordered to remain in, and if they are unable to be located. In fact, even taking a job outside the assigned jurisdiction may technically be considered absconding and the individual can be apprehended over this.

In a nutshell, absconding has serious long-term consequences for the felon, especially if that worker is on parole or probation.

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When a felon absconds, he or she leaves a very poor impression upon the court/judge, it’s going to impact the felons ability to stay out of prison.

What can you say to the judge after absconding? Nothing, you have proven that you can not handle freedom in the judges eyes. What will happen when you end up back in court? As you can imagine, it won’t be good. In fact, jurisdictions/judges/parole boards are going to really think twice about ever considering you eligible for probation or parole again after absconding…especially a convicted felon with multiple charges. It’s like offering someone a job when they’ve already got two strikes against them!

From a legal standpoint, an absconding felon’s violation will stay on their record, potentially causing the parole or probation to be revoked. In other words, they may be called to return to prison and finish their ENTIRE sentence when caught, unless they get off with a warning at their violation hearing which is possible but often unlikely.

What to do if you have already absconded parole or probation

This not legal advice!

If you are only a few hours/days or a week late reporting to your parole/probation officer call them ASAP. You have a decent chance of not going back to prison. Maybe you will have to go to a hearing but you will be much better of than trying to hide with a warrant on you.  Warrants always catch up to you at some point and you know how much it sucks to look over your shoulder every moment of the night and day. Nobody wants to live in fear of a knock on the door.

If it has been a month or more and you have not reported in your chances of having a warrant are 100% . The longer you run the higher chance you have of going back to prison and serving the rest of your sentence out.

Felony Expungement – In a number of states it is possible to have your felony conviction either expunged or sealed. Imagine having your record swiped clean! Learn more here.

How Employers View Absconding

There are always excuses why a person might make the call the abscond from a job. Maybe there’s a serious issue with a coworker or manager, and maybe it seems as if the only way out is to leave immediately. Most of us have heard or been told, when involved in an argument that is escalating quickly, we need to remove ourselves from the situation before that argument turns into something more serious, right? And yes, that’s good advice. We need to walk away from the heat of the moment, before somebody does something stupid. So sometimes we find ourselves in these predicaments at work…

But—absconding means leaving and not coming back. It means the company doesn’t know what happened to you, and they cannot get in touch with you.

No matter how bad a personal animosity with a coworker might be, it’s never a good call to blame the whole organization and it is simply wrong to leave without a formal resignation of some kind.

The fact is, companies frown heavily on absconding. Most employment contracts have some clause buried in the legalese, such as, “In any case, if the employee is found absent from the work for more than 3 days, it would be considered as absconding from the job and the employer will have the right to not issue any termination documents or compensation.” So the company has to keep track of their efforts to reach the missing worker during this phase—calls, emails, any letters sent, or even having someone go to the person’s home to check in on them—in order to formally claim the person has absconded.

If a person breaches their work contract, the company blames the worker. Most companies have a Human Resources person there to assist with internal conflicts. Workers have options to seek help with any frustrations they are going through at work, if that’s the reason they are feeling like walking away.

Thus, companies don’t have a lot of sympathy for anyone who doesn’t go through the proper channels to get an issue straightened out.

Actually companies may even assume that the true reason for the absconding had to do with some criminal activity. Again, for this article, we are discussing felons on parole or probation, and employers will be suspicious of any out of the ordinary behavior. If a worker bails without obvious cause, it could be because they stole something. Maybe they’ve embezzled funds, pilfered stock, stolen sensitive files or information…

Or, they could assume the person has committed some other form of crime, and perhaps is now on the run from the authorities. May’ve whatever felony they committed in the past, they’ve committed again. Maybe if the worker was once a drug addict, they’re back on drugs. Maybe if they were a violent offender, they’ve physically hurt someone and are hiding from police or driving to Mexico in an SUV full of cash. Conspiracies can arise quickly.

Of course it is also possible that a worker got a fantastic opportunity to begin a new job, but it starts as soon as possible. That’s great, but it’s still not a cause to disappear from the old job.

Obviously there’s a major difference between a worker who has an immediate need to leave for a short period of time, and a worker who is quitting but not bothering to tell anyone.

If an employee has had a very serious and legitimate reason for being absent from work for over 3 days, without letting anyone know, then it is possible they can convince the boss they didn’t abscond. But we’re talking about something they can explain rationally to an employer, like a hospital stay or some other emergency where the individual could not even pick up a phone to call work. If something extreme like that occurred and can be proven, then of course it is always possible the employer may take them back onto the workforce if they were terminated during their absence.

But when a worker doesn’t give their reasons for leaving, the company has to guess those reasons. The worker is only hurting themselves, robbing themselves of their chance to make their case, to state their exact reasons for wanting to quit immediately. But leaving, they’ll never have a recourse to fix any perceived injustice. It’s like waiving your own legal rights…why would anybody do that? The worker loses their job and gains nothing for it.

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We hope this article explains the serious consequences of absconding while on parole or probation. Felons often have difficult challenges during their initial return to the civilian world, but it greatly behooves them to hang in there.