I am seeking help on behalf of the biological father of our adopted child. The mother (same father) has two previous children. The parents committed a crime together and to protect the mother the father accepted most of the blame and got a multi-year sentence he is still serving (all of this is in Virginia). The mother got not much more than a slap on the wrist, 30 or 60 days if my memory serves. The mother, for reasons that escape me, has decided she wants nothing to do with the father and has actively worked to avoid any contact and has gone out of her way to keep the children from having any contact. Beyond denying him any visitation with the children, she doesn't send pictures, allow phone calls, letters, etc. Besides the minimal contact he gets through our contact (the mother, btw, is my wife's niece, so we see the mother every few weeks at family get-togethers, though the mother moves often, changes her phone, and is reluctant (at least in our case) to be free with the new contact information), he gets nearly nothing. I believe he is due for release in the next 1-2 years. Today he called to ask me to ask the mother to get his parental rights revoked. His nature is immediate and strong willed and he is anticipating that he will be frustrated in his efforts to contact his children when he gets out and I think rather honorably is trying to head off any explosive situations before he gets out. I have suggested that he can have visitation enforced by the courts if the mother is reluctant (as expected) to allow him free contact with his children, but he feels that the courts will always take her side and he will not get any sympathy. He seems quite depressed about the whole thing and while a part of me sees this as the easy way out of a potentially very dangerous situation, I also feel he has been poorly treated by the mother and he should be able to actively participate in his children's growth and education.
What I am hoping I can get from this forum is some contacts for some legal advice for the father on how he can maintain and strengthen his parental rights and compel the mother to provide the contact he so sorely misses. Ideally this would be free advice that can interact with him directly and leave me out as a middleman and that could continue to assist him once he is out of jail. The mother is also a strong willed individual and has latched onto some family member's advice that is ill considered and ignorant of the law and she does not respond to our advice nor the advice of her grand parents (her parents, sadly, do not feel any need to support the father). The father indicates to me that he has no Internet access and apparently (or at least feels) he has no legal resources.
Any advice is welcome!
What I am hoping I can get from this forum is some contacts for some legal advice for the father on how he can maintain and strengthen his parental rights and compel the mother to provide the contact he so sorely misses. Ideally this would be free advice that can interact with him directly and leave me out as a middleman and that could continue to assist him once he is out of jail. The mother is also a strong willed individual and has latched onto some family member's advice that is ill considered and ignorant of the law and she does not respond to our advice nor the advice of her grand parents (her parents, sadly, do not feel any need to support the father). The father indicates to me that he has no Internet access and apparently (or at least feels) he has no legal resources.
Any advice is welcome!
