Release Plan- Carolynne Parker 69123-510
My name is Carolynne Noffsinger, I am 52 years old, and currently serving a 21 month sentence at FMC Lexington Satellite Camp. I was born in Birmingham, Alabama, but grew up mostly in Virginia, near Washington, DC. I moved to Ohio in the middle of my sophomore summer to Centerville, Ohio due to a death in the family. I spent most of my childhood summers in Ontario, Canada with my grandmother and my cousins. Those summers were the best part of my childhood. I have a brother and a sister, both younger than me, with families of their own. I appreciate any time I get to spend with them. I am not close to my mother; estranged would be a more accurate assessment, and have always felt like the “black sheep” of my family. I was a good student, shy, and a bit of a wallflower growing up, maybe because of my childhood, or maybe because I moved around a lot. I went to 3 different elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and 2 high schools. This prepared me well for serving in the United States Air Force after high school, as I was used to meeting new people and constantly in transition between places. School was my escape from my home life, as was choir and the theater. When I was on stage, I could pretend to be whoever I wanted, and at the time, I wanted to be anyone other than myself.
I served in Operation Desert Storm as a medic in the USAF in the ’90’s. I obtained my EMT and nursing licenses while serving, and after serving active duty for 4 years, transferred to Wright Patt AFB in Ohio to complete my last 2 years in the reserves. During my time in the Air Force, I was raped, sodomized and told during the investigation that if I pursued therapy for the rape, I would be forced to get a medical discharge, and start over the whole process again after treatment. I opted to bury that trauma deep down, as I wasn’t willing to give up everything I worked so hard for because of someone else’s decision to torment me. The thing about trauma, it demands to be felt. And in my 30’s this manifested into a nervous breakdown and PTSD. I underwent EMDR therapy and many years of medication therapy to process my trauma, but it was always cut short due to responsibilities of family, and the stigma of having a mental illness.
I have worked in healthcare my entire professional career- over 30 years. I worked my way up, both with experience and education, and served in various roles, to include operational, clinical, public servant, contract negotiator, practice manager, leadership, consulting, and more. I received my BS in Health Administration and Policy from Creighton University while 6 months pregnant with my 4th child, and a MS in Organizational Leadership from the College of St. Mary. Serving, educating and defending others in population health strategies have been at the center of my passion within healthcare. My primary goals were to ensure doctors could be doctors, easing their burdens of the ever changing world of practice management, while patients received the care they deserved. My final two roles before my incarceration were that of a Director of Managed Care for a multi-state company which owned behavioral health and SUD facilities, and serving in AmeriCorps as a Community Health Worker in several emergency rooms in the Cincinnati area. My day job allowed me to tap into my scientific and contracting part of my brain, and my night time role serving patients in the ER allowed me to provide the human touch most patients need and are missing. I served in my AmeriCorps role right up until the day before I self-surrendered to prison- that’s how much that position meant to me. Within each of my healthcare positions, I had the opportunity to work with amazing teams, and change the lives of countless patients. I have lived a very blessed life, and grateful for all of those experiences.
Personally, I am married to the love of my life and we are blessed to have 7 adult children. I am the most fortunate woman in the world to have such a wonderful husband and children to love. Throughout this ordeal, my family has been incredibly supportive. The hardest thing about being in prison is being apart from them, and not being able to care for them as I once did. I am truly looking forward to going home.
I was indicted in July 2023, for fraud, stemming from a role I had in 2018, as a COO for a large family practice. I had consulted for them for a year prior to being offered the role of COO. I was promised a salary of $125,000 for this role, and shortly after accepting this position, the Office Manager resigned. I was then asked by one of the partners to take over her duties as well as investigate potential fraud in the clinic. I agreed, for an additional $25,000 to my salary, as well as the ability to pay myself for this additional work through my consulting firm. Did I realize this was a conflict of interest? Yes. I even discussed it in a project for my Master’s cohort. Was I in over my head? Also yes. I had never handled the type of convoluted system they had for payroll and 2 S-Corps in addition to their practice. They also had a cashflow issue of physicians not seeing enough patients to cover overhead, delay in bills being paid, overspending in a remodel two years prior, 2 EMR changes, an increase in rent, a decrease in reimbursement from bad billing prior to my arrival, and a $124,000 deficit with the bank upon my initial audit. They also never filed their 1099’s, and I reported this to the IRS. I hired a forensic accountant to help make sense of everything, and it was a convoluted mess. I resigned after a year- due to the senior partner screaming at me about not being able to get profit sharing. They received fines from the IRS after I left, and in retaliation, stated I never had permission to have the increase of pay. They lied under oath at my sentencing, and I am still trying my best to come to terms with this failure in my career. After over 30 years of success in healthcare, one practice changed my trajectory, and I plead No Contest to the charges. I initially plead Not Guilty, but they claimed they no longer had the HR documents, my emails, nor my monthly notes and documents I saved that would have exonerated me. Since leaving that practice, I was humbled, and decided to change course. I felt as though I failed them, so I decided to work in population health roles, developing a telehealth strategy for Cigna during CoVid, helping a few start up companies operationally and then serving the public in a community health role volunteering within AmeriCorps for 3 years. When I was sentenced to prison, I feared my life was over. I felt like a complete failure. I felt as though regardless of all my successes and things I overcame from my childhood and sexual assault trauma, nothing mattered. I now had a new title- felon.
I arrived at FMC Lexington as a self-surrender on December 4, 2024. That was one of the hardest days of my life. Watching my husband sobbing when I walked to R&D will forever be embedded in my brain. Since being here, I have taken 10 FSA courses, over 20 Rec classes, 4 ACE courses, and taught 3 classes myself. I also teach a bible study every Saturday, and counsel other inmates in Re-entry to assess their social determinants of health and help them write resumes and release plans. I teach classes on interviewing skills and authentic recovery from trauma. I have received my ServSafe Management certification, and taken Core Construction and Carpentry. I also have taken equine therapy, courses on creative writing, learning how to play the guitar, real estate, and more. Not a day goes by during the week that I am not in a class. I have written 2 books, which I plan to publish once I am free. I have sung in the church choir, and help my fellow inmates with their remediations. I lived a life of service to others before prison, and continue to do so while here. It’s a calling to serve others, and I am fortunate that the women in this prison trust me enough to allow me to help them. With the support of my family, and the grace of God, I have peace in prison. Not to say I enjoy it here- it’s awful. But I have peace. There’s nothing wrong with the day, it’s how you approach each day that determines how you will live it. I have cried in here. Laughed. Danced. I have been frustrated, and sad, and angry and joyful. I will be leaving prison with more humility and focus.
Due to the new memo that came out on June 18th, 2025, I should be released immediately from prison. However, the leadership team at this facility hasn’t figured out a way to implement it yet, so I and numerous others are still awaiting our release. Once I am released from here, I plan on returning back home with my husband near Cincinnati, Ohio. The two books I have written I will be looking for a way to publish them. I also have a business plan written to run a food truck, and will be networking with Women Helping Women to get this up and going. I plan on getting a job in a restaurant, working my way up until I can have a place of my own. I also want to serve as a community health worker, as I did before, serving my community in some capacity. I made a lot of great connections before prison, and plan on reaching out to them once I leave here. I am a veteran, with full medical benefits, so I will be seeking care once again at the VA. This prison was listed as a FMC, however, this is inaccurate- the men’s is a FMC. This is just a camp. So I have had no treatment for my PTSD, other than medicinally, and need to get control over my panic attacks and night terrors once released. I had a great team at the VA caring for me, and I am looking forward to resuming treatment. I also have a father in law who is struggling with stage 4 cancer, and I plan on resuming care for him and my mother in law, as I did before my incarceration. Family is everything to me, so I look forward to reconnecting with my husband and children. I am grateful for their visits and calls, emails and letters, but to be able to cook for them again, spend time with them again, and make more amazing memories is my top priority.
This experience has taught me a lot about myself and others. I do not take anything in my life for granted, and will look forward to this chapter being closed. I believe there is a purpose God has for all of us in life, and perhaps my path, which includes a prison term helped me to be an even stronger ally and advocate for those I have served in the past. I will continue my advocacy and help serve those in need, and now be even better equipped to help them, as I have lived and survived similar struggles. Life is a roller coaster, and the ride is what makes it worth it- not just the destination.
