When prosecutors bring charges against an individual, life changes for a family. The charges can bring ancillary consequences that are difficult to anticipate. Friendships end. Reputations get tarnished. Marriages can crumble. Learn how such events have influenced others and create a game plan that will work best for you. Create both an offensive and a defensive strategy in response to the fallout. Our videos and podcasts will give you more insight into productive ways to cope with the challenges that accompany a criminal charge, conviction, and sentence.

Do not be shortsighted. A criminal charge can change a life forever. There is an urgency to prepare for court proceedings, for sentencing, and possibly for prison. At the soonest possible time, like now, you should start thinking about the career you will have when this ends. Think about how a criminal charge will influence your earning capacity going forward. Learn more about how a charge or conviction will influence financial relationships. Learn more about seeds you can begin planting now. Every decision you make will influence your earning power ahead. Invest time to learn so that you can recalibrate and rebuild.

If your lawyer isn’t helping you understand best practices with regard to sentence mitigation, then what responsibility do you have to learn more?

A comprehensive sentence-mitigation strategy will help you build an influential case on why you’re worthy of mercy. Do not be like an ostrich, burying your head in the sand with delusions that your attorney will do everything for you. Think about the proactive steps that you can begin taking today.

Begin by thinking about the judge. What thoughts does your judge have about every defendant that appears for sentencing? In what ways are you going to differentiate yourself from others?

The more introspective you become, the more effective you will be at preparing. Build a powerful case for leniency with your deliberate sentence-mitigation strategy. If you don’t know what works, then invest the time to learn best practices and strategies that other people have used. If you’d like to learn more, get our case study on sentence mitigation strategies.

If you hired your lawyer to help you understand prison, you made a bad hiring decision. Lawyers are analytical thinkers. To practice law, they stay current on statutes, case law, and sentencing proceedings. They do not study prison, they’ve never experienced prison, and they do not have the bandwidth to respond to questions about how to make the most of a prison journey. Enter your email into the form above to get a free copy of Lessons from Prison. You will get an a-to-z guide of everything I experienced. And if you listen to our podcast, you will learn from hundreds of others.