A Step By Step Guide to Prepare You For Sentencing, Prison and Probation.
What Do I Need To Know About Supervised Release After Federal Prison (Chapter 27)
Supervised Release After Federal Prison Unfortunately, liberty isn’t immediately restored for individuals who complete a federal prison sentence. In most all federal cases, judges impose a term of Supervised Release in addition to confinement and financial sanctions....
What Should I Know The Halfway House and Home Confinement? (Chapter 26)
What Should I Know The Halfway House and Home Confinement? Throughout the pages of Prepare we have covered life before and during federal prison. Now let's talk about life on the other side. For most inmates, the transition to society comes in gradual stages,...
How Do I Avoid Problems and Make Progress in Federal Prison? (Chapter 25)
How Do I Avoid Problems and Make Progress in Federal Prison? Our team strongly recommends people begin preparing for success at the earliest possible time. It’s never too early, and it’s never too late to sow seeds for a better outcome. And there are always steps a...
Prison Life: How do I Stay Connected? (Chapter 24)
Prison Life: How do I Stay Connected? In earlier lessons, we described a criminologist’s theory about adjustments in prison. He theorized that adjustment patterns in prison follow a U-shaped graph. People hold close ties to society when they are coming into the...
What Are Minimum Security Camps-and others prisons-Like?(Chapter 23)
What Are Minimum Security Camps Like? Many movies depict prison life, including one made about my experience that led me to a minimum security camp. They help us get a frame of reference about what to expect inside. In Con Air, Nicholas Cage and John Malkovich...
What Should I Know About the Underground Economy? (Chapter 22)
What Should I Know About the Underground Economy in Federal Prison? Many people go into the prison system with the intention of avoiding all problems and getting out of prison at the soonest possible time. Every day they have the power to make decisions with regard to...
What Should I Know About Food Services and Prison Commissary? (Chapter 21)
What Should I Know About Food Services and Prison Commissary? If you heard someone describing their meal in a restaurant as being “about as good as prison food,” what would you think? Keep that thought in mind so we don’t have to describe it. Instead, we’ll tell you...
What if I Need Medical Treatment in Federal Prison? (Chapter 20)
What if I Need Medical Treatment in Federal Prison? All prisons employ teams of medical staff for people in need of healthcare. They include at least one physician, nurse practitioners or physician assistants, nurses, dentists, hygienists, and technicians. Like...
What Religious Services are Available in Federal Prison? (Chapter 19)
What Religious Services are Available in Federal Prison? Religious services help many people cope with the challenges of confinement. To support religious programs, the Bureau of Prisons employs more than 200 chaplains. Besides the chaplains, approximately 10,000...
What Should I Know about RDAP and Psychology Programs? (Chapter 18)
What Should I Know about RDAP and Psychology Programs? Being separated from family, anxieties about the future, and other complications of prison life can lead to depression, or even more severe mental health problems. For that reason, every federal prison offers a...
What Should I know About Education and Recreation in Federal Prison? (Chapter 17)
What Should I know About Education and Recreation in Federal Prison? Some people want to use their time in federal prison productively. By pursuing education in prison people can develop skills and credentials that translate into success. Those programs may be...
Job Details in Federal Prison (Chapter 16)
Administrators assign prisoners to specific bunks. They also assign people to work on specific prison jobs. With few exceptions—like being in transit, in segregation, in an A&O program, or medically unassigned—all people in federal prison have job assignments,...
How Does Housing Differ by Security Levels in Federal Prison?(Chapter 15)
How Does Housing Differ by Security Levels in Federal Prison? As revealed in earlier modules, my experience of living in prison is limited to the time that I served at the Taft Federal Prison Camp. My friend, partner, and co-author, Michael Santos, however, taught me...
What Should I Know About Disciplinary Infractions In Federal Prison? (Chapter 13)
What Should I Know About Disciplinary Infractions In Federal Prison? The BOP considers all employees correctional officers first. Any staff member, including secretaries, cooks, chaplains, and landscapers have the authority to write disciplinary infractions. In...
What Should I Know About the Administrative Remedy Process? (Chapter 12)
What Should I Know About the Administrative Remedy Process? When going into the federal prison system, it’s prudent to enter with our eyes wide open. We’d like to think that everything will proceed well. In reality, we’re entering a system where things don’t always go...
What Should I Know About Prison Staff Hierarchy? (Chapter 11)
What Should I know About Prison Staff Hierarchy? Navigating the bureaucracy of federal prison requires at least a cursory knowledge of the key players and their roles. This section provides a basic overview to consider for those going inside. Bureaucratic Structure:...
What Should I Know About Prison Transfers? (Chapter 10)
What Should I Know About Prison Transfers? Based upon the number of minimum-security camps in the federal prison system, we estimate that less than 20% of the federal prison population gets the privilege of voluntarily surrendering. Being able to surrender to federal...
What Happens at the Sentencing Hearing and After? (Chapter 9)
What Happens at the Sentencing Hearing and After? In most cases, after a person enters a guilty plea, or after a jury finds a person guilty, the judge sets a sentencing date. Those sentencing dates may be extended if the person is cooperating with authorities....
What Examples Can You Provide About Problems in the PSR? (Chapter 8)
8. What Examples Can You Provide About Problems in the PSR? In the previous chapter we discussed the structure of PSR reports. Probation officers prepare the PSR specifically for the sentencing judge. But the PSR follows the person all the way through the journey. In...
What Should I Know About the Pre-sentence Investigation Report (PSR)? (Chapter 7)
What Should I Know About the Pre-sentence Investigation Report? After a person pleads guilty or is found guilty, the presentence investigation report (PSR) will be the next step. For more details, check out Rule 32 of the U.S. Rules of Criminal Procedure in the...
What is a Sentence-Mitigation Plan? (Chapter 6)
What is a Sentence-Mitigation Plan? When is the right time think about a sentence-mitigation plan? Answering that question reminds me of an old saying about the best time to plant an oak tree. I heard a speaker ask that question to members of his audience....
First Step Act & Post-Conviction Proceedings (Chapter 5)
In the United States, we like to say that a person is presumed innocent until there has been a finding of guilt. Defendants don’t always feel that presumption of guilt. A criminal charge may result in being ostracized by friends, loss of employment, and even loss of...
What are Criminal Justice Proceedings? (Chapter 4)
What are Criminal Justice Proceedings? Hopefully, once you find and hire a criminal defense lawyer, you’ll have a trusted advocate that succeeds in freeing you from challenges with the criminal justice system. When it comes to criminal matters, unfortunately, finding...
How to Find a Criminal Defense Lawyer (Chapter 3)
3: How to find a criminal defense attorney Darren had been in business for more than a decade, and he worked with corporate lawyers extensively. He contacted me when he realized that some of his decisions on the job were about to expose him to problems with regulatory...
What Should I Consider Before I Hire a Criminal Defense Lawyer? (Chapter 2)
2: What Should I consider Before I Hire a Criminal Defense Lawyer? In the first chapter, we emphasized the complexities of the legal system. With myriad codes, decisions, procedures, guidelines, and jurisdictions, hiring a lawyer makes a lot of sense if a person faces...
What Do I Need To Know If I Am Under Investigation? (Chapter 1)
Chapter 1 Prepare: What do I Need to Know if I’ve Become the Target of a White Collar Criminal Investigation? Our answer to the first question is simple: A lot! Many people that face law-enforcement challenges make decisions that exacerbate their problems. They don’t...
Listen Now:
91. What is a Sentence-Mitigation Plan?
90. What Are Post-Conviction Proceedings?
89. What Are Criminal Justice Proceedings?
88. How to find a lawyer
87. What Should I consider before I hire a criminal defense lawyer?
86. What do I need to know if I’ve become the target of a criminal investigation?
