“Tell me what you can do for me, to get me out asap, and I will hire you. Give me your best pitch, what you got,” he said.
Rather than utter the buzzwords he was looking to hear, I told him:
“We can’t change the past or guarantee a specific outcome, but we know the value of self-advocacy and preparation. To succeed, you will have to work hard, document your journey through your release plan, build a network, not waste a moment in prison, and somehow, someway work around the clock to ensure your 60-month sentence does not become a life sentence. Some people may sell you shortcuts, an elixir you can take to make this all better and lead to your early release. We do not sell potions or elixirs. We can, however, help you architect a plan. The earlier you architect that plan the easier your adjustment will be in prison. The self-advocacy steps you learn from our team and put into action may position you for higher levels of liberty in federal prison and on supervised release.”
“I was not expecting that,” he said.
Our team knows facing a prison term can feel overwhelming. People have questions but do not where to start.
As Stephen Covey advised, people should begin with the end in mind. When defining success, we can be intentional about mitigation strategies that will lead to the desired outcomes.
I encouraged this soon-to-be prisoner to invest the time to listen to interviews we filmed with subject-matter experts, including Hugh Hurwitz, former Director of the Bureau of Prisons and Chris Maloney, former Chief of Federal Probation.
