Investigations / Sentencing / Stages of Prison Journey / Early Release
Resources For the Stage You’re In Now:
Click the link below to go directly to the information you need, regarding guidance to consider (click to go to your section):
- During Government Investigations
- Why We’re a Credible Resource for You
- Guidance Before Sentenced
- Before Surrendering to Prison
- Prepare for Early Release
1. Government Investigations
The United States incarcerates more people per capita than any nation on earth. Learn how to avoid going into the system, or to get the best possible outcome, by understanding how the government brings people inside. In many cases, particularly in matters of white-collar crime, a government investigation precedes a criminal prosecution. Government look at people through the following three lenses:
Witness to an Investigation
Subject of an Investigation
Target of an Investigation
If you’re a business owner, or you’re a decision-maker in a business, we encourage you to learn more about steps you can take to avoid government investigations. Our team offers compliance and training programs. With those programs, your business may qualify for a non-prosecution agreement, a deferred-prosecution agreement, or leniency in the event that government investigators target your business or your team.
Contact us today to learn how you can avoid charges for a white-collar crime.
2. Why We’re a Credible Resource for You:
The Department of Justice Endorsed Us
The video below shows what you can learn from a DOJ press release about our company, Earning Freedom. A United States Attorney, a Federal Judge, and a Federal Probation Office hired us to visit Guam for a one-week seminar to train people on best-practices with regard to criminal charges. Since both federal judges and prosecutors from the Department of Justice hire our team for guidance, you should trust that we can help you.
3. Guidance Before Sentencing
The best time to think about preparing for sentencing is before authorities charge a person with a crime. The second best time is today. What steps can you take to change the way people within the system will think about you?
To answer that question, learn as much as possible about how the system operates. To assist you, we’ve got a number of resources that will help you. For example, consider the following podcast episodes:
What if I’m Targeted for an Investigation?
What Should I Know Before I Hire a Lawyer?
How to Find a Lawyer?
What are Criminal Justice Proceedings?
What is a Sentence Mitigation Strategy?
What is a Presentence Investigation Report (PSR)?
What to do with a Problematic PSR?
Influencing Your Sentencing Proceedings
The sooner you start thinking about your sentencing proceedings, the sooner you’ll start a pathway toward restoring your confidence. Regardless of how much or how little you paid your lawyer, you bear a responsibility to document your own journey. To start, think about the stakeholders you’re going to meet going forward:
- Federal judge (likely a former prosecutor)
- Prosecutor (will make you look bad)
- Probation officer (will present the government’s version of you)
- Defense attorney (will argue facts)
The sentencing judge will want to hear from you. Don’t take our word for it. We’ve interviewed more than a dozen sentencing judges. Each of those judges told us the same thing: They want to hear from defendants directly. Two judges have participated in interviews with us. The full videos are available on our YouTube channel. Listen to brief clips from two federal judges:
Three Steps to Influence Sentencing
Sentencing Narratives
Character-Reference Letter Campaigns
Sentence Mitigation Strategies
A person that faces a sentencing hearing may be about to make the biggest sale of his life. That person should operate as if he is the CEO of his life. As such:
- Document the strategy, using the three steps identified above.
- Create the tools, tactics, and resources that will make the best-possible case for leniency.
- Execute that strategy with a level of commitment to show that the person wants to work toward the lowest possible sentence.
- Contemplating later stages in the journey, and sow seeds that will lead to the highest level of liberty, at the soonest possible time.
4. Before Surrendering to Prison
Although facing a sentencing hearing can feel traumatizing, and every person hopes to receive leniency, wise people will go into the system with eyes wide open. What strategies can a person deploy today that will lead to a better outcome?
A person should learn about the options. What would be the best possible outcome from the prison term? If a person doesn’t understand the options, the person may simply wait for calendar pages to turn. Yet waiting or hoping isn’t an effective strategy.
To the extent that a person works to define success, a person can carve out a strategy. Members of our team have worked hard to serve their sentences with their dignity intact. As a result of preparing wisely, they served time effectively, accomplishing many goals, including:
- Earning university degrees
- Becoming published authors
- Building massive support networks
- Building businesses
- Earning incomes
- Getting married
- Getting out of prison early
Of course, there is another alternative. A person can listen to platitudes and cliches and lose hope. Those who want to prepare for success will take a methodical, deliberate approach.
5. Prepare for Early Release
Every person in prison wants to get an early release. Sadly, not every person works hard to prepare for an early release. With the passage of several criminal justice reform laws, opportunities exist for those who are willing to sow the seeds. Two significant reforms include:
Second Chance Act
- The Second-chance Act passed several years ago. For people in prison, it opened opportunities for people to serve up to the final 10 percent of the sentence (up to 12 months) in a Residential Reentry Center (halfway house or home confinement (up to last six months).
First Step Act
- The First Step Act is the most significant prison-reform legislation in longer than 30 years. It benefits every person in federal prison. The law has two significant components that people should understand, including:
- Opportunities for people who qualify to earn credits that they can use to advance prospects for a transfer to home confinement. Some people can earn up to 15 days per month in “earned time” that the First Step Act made possible.
- Opportunities for people to petition the prison warden, or the court for compassionate release. Prior to the First Step Act, only the Bureau of Prisons could pursue an option for compassionate release. This significant legislation (combined with the pandemic) has resulted in thousands of people being transferred from prison to home confinement.
We encourage anyone who anticipates serving a term in federal prison, or people who have loved ones in prison, to learn steps they can take to advocate for themselves. People should work to prepare records that will result in reconsideration. Hint: A person must build a case that is both extraordinary and compelling.