Podcasts about prison professors

Michael G. Santos from Prison Professors.com share his story on how he overcame a 45 year prison sentence. Michael's Website https://prisonprofessors.com Follow me on all socials! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mattcoxtruecrime Do you want to be a guest? Send me an email here: insidetruecrime@gmail.com Do you want a custom "con man" painting to shown up at your doorstep every month? Subscribe to my Patreon: https: //www.patreon.com/insidetruecrime Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart Listen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox Check out my true crime books! Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCF Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8 Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438 The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade? (waiting for KDP approval) Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402 Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel! Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here: Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69 Cashapp: $coxcon69 --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mattcox/support

For this week's episode we pull from the vault of Southern Tea podcasts... Lindsie is joined by the founder of Prison Professors, Michael Santos. While serving a 45 year sentence for a white collar crime Michael made a commitment to work towards prison reform and has continued to provide resources to anyone impacted unfairly by the prison system. Michael shares his various experiences throughout the years within the prison system, how prison camps need to be abolished, how he met his business partner Justin Paperny, the touching story of meeting his wife, and the system wide changes that he hopes to make. Check out Michael Santos at PrisonProfessors.com and PrisonProfessorsTalent.com Follow us @TheSouthernTeaPodcast for more! Thank you to our sponsors! Chime: Start your credit journey with Chime at chime.com/southernteaIndeed: Visit Indeed.com/SOUTHERNTEA to start hiring now with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post. Terms and conditions applyIQBar: Text TEA to 64000 for 20% off all IQBar products, plus FREE shipping. By Texting 64000, you agree to receive recurring automated marketing messages from IQBAR. Message and data rates may apply. No purchase required. Terms apply, available at IQBAR.com. Reply "STOP" to stop, "HELP" for help

On today's episode Lindsie is joined by the founder of Prison Professors, Michael Santos. While serving a 45 year sentence for a white collar crime Michael made a commitment to work towards prison reform and has continued to provide resources to anyone impacted unfairly by the prison system. Michael shares his various experiences throughout the years within the prison system, how prison camps need to be abolished, how he met his business partner Justin Paperny, the touching story of meeting his wife, and the system wide changes that he hopes to make. Check out Michael Santos at PrisonProfessors.com and PrisonProfessorsTalent.com Follow us @TheSouthernTeaPodcast for more! Thank you to our sponsors! Hatch: Get $20 off your purchase of a Hatch Restore 2 and free shipping at hatch.co/southerntea Indeed: Visit Indeed.com/SOUTHERNTEA to start hiring now with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post. Terms and conditions apply IQBar: Text TEA to 64000 for 20% off all IQBar products, plus FREE shipping. By Texting 64000, you agree to receive recurring automated marketing messages from IQBAR. Message and data rates may apply. No purchase required. Terms apply, available at IQBAR.com. Reply "STOP" to stop, "HELP" for help Waterboy: Recover properly with @waterboy and get 15% off with promo code SOUTHERNTEA at waterboy.com/southerntea! #waterboypartner

Welcome to The Building Men Podcast, where we explore stories of personal growth, resilience, and redemption. Today, we have a truly remarkable guest with us, Michael Santos. Michael's journey is a testament to the power of determination, self-reflection, and the belief that it's never too late to turn your life around.Regardless of our past, we all face challenges and make decisions that may lead us down difficult paths. Michael knows this all too well. He experienced addiction issues, incarceration, and the consequences of bad decisions. But instead of letting his past define him, he chose to focus on the present and work towards a better, brighter future.Despite serving a daunting 45-year sentence as a drug kingpin, Michael didn't allow himself to be consumed by despair. Instead, he seized the opportunity to transform his life. Even behind bars, he found a way to contribute to the lives of others. Michael's determination and resilience led him to establish Prison Professors, an organization aimed at providing resources and guidance to incarcerated individuals.While in prison, Michael discovered the power of the Socratic way of thinking. This approach, rooted in asking questions and engaging in critical thinking, played a pivotal role in his transformation. By challenging his own beliefs and embracing new perspectives, Michael was able to cultivate personal growth and pave the way for a successful future.Today, Michael Santos stands as a shining example of what can be achieved when we refuse to let our circumstances define us. His story is an inspiration for anyone who has faced adversity and wants to create positive change in their own lives.Join us as Michael shares his incredible journey, highlighting the importance of taking responsibility for our choices, embracing opportunities, and crafting our own success stories. Get ready to be inspired and motivated by the resilience and determination of a man who turned his life around, even when the odds were stacked against him.Prison Professors THE FOUNDATION - Virtual Community for Young MenSubscribe to the Building Men NewsletterBuilding Men InstagramBuilding Men WebsiteBuilding Men FacebookEmpower Your Son - schedule a 15 minute strategy callIf our podcast resonates with you, please consider rating, reviewing and sharing it with anyone who you believe would benefit from the message.Visit our sponsors - Finish The Race – Home of the official Building Men gear

Michael Santos (@MichaelGSantos) survived 26 years as a federal prisoner, hosts the Prison Professors podcast, and is the author of Earning Freedom!: Conquering a 45-Year Prison Term. What We Discuss with Michael Santos: How Michael Santos got sentenced to 45 years in federal prison when he was just 23 years old — not for committing a violent crime, but for establishing himself as a cocaine entrepreneur at the height of the War on Drugs (and committing perjury just made things worse). What this conviction meant to Michael's relationship with his family — and his wife. The three-prong plan Michael applied to the sudden wealth of time he had on his hands to find a way to reduce his sentence and hit the ground running when he finally got out. How the system is designed to trip up attempts inmates make toward self-improvement and rehabilitation. How Michael made his first million behind bars. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/802 This Episode Is Brought To You By Our Fine Sponsors: jordanharbinger.com/deals Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Visit us at Prison Professors to register for our live, interactive webinars and learn more about how justice impacted people can work to get best outcomes.   https://prisonprofessors.com/    

The purpose of incarceration in America is supposed to be a balance between punishment and reform, with the scales tipping toward reforms that can lead to redemption and a second chance after release. But that's not been the experience of many currently and formerly incarcerated people. Incarcerated influencers are sharing a view of prison life through TikTok videos, podcasts, and journalism that shows a more nuanced look at prison life, including the network of support, friendships, and mentors the incarcerated share with one another in the absence of significant reform. The content challenges misperceptions about incarceration that are often depicted in popular culture, and it exposes the lack of formal opportunities available to help the incarcerated prepare for life after release. GUESTS: Emily Bazelon: Staff writer for The New York Times Magazine and the co-host of the Slate Political Gabfest; she recently started The Prison Letters Project Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein: A freelance writer who writes about American life for numerous publications including The New York Times, The New Republic, and The Baffler John J. Lennon: An incarcerated journalist writing from Sullivan Correctional Facility; he is a contributing editor at Esquire magazine and a frequent contributor to The New York Times Justin Paperny: A prison consultant, the co-founder of White Collar Advice and Prison Professors, and the author of Lessons from Prison The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, Cat Pastor, and Lily Tyson contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prison consultants have been receiving dubious attention in the press lately.  The truth is, a qualified prison consultant can be a valuable member of a well-managed defense team.  But, beware of so-called experts who promise you the moon for a fee.  Helping us get set for sentencing is Walt Pavlo, the founder of Prisonology, a collection of exceptionally qualified prison consultants, most of whom are former high-level Bureau of Prisons officials.  IN THIS EPISODE: Deconstructing the New York Times piece about “a new breed of fixers”; Picking the right consultant for the job; The kind of experts connected to “prisonology”; Example of "RDAP Law" who weren't lawyers, gave terrible advice, bilked clients out of millions, and went to prison as a result; What are reasonable fees for Prison consultants; Limitations of prison consultants; The importance of finding a prison expert that can testify or submit sworn declarations to a judge at sentencing; How finding the right expert can save the attorney time and the client money; How the wrong consultant may put work product and attorney-client privilege at risk; How the attorney's failure to properly manage a consultant/expert can lead to disastrous results; How an attorney's failure to properly communicate and connect with a client may drive them into the arms of a charlatan; How to properly vet a potential prison consultant;  LINKS:   NYT Article:  Want to Do Less Time?  A Prison Consultant May Be Able To Help Prisonology Walt Pavlo at Forbes.com Prison consultant, former BOP Warden, Maureen Baird was an early guest on the podcast.  This is a great example of someone who can really help at sentencing.  Listen (or re-listen) to Set for Sentencing, Ep. 3, Telling the Story of Prison at Sentencing!

Watch on YOUTUBE or LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS Helping us get set for sentencing, attorney Alan Ellis.  He's an expert in all things sentencing and post-conviction relief and the author of the wildly popular Federal Prison Guidebook. IN THIS EPISODE:  The importance of knowing your Judge; How to develop mental health mitigation; The need to develop a powerful and credible narrative; The need for qualified sentencing experts; Pros and cons of sentencing letters; Restitution as mitigation; The need to properly prepare a client to allocute; Effective use of sentencing mitigation videos; Showing true character with things your client has done “when no one is keeping score”; The importance of developing early mitigation and getting to decision makers (prosecution and probation) well in advance of sentencing; Effective sentencing memoranda: less is more, and no boilerplate; Putting pictures in pleadings; The truth about Prison Consultants, or so-called "fixers"; Vouching - can you do it? LINKS:  Law Offices of Alan Ellis Federal Prison Guidebook Taking a page from death penalty mitigation: A theme running through this disucssion is the need for EARLY and thorough mitigation development.  This brings us back to our very first episode with death penalty mitigation specialist, and CEO of Advancing Real Change, Inc., Dr. Elizabeth Vartkessian.  You can watch that episode here on YOUTUBE or listen on APPLE PODCASTS. We also sung the praises of perhaps the most qualified "prison consultant" in the profession, former BOP warden, Maureen Baird.  I was also fortunate to have her on the podcast early on, so here's the YOUTUBE and APPLE links for that great episode as well. FREE RESOURCE:  Visit the shownotes to download a copy of the "How To Write a Sentencing Letter" document Alan and I discussed.  Remember, sentencing letters are about QUALITY, not QUANTITY.  They can be useful at sentencing, if done right.  But they are simply one small element of a much bigger mitigation narrative.  Ideally, they are carefully vetted to ensure they support, rather than contradict the theory and themes of your sentencing presentation.  

Learn the art of preparing for release by visiting our website at Prison Professors dot com.

Regardless of what your past looks like – whether you've had some addiction issues, been incarcerated, had a failed marriage, or whatever situation you were in due to a bad decision you've made–there's nothing you can do to change your past. But you can always focus on the present and work towards a better, brighter future. You either create excuses or create opportunities ; it's your choice! In today's conversation, Michael Santos, the founder of Prison Professors, talks about how a drug kingpin serving a 45-year sentence, managed to change the course of his life and to craft his own success story. Even while in prison, Michael created opportunities that would allow him to contribute to the lives of other people. It was also in prison that he learned about the Socratic way of thinking, an approach that helped make his transformation possible. Here are some power takeaways from today's conversation: [01:49] Michael's family background [03:37] How he got into the narcotics game [07:03] Helping your kids define success [09:29] How he started selling cocaine [13:23] How he became a drug kingpin [18:57] The day he got arrested [25:24] Owning the problems you created [27:41] How Socrates changed the way he thought [30:21] How he got through difficult times in prison [36:53] A sense of gratitude instead of regret [43:20] Adjusting to the world outside of prison [50:40] His journey through writing [58:19] How he got started with real estate [61:42] Why he created Prison Professors Notable quotes from the Episode: "None of us can change the past... but we can always work to influence the future." "When you have that mindset of knowing what you want, you can start making decisions accordingly.” “We either create opportunities or create excuses – it's our choice.” “Everybody has the power within to make a better life." “The right decision at the wrong time is the wrong decision.” Connecting with the Guest Website: https://prisonprofessors.com/ Books: https://prisonprofessors.com/books-of-prison-professors/ Connect with our growing community: Apply to GoBundance: https://www.gobundance.com/membership Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gobundance/ Not a millionaire yet but want to be a part of our ecosystem? Check out EMERGE by GoBundance. Enroll Today! https://www.gobundance.com/emerge Interested in starting your own podcast or handing off your production to a qualified team? Email erik@onairbrands.com to learn how we're making the world better, one mic at a time.

For more information on the Arc of Sentence Mitigation, visit our page: https://prisonprofessors.com/mitigation-arc/  

See our presentation deck for our nonprofit: https://prisonprofessors.com/nonprofit-deck/    

According to H.P. Lovecraft, an American writer, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” People going into a government investigation or facing criminal charges know what I'm discussing.   I'm Michael Santos, founder of Prison Professors. We launched our nonprofit to offer resources for justice-impacted people who want to help themselves. Getting help starts with understanding. If people don't understand the process, they lack clarity on different mitigation strategies they may engineer.   https://prisonprofessors.com/app-defendants-presentencing/

Our team at Prison Professors welcomes you to our App.   My name is Michael Santos. As a co-founder of Prison Professors, I feel a connection and a personal responsibility to our subscribers.    Our team at Prison Professors publishes free content to help all justice-impacted people.   We consider the following people to be justice-impacted:   Exposed to government investigations, Charged with a crime, Going through judicial proceedings, Going through probation or prison, Released from prison, Working with people that face criminal charges, People that work in jails, prisons, or probation departments, Interest in how mass incarceration influences our nation.   Those who want more detailed information should visit www.PrisonProfessors.com or connect with a member of our team.   Our App strives to provide information in an easy-to-find format that will help justice-impacted people.   Subscribe to our App for updates we publish. It's free!   Click the following link for free digital books by Prison Professors:   Click here to get free digital / audiobooks by Prison Professors.

Rohit offers Prison Professors basic training to teach people the basics of opening an e-commerce store. Check out the full lesson at our Prison Professors' Website: https://prisonprofessors.com/e-commerce-training/

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An Open Letter from Prison Professors to All Course Participants   Hi, My name is Michael Santos. I'm the founder of Earning Freedom and the Prison Professors nonprofit. If you're working through our course, it's likely that you're going through the criminal justice system at some stage—pretrial, in custody, or on some form of community supervision. Both Bill McGlashan and I can empathize with your plight. For 9,500 days, I lived as federal prisoner number 16377-004. I am intimately familiar with challenges of living in confinement. Despite those challenges, I know the opportunities that open when a person chooses deliberate adjustment strategies. A jail or prison may or may not offer rehabilitative courses. When a person develops a self-directed work ethic, a person can work on personal development regardless of where administrators confine him or her. At Prison Professors, we develop courses that help people that want to help themselves. For that reason, it pleases me to offer our course: Lessons on Leadership: With Bill McGlashan Some may wonder why a person like Bill McGlashan would work with a startup like Prison Professors. Bill is known across the globe as one of the foremost impact investors. Why would such a man volunteer so much of his personal time to help people locked in America's jails and prisons?  To respond to that question, it may help if I offer some context. Participants will learn all about Bill and the way he thinks through the course. Before getting to the course, let me offer the backstory.   Backstory: I made bad decisions as a young man, refusing to heed the advice of teachers or mentors. Excitement of a fast crowd lured me away from productive habits. I began making bad decisions during the recklessness of youth. Those decisions turned worse in 1984, when I was 20. I began participating with a group that sold cocaine. In August of 1987, federal agents arrested me. For the next 30 years, I lived inside prisons of every security level or on some form of community confinement, including:  • High-security US penitentiaries, • Medium-security federal correctional institutions, • Low-security federal correctional institutions, • Minimum-security federal prison camps, • A halfway house, • Home confinement, • Supervised Release. • Special Parole, • Parole As I reveal in Earning Freedom: Conquering a 45-Year Prison Term, leaders taught me many lessons during that lengthy odyssey. With hopes of helping as many people as possible, I accept a responsibility to pass along lessons that transformed my life.  Even though a person may serve a lengthy term, any of us can choose to work toward reconciling with society. While in prison, I learned from many leaders. People like Bill McGlashan taught me to follow the principles of leadership: Define success, as the best possible outcome. Create a plan and prepare to overcome the challenges ahead. Put priorities in place, knowing that incremental progress would lead to new opportunities. Create tools, tactics, and resources that would help me grow, and Execute the plan every day. That disciplined adjustment strategy could help any person that wanted to prepare for a life of meaning, relevance, and dignity. It could help a person restore confidence. Regardless of what bad decisions we made in the past, at any time, regardless of where we are, we can work toward making better decisions.  I aspired to reconcile with society and to prepare in ways that would allow me to emerge successfully. A willingness to learn from leaders opened my eyes to a new philosophy. Rather than complaining about the challenges wrought by my bad decisions, I could work to make amends. Any person could do the same. In Earning Freedom: Conquering a 45-Year Prison Term, I share the entire story. On August 11, 1987, authorities arrested me. After a jury convicted me, a judge sentenced me to serve a 45-year sentence. While locked in jail, a correctional officer passed me a copy of Plato's book, The Republic, which introduced me to philosophy. I learned about Socrates and his remarkable way of looking at the world.  Reading The Republic changed my life. It helped me to realize and accept the colossal mistakes I had made as a young man. I'd been living by a bad philosophy. Rather than working to help my community, I broke the law.  Socrates (and other leaders) taught me to stop feeling sorry for myself. Leaders suggested that we change if we don't like our situation, or if we're facing a challenge. To start, we must change the way we think. From leaders like Socrates (and Bill McGlashan), I learned the power that comes when we think about other people and our community instead of only thinking about the challenges we face. We can recalibrate. We can work to earn freedom.  That change in thinking influenced a deliberate adjustment strategy. While incarcerated, I made a 100% commitment to: Pursue self-directed learning, Contribute to society in meaningful, measurable ways, and Work toward building a strong support network that would include positive role models. That three-pronged strategy made all the difference. When defining success at that stage in my life, I simply wanted to emerge with my dignity intact. I wanted to pursue a path that would open opportunities to live as a law-abiding, contributing citizen. By preparing well, no one would know that I had served a quarter century when I got out. I wanted to emerge unscathed. That strategy led to my earning a bachelor's degree from Mercer University, a master's degree from Hofstra University, getting married in prison, and opening many income opportunities that I could expand upon after release. By the time I walked out of prison, I had sufficient savings in the bank to launch my career. None of that would have been possible had I not opened my mind, and my heart, to learn from leaders.   Any person that served time alongside me could have done the same. At any time, we can choose to learn from leaders like Bill McGlashan. Sadly, the prison culture conditions people to learn from so-called “shot callers” instead. The leaders I studied taught me to think differently from the way I thought before I went to prison. I encourage others to do the same. Those who choose to pursue self-directed adjustments will find opportunities rather than challenges awaiting them upon release—as I experienced. While still in the halfway house, San Francisco State University hired me to teach as an adjunct professor. Simultaneously, I began building businesses. Together with my partners, we persuaded prison administrators, federal judges, probation officers, and even U.S. Attorneys to purchase our products and services. A successful adjustment inside eased my reentry, allowing me to begin building a career upon release. I didn't need a job. Preparations allowed me to create my own income streams. I am convinced that any person in jail or prison can use the time inside to recalibrate and open opportunities. To succeed, however, those people must accept the reality. As administrators used to tell me:  “We don't care anything about your life after your release. We only care about the security of the institution.” In such an environment, we should expect obstacles. Despite obstacles that contribute to intergenerational cycles of recidivism, we must focus on what we can do to prepare for the journey ahead. We must reject the dubious advice we receive: From the system: You've got nothin' comin'. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. From misguided people inside: The best way to serve time is to forget about the world outside, and to focus on your reputation in prison. Mahatma Gandhi taught us that we should strive to live as the change we want to see in the world. I want to live in a world where people can always work to become better and reach their highest potential. I'm grateful to the many leaders who taught me this message. For that reason, I've devoted my professional career to sharing what I've learned from leaders.   It pleases me to share these lessons from Bill McGlashan, a genuine world-class leader. What qualifies Bill as a world-class leader?  A lot! Bill has impeccable academic credentials, with an undergraduate degree from Yale, and a graduate degree in business from Stanford. While I served decades in prison, Bill distinguished himself as a steward of capital for private equity companies, business leader, and impact investor. He launched startups that he later sold to publicly traded corporations. As a CEO, he saved hundreds of jobs by accepting the responsibility of restructuring a publicly traded company that was on the verge of failure. As a director of TPG Capital, he created stellar returns on more than $12 billion worth of funds that investors entrusted to him and his team.  Bill built a reputation as one of the world's most astute impact investors. He brought coalitions of other world-class activists, philanthropists, and leaders together, including: Bono: Singer for U2, but also founder of RED, ONE, and a cultural leader. Jeff Skoll: Founder of eBay, Participant Media, and the Skoll Foundation. Laurene Powell Jobs, philanthropist, and founder of the Emerson Collective. Mo Ibrahim, founder of Celtel and global philanthropist focused on Africa. Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group. Anand Mahindra, Chairman of Mahindra Group from India. I did not meet Bill until the summer of 2021, eight years after I had finished my obligation to the Bureau of Prisons.  Despite having devoted his professional career to creating solutions in response huge global challenges that included solutions for climate change, extreme poverty, access to healthcare and education, Bill made a catastrophic decision as a parent. He agreed to participate in a ruse. A conman convinced him to pay an unscrupulous testing service to assist prospects for his son's admission to a university. His son didn't need the help, and he didn't know that Bill had participated in the artifice. Bill's decision led to a series of catastrophic event, proving the theorem of Scottish author Sir Walter Scott, who wrote: • Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. Authorities arrested Bill, a grand jury indicted him, and he pleaded guilty to a federal crime.  Bill and I spoke for the first time a few days before he would surrender to serve a three-month sentence in federal prison. During our lengthy conversation, I listened to Bill express his remorse and admired his eagerness to make amends. When he told me that he wanted to use his time inside to help as many people as possible, I offered some observations on what he could expect from the experience. People in jail or prison could learn from his lessons on leadership.  Bill's story was the type that inspired me to want to learn more while I served my sentence.  Knowing that others could benefit from his wisdom, I invited him to volunteer his time to create a new course with Prison Professors. Through the course, I suggested, we would help people learn the importance of pursuing self-directed learning projects. Since the prison system may not always have resources to offer educational courses, I explained, we could fill the gap. As evidenced by the video files that accompany this course, and the personal nature of the lessons, Bill volunteered to spend hundreds of hours working alongside me. Together, we developed the course.  This course offers opportunities for self-directed participants to work toward developing their vocabulary, their writing skills, and their critical-thinking skills. Those building blocks can help anyone grow. By developing those skills, I opened countless opportunities as the months turned into years, and the years turned into decades.  Bill's teachings would have inspired me while I served my sentence. They inspire me now. They make me want to learn more. We hope that you will learn from the video files, the audio files and the lessons that make up our course. Although I didn't appreciate the importance of education when I started the journey, this course would have opened my eyes to the liberty that comes with self-directed learning plans. On behalf of our entire team at Prison Professors, Bill and I encourage you to work toward reaching your highest potential.    Sincerely, Michael Santos      

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In this podcast, we discuss earning time off on home confinement and in the halfway house through the First Step Act. To read the entire blog at Prison Professors, click the link below: https://prisonprofessors.com/earning-time-off-on-home-confinement-halfway-house/

In this new podcast, we discuss the importance of keeping earned time credits under the First Step Act. Click the link below to read the blog at Prison Professors. https://prisonprofessors.com/dont-lose-early-release-time-credits/

This podcast helps people understand how to take steps to prepare before they surrender to federal prison. The full blog shows up on our website at Prison Professors.    https://prisonprofessors.com/first-weeks-in-federal-prison-how-to-make-it-through/  

Our team at Prison Professors helps people learn about the journey ahead. the more a person prepares, the better a person can engineer a strategy.  Find the article that accompanies this podcast with the link below: https://prisonprofessors.com/first-weeks-in-federal-prison-how-to-make-it-through/  

Holidays in Prison   If you're facing challenges that could lead to a federal prison term, or if you have a loved one in prison, it's always helpful to know what's going on inside. Our team at Prison Professors strives to provide as much insight as possible, from as many voices as possible. We have a close friend that is serving time in the Sheridan Federal Prison Camp. He sent us this letter with a report of life at Sheridan Federal Prison Camp. We hope it's helpful to you. Visit us at Prison Professors for more insight on federal prison. Happy Thanksgiving!   The last month has been quite a ride. A slow ride, but a ride nonetheless. Trying to get settled in and find my routine. I think I have finally found it and days are starting to go by faster and faster.   I continue to make friends, acquaintances, and learn new names of people on a regular basis. I make a point to introduce myself to people, get their name when possible, and learn their story. The idea of two y ear's - one mouth - allows me the opportunity to educate myself in a unique way, only possible in a place like this!   It's amazing how far a, "How are you doing today," goes. People love to tell you their stories and followed up by just a few questions, they share interesting tales of wild adventures! You would be amazed. I can't really share them on this platform as I am sure you understand, but just know - wow! :) Some tales are how they got here in the first place, and others just about lives before this. If someone wanted to, they could make an entire Netflix series on just a few guys stories here (and likely have).   Rest assured though, my story will not be one of them! The power (gov), motivations, and capability of that which lurks around us, but cannot be seen - is immense. I am lucky, so lucky and grateful, that my experience with it will be a limited one.    I started my "job" in the garden last week. It's a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the camp where almost every single program is closed down. Not much of a job right now. More of a place to read and study. The indoor recreation room is closed which forces everyone to exercise outside or in the dorm areas where its warm. The sun comes out from time to time and the weather is very similar to Sonoma County's weather.   It is beautiful here in many ways with the changing of the seasons, green grass, fresh air, and wooded hillsides. As I look out, it reminds me of home. I am not sure how the cold will affect outdoor activities in the winter, but I have a feeling that guys will still be running the track and exercising, snow or no snow! Think Rocky 1, when he was in Philadelphia and there was snow on the ground while he ran up the stairs! I'm getting in good shape. The love handles have melted off and so far I have lost about 15 pounds. I think I have gained some muscles too. Hopefully, but likely because I am getting stronger.   It's amazing how much guys work out here. Many are doing 1,000 push-ups a day, some even 2,000! I couldn't believe it until I did a workout with them one day. It was a slow day, so we only did 45 sets, 15 reps each set, a 15 second brake between sets! I was tired! and, "not doing that again" came to mind when I was done. No reason to pre-emptively wear out the body! Nonetheless, I work out every day and I'm feeling good.   More importantly, I have gained lots of traction in my "self-study" program I created. I have been reading a series of books, newspapers, and magazines. Mostly books and the magazines which have begun firing cylinders in my brain. And what better place to do this then in my own private study quarters - the green houses in the garden.   You might be wondering why quiet time is so special. Well, it's because there is absolutely no quiet place here. Nowhere. Considering there is only a few places you can be, there is no place to just sit and study. I thought there would be somewhere to study, I was wrong.   When they say there is a "library," they mean there is a room that will hold about 6 guys, one copy machine (for 340 guys) and two small tables. And most of the time the "Library" is closed because there is literally, hardly ever, any staff here ever (staff is needed to open and close rooms).   Then there is the housing wing. Or should I say the "fraternity" house! Which are wild at time with guys talking, joking, cooking, hanging out and laughing, or trying to sleep. Speaking of sleeping; have you ever heard a symphony of 30 guys sleeping in the same room? Well - the snoring becomes a musical composition with your occasional "trumpet" sound firing off in the distance. Let's just say its not the Ritz. Good thing there is a steady air flow in the room that keep things circulating.   Luckily, I am in the back, back corner of the wing. I'm mostly removed from the nightly traffic of guys walking in and out of the wing and bathroom. And when its loud, I put in my ear plugs. Then Mozart finally stops playing. For more insight, visit Prison Professors dot com

In part five of our continuing coverage of the Elizabeth Holmes Fraud Trial, we discuss the government witnesses. To read the whole blog visit Prison Professors or click the link below: https://prisonprofessors.com/holmes-fraud-trial-update/

Visit us at Prison Professors to learn more about how to emerge successfully from federal prison.   https://prisonprofessors.com/working-conditions-in-federal-prison/

Learn how to analyze legal problems before indictments or sentencing. Today's episode we read from our blog at Prison Professors: https://prisonprofessors.com/analyzing-your-legal-exposure/  

Learn more about the presentence investigation report if you're facing a criminal charge. Our team at Prison Professors provides the following article: https://prisonprofessors.com/presentence-investigation-faqs/  

After spending 26 years in a cell, Michael Santos reflects on the bad decisions he has made and his path to redemption and transformation. He shares how these decisions have led him into a life of entrepreneurship and the creation of successful businesses like Prison Professors, among others. Guide to the Key Takeaways Michael recounts how he got into trouble and the decisions that lead to his incarceration (3.02 – 5.09) Michael shares his story. What took him onto the path of crime (5.10 – 7.10) Overcoming the shame from making ‘bad decisions’. (7.11 – 10.16) Thoughts on his penalty despite his crime being non-violent. (10.17 – 11.54) Creating a focus for the future whilst inside the prison (11.55 – 13.34) Michael’s motivations and inspiration that allowed him to forgive himself and move forward. (13.35 – 19.43) Overcoming rejection and moving into the entrepreneurial community (19.44 – 25.19) Walking out of prison and setting goals for a purpose driven life (25.20 – 27.22) What Michael’s business look like now (27.23 – 30.09) Future vision of the business. (30.10 – 32.51) Turning a trauma into a life of purpose and service of others (32.52 – 36.09) Advice to someone that is going through a legal battle. (36.10 – 40.30) How can listeners get contact with Michael Santos (40.31 – end) https://prisonprofessors.com/michael-santos/

Hello to you. My name is Michael Santos and on behalf of everyone on our team, I welcome you. Our websites include Prison Professors dot com and Compliance Mitigation dot com. We offer services to help people and businesses with risk mitigation and avoiding government investigations. For those who have been targeted for prosecution, we create mitigation strategies. We help with sentencing and preparations for the journey ahead. Visit us at either PrisonProfessors.com or ComplianceMitigation.com. Call or text 949-205-6056. To understand corporate fraud, we should begin with a basic review of how our nation’s founders structured our government. Most all people that attended school in America remember that we have three separate branches of government: • Legislative Branch: Includes the Senate and the House of Representatives. In these two houses of Congress, legislators pass laws that people in our country must follow. The Congress also controls the country’s budget. • Executive Branch: Our president leads the Executive Branch, signing legislative bills into law, and overseeing numerous administrative and law-enforcement agencies to ensure people comply with the laws. • Judicial Branch: The president appoints judges at the district court level to make factual findings, appellate court judges to assess due process in the lower courts, and the Supreme Court, which has the final say over all courts in the United States. Since we declared our independence, our nation’s government has grown. As a result, every individual and every business is subject to following more than 4,500 laws and millions of pages of regulations in the federal system. Besides the federal system, each of our 50 states has its own body of laws. Like the federal government, each state has many regulatory agencies and law enforcement divisions that enforce compliance.   Despite starting with an intent to create jobs and solve problems for customers, on any given day, business leaders could violate regulations or laws. Sometimes, decisions made in the course of business can lead to civil or criminal investigations. Sadly, investigators can also draw rank-and-file employees into those investigations.   The investigations may start in any number of ways. Ordinarily, they begin in secret. Investigators gather information with hopes of building a case. They may seek documents to review. They may identify people with whom they want to speak: • As witnesses to a government investigation, • As subjects to a government investigation, or • As the target of a government investigation. Whether a person responds as a witness, a subject, or a target, when people respond to government investigators, they expose themselves to potential liability. Despite not having known whether they’ve done anything wrong, people may face civil or criminal charges for corporate fraud, obstruction of justice, or any number of white-collar crimes.   With so much at stake, it makes sense for people to learn as much as possible about government investigations and how they operate. More knowledge about government investigations will help people make better decisions. In some cases, it may make sense to get counsel by hiring a lawyer who has experience with government investigations. How do Government Investigations Begin? Agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) publish articles on their websites that offer information on how they begin investigations. Those agencies do not hide the fact that they begin in secret. Neither business owners, nor the people that work in the businesses, will know that they’re being investigated until the agencies are ready to reveal what they’re doing. An agency will not make its case public until the investigative team believes it has the evidence to prevail in the lawsuit or complaint.   Investigators may begin making inquiries for any number of reasons. They may receive a tip, or a complaint. That tip may come from a disgruntled consumer, from a whistleblower, or from a representative at a consumer-protection group, such as the Better Business Bureau. Once the complaint begins, the investigators start working to gather data. If the data suggests that the target has violated regulations, or engaged in corporate fraud, the agency may choose to handle the matter administratively, or it may file a lawsuit in court.   Business owners and employees protect themselves when they understand the power of government investigators. That means, if they’re talking over the phone, if they’re sending an email, if they’re sending a text message, they may want to think about how government investigators would construe their words. The more knowledge a person has about what could happen, the more cautious a person would be when communicating within the organization, or with prospective consumers.   For example, in a case that the Federal Trade Commission was making against a real estate developer that operated a call center, investigators conducted an undercover call. The undercover agents went through the company’s process: • Step 1: They filled out a lead form on the company’s website. • Step 2: They agreed to participate in a telephone pitch at a scheduled time. • Step 3: They started a recording before the pitch, identifying themselves as agents of the FTC, stating the date, time, and stating that the purpose of the call was to investigate the real estate developer. • Step 4: The agent’s spoke with the developer’s representative and asked questions with an intent of gathering evidence to build their case. • Step 5: After the call, the agent’s marked the recording into evidence, without the representative ever knowing that she was speaking to a government agency, and that her voice had been recorded and would be used to further a government investigation. • Step 6: Later, after the FTC filed its lawsuit, the telemarketing sales agent became subjected to a deposition under oath. If investigators believed that the telemarketer had lied, or misled consumers, they could threaten her with either civil or criminal charges. What is the takeaway from the information above? As business owners, it’s crucial to recognize that government investigators have many resources at their disposal. When they begin investigations, they have an interest in penalizing the company and the individuals that work with the company. Since the agents have authority to conduct their investigation in secret, they do not have a duty to let the person know that they’re being recorded. Our team at Compliance Mitigation wants to help both business leaders and team members protect themselves. As citizens, we protect ourselves when we document every stage of our processes. We want to show that we’re acting in good faith, because government investigators will always view our decisions from a cynical perspective—exposing people and businesses to sanctions. In the example given, the business could have protected itself by publishing the scripts it creates for telemarketers. Each of those scripts should have been stored. Then, the business should invest in training, confirming that each of the telemarketers understood the corporate messaging—messaging that should have been vetted by an attorney who would be knowledgeable about the telemarketing sales rule. Further, the telemarketers should confirm how often they’ve been trained to speak in accordance with corporate messaging—and the penalties associated with noncompliance. Businesses should also train team members on the penalties that follow for those found to have violated agency regulations, rules, or laws.   Legal Exposure Business leaders may not be trained in law, but ignorance of the law will not shield them from a government investigation. Government investigators will rely upon a doctrine known as respondeat superior. The translation from Latin means “Let the master answer.” In other words, government agents may hold employers liable for the acts that employees perform during the course of the job. As an example, we’ll offer insight into a case that led to imprisonment for several officers and directors of a publicly traded company. These are people that served time in federal prison, along with members of our team. We have personal knowledge from listening to their stories. Those people have since been released from prison, and they’ve gone on to build productive lives. Since the purpose of this exercise is to help our course participants understand the risks, and not to hurt other people, we’ll change the names of the people involved. • Those who want to research the matter may search for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission case: CV-03-2834 R (RNZBx) (C.D. Cal.) While confined at the federal prison camp in Lompoc, I met James. As a young entrepreneur, he launched an Internet advertising company. James later hired other people to join his company, including Mike, who served as the company’s senior vice president of business development, and Lisa, who served as the company’s vice president of finance, Cindy, who served as the company’s controller and director of finance. Eventually, investment bankers brought the company public and it performed well during the dawn of the Internet era. Rather than having a background in finance, James expertise came from selling advertising. He relied upon his team to keep track of records. The company’s compensation plan incentivized people to build higher levels of sales, as all of the company’s leaders had stock in the company. If the company performed well with growing sales, the stock price would rise. If sales faltered, the company understood that stock price would drop in the market. When a recession threatened to slow sales, Mike, Lisa, and Cindy hatched a scheme. They conspired with leaders at another company. Basically, company A agreed to purchase goods and services from company B, and company B agreed to purchase goods and services for the exact same amount from Company A. Company A sent money to company B, masquerading the transaction as a sale; then, company B sent the exact same amount of money back to company A, masquerading the transaction as a sale. The sham purchases boosted sales so that investors would think that each company continued bringing in robust sales, even though the conspirators created those sales artificially. In reality, the conspirators understood that those transactions did not represent authentic sales from actual consumers. As CEO and president of the company, James had direct supervisory authority over Mike, Lisa, and Cindy. James was not on the sales team, nor did he have a finance background. He lacked the requisite skill to understand how Lisa and Cindy would account for the transactions on the financial statements. Nevertheless, James bore responsibility for the actions of the people that worked for him. Several years later, a larger company made an offer to acquire James’s company. During the due diligence phase, forensic accountants researched all of the corporate records of James’s company. When the auditors discovered the sham sales transactions, the accountants notified investigators at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Investigators subpoenaed the records, launching a government investigation. Before the investigators began to ask questions, they had a clear understanding of the deception. Yet neither James, Mike, Cindy, nor Lisa knew that they had been under investigation. When the questions came, they did not know how to respond. Each person lied to the investigators. The people did not know that lying to a federal law enforcement officer exposed each person to a criminal conviction, and the potential for up to five years in federal prison. As the civil investigation advanced, the agents questioned people as witnesses, as subjects, and as targets. People had to hire lawyers. When prosecutors threatened to bring criminal charges that could expose them decades in prison, the people began to cooperate in exchange for leniency. I met both James and Mike in federal prison. Both of them told me that had they known the severity of the crime, and the punishments that could follow, they would not have participated. James and Mike told me their perspectives at the time of the crime. When company A purchased a product from company B, and then company A sold a product to company B for the exact same amount, James and Mike believed that it was a wash. They did not see any harm coming from the transaction. They did not consider the viewpoint of government regulators or prosecutors. In the eyes of law enforcement, James and Mike participated in a conspiracy to deceive investors. As such, they violated securities laws. By violating laws, they faced a criminal prosecution. With the government investigation and criminal prosecution, they had to spend millions of dollars in attorney fees. Further, they damaged their professional reputations, they lost their liberty, and they have to live as convicted felons.   Questions to consider: • As the company’s CEO, what level of culpability did James have for the decisions that Mike, Lisa, and Cindy made? • In what ways would knowledge about criminal penalties influence corporate leaders like James, Mike, Lisa, and Cindy? • Who would law enforcement officials identify as victims in the case above? • What type of training could protect a company against decisions like those that James, Mike, Lisa, and Cindy made in the case example above?   During corporate training sessions, it may help for leaders to work through these types of role-playing situations. By helping people understand how government investigations begin, we can go a long way toward helping team members make better decisions. Hopefully, we can also reduce vulnerabilities to government investigations, and also reduce the number of people that face charges for white-collar crime.

Hello to you. My name is Michael Santos and on behalf of everyone on our team, I welcome you. Our websites include PrisonProfessors.com and ComplianceMitigation.com.   We offer services to help people and businesses with risk mitigation and avoiding government investigations.   For those who have been targeted for prosecution, we create mitigation strategies. We help with sentencing and preparations for the journey ahead.   Visit us at either Prison Professors dot com or compliance mitigation dot com. Call or text 949-205-6056.   Episode: 153: Why Every Business Should Invest in Compliance Training   If we ask any group to give us their impression of successful technology companies, we’re likely to hear the following names: • Apple, • Google, • Facebook, • Amazon, and • Microsoft. Many of us would consider the above-mentioned companies as models of excellence. They’re famous for creating trillions of dollars in value, creating millions of jobs, generating billions of dollars in tax revenues, and providing enormous value to consumers. Besides being success stories, the companies share something else in common. Each of the above-mentioned companies has been the subject of a government investigation. Our team at Compliance Mitigation does not make a judgment call with regard to the reasons behind the investigation, or the usefulness that the investigation would serve. Rather, we want more entrepreneurs, business leaders, and team members to understand how government investigations can threaten businesses and careers. The more a person knows, the more equipped a person becomes to make better decisions—hopefully to avoid being brought in as a witness, a subject, or a target of a government investigation. From our perspective: • Business leaders define success by solving problems for customers, bringing value to shareholders, and creating jobs that contribute to vibrant communities. • When investigators begin their task, they define success by obstructing business operations, or complicating the lives of business leaders and the entire teams that they target. Big-government leaders do not limit their attacks to the most successful companies. Elected officials create many government agencies that investigate business operations, business leaders, and people who have decision-making power in businesses. That means even small companies—and leaders of those companies that have decision-making power—are also vulnerable to government investigations and to charges for white collar crimes. For that reason, it makes sense for business leaders to learn about government investigations. That insight can help people involved in businesses both save and make money. You might ask, “How can investing in compliance help a company or people make more money?”  • Compliance is all about transparency. It’s about documenting processes and following best-practice approaches to business. The more we train people how to follow such procedures, the more effective we become at messaging. If we communicate well, we’re more successful at showing the value proposition we offer. How does investing in compliance help a company or an individual save more money? • Investing time and energy to develop effective compliance systems is like an insurance policy. It can lead to lower business insurance costs, and it can lower the enormous risks that business owners and decision makers have to reserve for litigation expenses. Good compliance systems can also lower the risk levels to corporate fraud. Besides saving or making money, investing in ongoing compliance training represents an excellent insurance policy for the company. No company wants to become the subject of a government investigation. They are costly. In many cases, those costs exceed millions of dollars, both for the business and in many cases, for individuals. Investigations, potentially, can obliterate a business and lead to loss of liberty for some people.   Evaluation: In June 2020, the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division updated its Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs. Essentially, the government white paper offered guidelines for prosecutors to consider when they deliberated over offering leniency, non-prosecution agreements, or deferred-prosecution agreements to businesses. According to the guidance, prosecutors must question the business as follows: 1. Is the corporation’s compliance well designed? 2. Is the program being applied earnestly and in good faith? In other words, is the program adequately resourced and empowered to function effectively? 3. Does the corporation’s compliance program work in practice? If we know that prosecutors will ask those questions when assessing a business’s compliance program, then business leaders and team members should ask similar questions. By investing time, energy, and resources to understand the importance of compliance, leaders can design a best-practice approach in the design of their compliance training. Large companies may deploy resources to hire white-glove law firms that specialize in risk management. Those law firms may earn millions of dollars in fees by doing a deep dive to understand a company’s operations. They will perform risk assessments to identify potential problems, assessing the regulatory landscape, the potential clients and the business partners, as well as transactions with foreign governments, payments to foreign officials, use of third parties, political contributions, and so forth. Small to mid-size companies may not have the resources to hire such law firms. Yet if they’re doing business, their lack of resources will not make them any less vulnerable to investigations and potential prosecution. In fact, those small- to medium-sized businesses may be easier targets for government investigators. For this reason, all businesses benefit by helping team members learn more about the real-life consequences that followed for people that lost their liberty as a result of government investigations. Such training spreads awareness on the collateral consequences that follow bad decisions made during the course of business. In making people more aware, our team at Compliance Mitigation can lessen risks for individuals, and for businesses that want to show a commitment to minimizing problems with regulators. Companies that want to minimize risk levels would do well to train their team members. As we say at ComplianceMitigation.com, we did the time so you won’t have to.   Corporate Fraud: Internal corporate fraud is an ever-growing problem. Government prosecutors bring charges against thousands of people every month for white collar crimes. Those charges leave businesses vulnerable to ongoing problems, including massive legal fees, large fines, and potentially, criminal liabilities. Management leaders may not have a clear process on how to prevent fraud, or how to respond if they uncover a fraud. We offer this introductory compliance course to assist companies with the following objectives: (i) Help all team members understand the implications of a government investigation, (ii) Identify best practices within corporate operations, and encourage employee compliance, (iii) Improve messaging and corporate storytelling, (iv) Minimize risk to litigation, (v) Teach businesses how to develop a best-practice approach to respond to a government investigation, (vi) Develop a mitigation strategy in the event of a government investigation. We encourage company leaders to use the modules our team at Compliance Mitigation creates to help more people understand the costs and collateral consequences of a government investigation. Strength comes through proper preparation. Members of our team have worked with numerous entrepreneurs that didn’t know their business practices violated regulations, or how their policies could expose them to the enormous costs of litigation or a government investigation. For example, a small business that advertised debt-relief services accepted advance payments from consumers. The business owner hired scores of telemarketers that sold the service. By accepting advance payments from consumers, the business leaders and decisions makers made themselves vulnerable to government investigations. They didn’t understand the Federal Trade Commission’s prohibitions against collecting advance fees.   Nor did they understand how a government investigation could lead to: • litigation, • an asset freeze, and • forfeitures that would cripple their business. Good compliance training helps leaders make better decisions. By investing time to both learn and teach, leaders can create a culture that minimizes exposure to risks in an era of big government. Larger companies have different complications. People become complacent, expecting that they’re operating without risk to regulation or interference from government. Sadly, many rank-and-file employees get dragged into investigations. Their responses to the investigations can bring them into further problems. Our nation’s prison system confines thousands of people that once worked in large companies. Prosecutors convicted those people of white-collar crimes, even though the people professed to be doing their jobs without any knowledge that they were breaking laws. Other people began working in a company with the best of intentions. Yet something happened during the course of the person’s career. Thinking that they could get away with something, they engaged in behavior without fully understanding the consequences. For example, consider the case of David Smith, who faced charges for crimes he committed while on the job as a manager at Quest Diagnostics. David concocted a reimbursement scheme, creating systems that would lead his employer to reimburse him for fraudulent expenses that ran through a complex web of transactions. Smith created fake companies, invoices, and expense reports for payments he’d supposedly made on Quest’s behalf. An internal investigation revealed that Smith had forged his boss’s signature. The internal investigation uncovered losses totaling more than $1.2 million. Quest referred the case to the FBI. A judge sentenced Smith to five years in prison. Beside the financial loss and Smith’s criminal liability, the distraction undermined confidence in Quest Diagnostic’s management team.   Better compliance training serves companies and individuals by: • Broadening an awareness of the consequences that follow white collar crime, • Helping people think before they compromise their values, • Providing transparency into businesses processes, potentially lessening occurrences of internal corporate fraud.   Fraud Triangle: People like David, in the example above, may not set out to engage in fraudulent behavior. Educators identified a “Fraud Triangle” that, theoretically, created a perfect storm for fraud. The three corners of the triangle include: • Opportunity: A person like David Smith had to be in the position that would allow him to create the scheme. If he were not in a managerial position, he would not have been able to initiate the scam. • Pressure: David Smith’s supervisors may have considered him a competent, trustworthy employee. They may not have known pressures he felt in his personal life. • Rationalization: A person like David Smith may think that the company is so big and profitable that no one would even notice the missing funds.   Although hindsight is 20/20, we can always learn from real case studies: • What if Quest Diagnostics invested more resources in its compliance systems? • What if the training systems included lessons on the high costs of corporate fraud, both for the business and for the people that knowingly engage in white-collar crime? • David Smith may have been in a position to commit the fraud, he may have felt pressure, and he may have been able to rationalize his crime. The question remains: would better training have convinced him to act with more integrity? Consider the example of Walt Pavlo, a person who writes a popular column for Forbes online. In January 2001, a federal judge sentenced Walt Pavlo to 41 months in federal prison. The sentence followed Pavlo’s conviction for white-collar crimes that included money laundering, wire fraud, and obstruction of justice. Walt had worked hard to earn an engineering degree and an MBA. Those credentials led to a leadership position at MCI WorldCom, one of the world’s most valuable companies at the turn of the century. In his role as a finance manager, Walt described pressure he felt to report higher revenues than the company earned. The supervisors that oversaw his department wanted to boost WorldCom’s financial performance, likely with pressure from the top. When Walt saw that other leaders entered fraudulent transactions, he felt justified to create his own fraud to enrich himself. Ordinary people may not expect a multi-billion-dollar, global corporation like WorldCom to engage in fraud. Neither would they expect a family man with a professional education to exploit the fraud he discovered—then create his own scam. Members of our team have met and interacted with thousands of people that served time for white-collar crimes. Despite leading or working with companies that had compliance-training manuals, they did not get the message.   Human Stories of Noncompliance and Fraud: To make compliance a part of any corporate culture, leaders should include regular training that includes real-life stories. Those stories will help all team members appreciate the magnitude of problems that come with a government investigation. When leaders and team members grasp the severity of consequences, fewer people will participate in the type of behavior that can increase risk levels for businesses and organizations. As an added bonus, by investing in compliance training that works, businesses and individuals may qualify for leniency or mitigation in the event that investigators begin asking questions. It’s impossible to predict who might commit fraud within an organization. The vast majority of people that engage in white-collar crime do not have criminal histories. Yet as the theory of the fraud triangle suggests: • those people may be in a position to commit fraud; • they may feel pressure that induces them to participate in fraud; • they may rationalize their behavior for any number of reasons. Good training may lower risk levels for businesses and for individuals. Consider statements that our team at Compliance Mitigation found online:  According to Carnegie Mellon University’s report on Insider Fraud in Financial Services, employees working in accounting, operations, sales, upper management, customer service, purchasing, and finance commit 75% of all corporate fraud.  Employers frequently assume that people always act with integrity, even after being hired. Since businesses incentivize managers to focus on meeting targets and goals rather than detecting fraud, commitment to ongoing compliance training frequently suffers.  In a report that Intel published, Grand Theft Data, inside sources cause 42% of all company security breaches. Those security breaches can lead to government investigations and litigation, exposing businesses and individuals to enormous levels of stress.  Corporate fraud represents one of the government’s highest criminal priorities. The FBI estimates that white-collar crime costs Americans more than $300 billion annually. Those crimes run the gamut, from accounting schemes designed to deceive management, investors, auditors, and analysts about the true financial condition of a company, to cases involving fraud on the government and insurers, vendors, and clients.  Government agencies scrutinize telemarketers, brokers, crypto currency businesses, cannabis, financial services, and the healthcare field.  The FBI partners with numerous agencies to capitalize on their experience in specific areas such as securities, taxes, pensions, energy, and commodities. The Bureau has placed greater emphasis on investigating allegations of these frauds, and FBI agents frequently broaden their reach by partnering with other agencies, such as the:  Securities and Exchange Commission  Commodity Futures Trading Commission  Federal Trade Commission  Internal Revenue Service  Department of Labor  Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,  US Postal Service  Secret Service.  The Department of Homeland Security has its own independent mandate to criminally pursue fraud, financial crimes involving blackmail, contract fraud, grant fraud, money laundering, bribery, immigration fraud and program theft.   Government investigations are likely to increase as a result of COVID-19. The CARES Act, subjects companies to additional scrutiny by establishing three new oversight bodies:  (i) the Office of the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery within the Treasury Department;  (ii) the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, consisting of the IGs for Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Justice, Labor and the Treasury, among others; and  (iii) the Congressional Oversight Commission.  In fact, dozens of cases have already been brought in connection with abuse of the Payroll Protection Program (PPP). The Value Proposition Building a compliance program will protect businesses, shareholders, communities, and individuals. On the surface, the investment may feel like a wasteful expense and hassle. Yet effective compliance programs represent an opportunity to both increase revenues and decrease risk for debilitating costs. They provide an excellent return with peace-of-mind. As an aside, they may pay for themselves in a variety of ways, including: • Eliminating fraud, waste, and theft of company assets • Creating a more inspiring corporate culture with transparency • Opening opportunities for increased efficiencies An effective program will improve internal communications and messaging with prospective customers. Good compliance metrics may also put a company in a good position for a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), which may avoid total disruption. In these cases, the government brings an action but realizes it needs the assistance of the company itself in order to prove wrongdoing by the individuals involved. For example, federal prosecutors entered into Deferred Prosecution Agreement with Samsung Heavy Industries in 2019. The company agreed to settle matters by paying a fine and cooperating in with the government’s investigation of bribery. The DPA likely saved millions of dollars for shareholders and may have spared some people from going to prison. Maintaining compliance equips employees to do their jobs well, reach career goals, and keep customers happy. To paraphrase Warren Buffet: • It takes five years to grow a reputation, and five minutes to ruin it.   An integrated compliance program becomes a valuable corporate asset. Leverage the compliance training so that people can empower themselves to reach their highest potential. By showing everyone to act in accordance with corporate values, leaders protect the enterprise, the team members, and shareholder value.        

Michael Santos served 26 years in federal prison. Authorities arrested him on August 11, 1987 as a result of his trafficking in cocaine. He completed that sentence on August 12, 2013. In today’s interview, he shares the story of how the decisions he made while in prison contributed to his preparation for a comeback. Among other ventures, Michael hosts the Prison Professors YouTube channel. Through that channel, he provides digital content to teach and inspire people in jail and prison. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiWXvA_5bzvOFdbS353Ll-Q?sub_confirmation=1Those who would like to receive copies of Michael’s books can order those books at the following link:https://prisonprofessors.com/books-and-courses/Use the promo code BEK to get a 15% discount on all orders. Links to other platforms:YouTube Video HighlightsYouTube Full Video EpisodesApple PodcastiHeart Radio SoundcloudSpotifyGoogle PodcastPodbean Instagram (The Comeback Team)Twitter Page Instagram (Bek Lover)

What Are Post-Conviction Proceedings? 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 housing. Those collateral consequences make a difficult situation worse. From a legal perspective, life officially changes after a conviction. Prior to the conviction, the defendant may have gone through a “pre-trial services” program. While in the “pre-trial phase,” a judicial employee or probation officer may lightly oversee the defendant, imposing light restrictions. As an example, rules may require a person in the pre-trial phase to request permission before traveling outside of a specific jurisdiction. With a criminal conviction, more formal proceedings will follow. For felony cases, a pre-sentence investigation and ensuing report will follow the conviction.   Pre-Sentence Investigation Report (PSI or PSR—used interchangeably): Once a defendant pleads guilty, or a jury convicts the defendant, the person becomes a convicted felon. In most felony cases, the court will order the probation department to conduct a pre-sentence investigation. This investigation will result in a report that has a lasting influence on the defendant’s life. The pre-sentence investigation report provides details about the person’s background for the sentencing judge, staff members in the prison system, and the probation officer that will supervisor the person after release.  Essentially, the report will begin with a narration of the prosecution's version of the offense. The probation officer will interview the defendant and give him an opportunity to make a statement, too. Besides interviewing the defendant, the probation officer will conduct an investigation into the defendant's personal background. It is not uncommon for the probation officer conducting the report to speak with the defendant's family members, friends, employers, and anyone else that may provide material information. Major cases will result in more extensive pre-sentence investigations to provide the judge (and others) with a snapshot of the offense and the defendant's background. The judge relies on this information as a source of reference when deliberating over the appropriate sanction to impose. Those going to prison should not underestimate the importance of the PSR. The PSR will have a big influence on the person while he is in prison and while he is on Supervised Release. Because of the PSR's importance, we devote chapter seven to the process, revealing how our team works with clients that choose to prepare before their interview with the probation officer.    Sentencing: After the finding of guilt, and the completion of the PSR, the next step in the criminal justice process is sentencing. In most cases, sentencing is a function of the court. Basically, the sentencing judge has three alternatives: For the most serious crimes, the sentencing judge may impose a term of imprisonment. For crimes that the judge deems less severe, the judge may impose a term of probation, allowing the offender to remain in the community under specific conditions. Or, the judge may impose some type of financial sanction, like a fine or restitution. Generally, the legislature determined the range of sanctions from which the judge can choose. For federal crimes, judges must rely upon the sentencing guidelines when determining what sentence to impose. The guidelines are not “mandatory,” but judges must consider them. As a result of a Supreme Court case, judges must consider personal characteristics. Those characteristics may warrant a sentence either below or above the guideline range. For that reason, our team recommends that defendants consider a multi-pronged approach to prepare prior to sentencing. Congress designed the guidelines to create uniformity in sentencing. They provide a matrix that take many dynamics into consideration. Among other factors, guidelines consider the defendant's role in the offense, the defendant's acceptance of responsibility, aggravating factors, mitigating factors, and the defendant's criminal history. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual provides details that judges may consider as they deliberate over appropriate sanctions. Anyone anticipating the possibility of receiving a federal sentence ought to read guidelines manual to understand more about what judges consider when sentencing a defendant. Our team has interviewed several federal judges. They’ve given us insight with regard to steps a defendant should take in anticipation of sentencing. Specifically, judges want to know: What does the defendant understand about victims in the case? What led the defendant into the criminal behavior? What has the defendant learned from the process? What steps has the defendant taken to reconcile with society? Although the defendant’s attorney will prepare legal arguments to advocate for the defendant, every defendant should work to advocate for himself. Our team urges defendants to work toward a multi-part strategy that includes: Preparing a sentencing narrative. Preparing a sentencing video. Preparing a package of character-reference letters. Preparing a sentence-mitigation story of reconciliation with society. Our catalog offers details on each of those options. This multi-part strategy will help the judge get to know the defendant’s true nature. It can lead to mercy, or the least restrictive sanction. Read more about these options by texting the following word, to the following number: Text number: 44222 Test following word: Sentence Or visit ResilienceCourses.com If the defendant has been out on a bond, the judge may order the defendant into custody after the sentencing hearing. In other cases, the judge authorizes the defendant to report to prison later. Our team has seen cases with different outcomes. If the defendant makes a credible argument, he may have reason to wait several months before surrendering to prison. In the rarest of circumstances, defendants may remain free on bond pending the outcome of an appeal. Every case is unique. Defendants should consider the pros and the cons of prolonging a surrender date to prison. In some cases, it makes sense to get to prison at the soonest possible time. In other cases, valid reasons exist to postpone the surrender date.    Becoming a Prisoner / Good Time / Earned Time: After the judge sentences a person, a transition takes place. In the federal system, the trial judge loses jurisdiction over the case in a matter of days. The U.S. Marshal Service sends the Judgment Order, along with the PSR, to the administrative office of the Bureau of Prisons, in Grand Prairie, Texas. Prison staff members then rely upon a program statement, known as the Custody and Classification Manual. That manual includes a scoring system that results in a “security-level” score and a “custody-level” score. BOP officials in Grand Prairie rely upon those scores and other factors to determine where the prisoner will serve the sentence. In December of 2018, President Trump signed the First Step Act. The First Step Act is the most significant criminal-justice reform legislation in more than two decades. Although the president signed the law, as of early summer 2019, the Bureau of Prisons has not yet fully implemented the First Step Act. We do not anticipate people in prison getting the full benefit of the law until 2020. As more details become available, we will update this book and our courses on ResilienceCourses.com. For more current information on details of The First Step Act, please visit our websites at: PrisonProfessors.com, or ResilientCourses.com, or WhiteCollarAdvice.com Every person in federal prison will benefit from this new law. For example, as a result of the legislation, people in federal prison will receive a full 15 percent reduction in their sentences if they abide by rules in federal prison. Further, the law requires officials in the BOP to authorize more self-help programs for people in prison. Some examples of positive programs in federal prison include: Education courses Vocational courses Fitness courses Spiritual-development courses Substance-abuse treatment programs All prisoners that remain active in those positive programs will derive some form of benefit from participating. But if the Bureau of Prisons officials determine that the qualified prisoners are at “low- or minimal-risk” of recidivating, those prisoners will receive “Earned Time” credits of 15 days each month. It’s important to differentiate “Good Time” credits from “Earned Time” credits. Prisoners receive up to 54 days each year in Good Time credits if they avoid being charged with any disciplinary conduct. Prisoners don’t have to do anything particularly good to get the Good Time. They simply must avoid doing anything bad. By adhering to rules, a prisoner’s sentence will be cut by 54 days per year. The First Step Act does not cut time that a prisoner owes to complete the sentence. Rather, the prisoner that works to develop skills through good behavior and positive programming accumulates Earned Time credits at a rate of either 10-days per month, or 15-days per month. At the end of the sentence, the qualifying prisoner will be able to rely upon those Earned Time credits as an objective mechanism to transition into home confinement earlier than would otherwise be possible. Qualifying prisoners may serve significant lengths of time on home confinement. For example, let’s say a person qualifies for the maximum benefit under the First Step Act. That person may have a federal conviction and he may have received a sentence of 100 months. That person may qualify for the Residential Drug Abuse Program, too. The table below offers an estimate on what he could expect to serve with and without the First Step Act.   Factor With First Step Act Without First Step Act 100-month Sentence 100-month Sentence 100-month Sentence Good Time Credits 15% of sentence, which reduces sentence to 85 months. 15% of sentence, which reduces sentence to 85 months. RDAP time reduction 12 months off sentence, which reduces sentence to 73 months. 12 months off sentence, which reduces sentence to 73 months. Earned Time Credit at 15 days per month Roughly 50% of time to Residential Reentry Center, resulting in transfer to home confinement at somewhere between 37 and 42 months. Six to 12 months available for transition to Residential Reentry Center, resulting in transfer to halfway house or home confinement at around 61 to 67 months.   Although the above table is only an estimate, and we won’t have final details until the Bureau of Prisons releases its policy statement on the First Step Act, it’s clear that this law will bring a positive benefit to many people in prison. When it comes to Earned Time credits, the operative word is “qualifying” prisoner. Congress detailed a specific list of offenses that do not qualify for Earned Time credits. Generally speaking, people convicted of non-violent offenses qualify for Earned Time. Again, we will update our sections on Earned Time as the Bureau of Prisons releases policy statements on this law.     Getting to Prison: Once an individual is sentenced to prison, the next step is getting there. Offenders who are sentenced to relatively short terms, fewer than ten years, may have the privilege of surrendering to the facility to which they have been designated or assigned to serve their sentence. The vast majority of people will be taken into custody and proceed through the humiliating prisoner transfer system. Future chapters will describe what to expect when being transferred to an initial prison, or from one prison to another.    Appeals and Post-Conviction Remedies: Most defendants will enter into plea agreements that prohibit them from launching direct appeals. Prisoners that proceed through trial, on the other hand, routinely appeal if the jury convicted them. They may appeal errors in due process. In rare circumstances, such as if they discovered information that had not previously been available, they may appeal issues that the trial court did not consider. Otherwise, appellate courts review errors that the lower court may have made, which would have violated the defendant’s due process rights. Every step in the judicial proceeding brings the case one step closer to finality. The U.S. Supreme Court, being the highest court in the land, is the court of last resort. Few defendants ever see their cases advance that far in the appellate procedure.  Indeed, relatively few offenders find any relief through appellate procedures. According to Modern Criminal Procedure, 9th Edition, by Yale Kamisar, et al, published by West Group, (St. Paul. Minn: 1999)—which we relied upon heavily to write this chapter—fewer than 11 percent of all defendants succeed on appeal. Within one year after the appellate process is exhausted, those in prison may seek relief through habeas corpus, a civil (rather than criminal) proceeding. It is difficult to undo the long record that already has been established. The judicial concept of stare decisis, meaning “Let the decision stand” weighs heavily against defendants that seek relief through habeas corpus. Nevertheless, if defendants believe that their constitutional rights have been violated, such as if their attorney failed to represent them appropriately, and they file their motion within time limits authorized by the rules of civil procedure, they may attempt to get judicial relief through motions such as the §2255 motion. Besides a defendant’s motion, a prosecutor may initiate a post-conviction motion that gives jurisdiction back to the sentencing judge. As an example, prosecutors may file a Rule 35 motion. Prosecutors rely upon the Rule 35 as a tool to encourage people that have been sentenced to cooperate against others. By filing a Rule 35, prosecutors ask the judge to resentence the defendant to a lower term. Final Word: Anyone anticipating a potential problem with the criminal justice system should learn as much about the system as possible. The more knowledge a person has about the system, the better-prepared he will be to work with his attorney to achieve the best possible outcome. People should rely on their attorneys for legal advice. Yet they also should make efforts to gather and learn from the experiences of others.  Do not be an ostrich, living as though problems with the criminal justice system will somehow disappear. If charged with a crime, we recommend reading the statute to find a complete definition of the elements of the offense. The defendant should read through potential penalties as well. The defendant does not have to speak with a law enforcement officer, but if he chooses to speak, he had better not lie. Lying to any law enforcement officer exposes the person to more problems—like obstruction of justice charges, or charges of making a false statement to a federal officer. If ensnared in the criminal justice web, think about damage control. It’s best to think proactively about navigating the challenges ahead. Learn the stakes associated with every decision. When considering whether to go to trial or plead guilty, remember that sentencing guidelines incentivize those that expresses remorse and accept responsibility. The sooner a person starts preparing for leniency at sentencing, the better. Although holding the prosecutor to task on every issue may bring some advantages, that option does not come without potential costs—both in terms of financial costs to launch an aggressive defense, and costs in terms of exposure to more difficult sanctions. You’ve just listened to another chapter of Prepare: What Defendants Need to Know Before Court / Sentencing / or Prison. Get a free digital copy of the book by visiting Prison Professors.com. You can also send an email to team@Prisonprofessors.com. Call or text 949-205- 6056

Intro: Welcome to Prison Professors podcast. I’m Michael Santos. We assist people who face court, sentencing, and prison. Visit us at PrisonProfessors.com to learn more. Call or text 949-205-6056 to connect with our team. For more info, send an email to Team@PrisonProfessors.com.   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 mean to make troubles worse. Yet if they don’t understand what’s coming, what options they have, or where to turn for information that will help them make better decisions, they’re vulnerable. Targets of criminal investigations can unwittingly talk themselves into a criminal indictment. They may eliminate opportunities for a diversion from prosecution. Or they may expose themselves to tougher sanctions. Competent legal counsel is essential. But if an individual doesn’t have any experience with the criminal law, a primer on the system may be of help, too. With more knowledge, a layman will feel more competent when working with a criminal lawyer. Without knowledge, a person will always feel as if he’s operating from a position of darkness, never knowing what’s around the next turn. By learning about the criminal justice system, a person can arm himself to work more effectively with lawyers. He may understand how to resolve complex dilemmas better. Although he may not like the limited choices available, he may feel more confident that he is going to make the best possible choice. When a person understands context, opportunity costs, and ramifications that follow each decision, that person empowers himself. We can paraphrase an old Chinese proverb: • If you want to know the road ahead, ask someone that has come back. When under the spotlight of a criminal investigation, it makes a great deal of sense to invest time and energy to learn. By learning, a person can make more informed decisions. Operating without knowledge makes us feel as if we’re hanging from a string, as if we’re marionette puppets. To stop that helpless feeling and restore confidence, we need to learn, then we need to make deliberate decisions that will influence best-possible outcomes. Acquiring knowledge and becoming more literate about the system is a first step. As the cliché holds, the greatest fear is the fear of the unknown. This book will be a great place to start. Defendants learn quickly that problems with the criminal justice system can lead to enormous costs. It isn’t only money that’s at stake. Liberty is at stake. Future earning power is at stake. Collateral consequences—like access to banking, housing, career opportunities—can linger for a lifetime. Don’t take our word for it. Easily verifiable statistics show the fallout for those who have been targeted by the criminal justice system. It’s crucial to prepare, and it makes a great deal of sense to learn. The learning process begins with the reality that many people get sucked into the criminal justice system. Although going through the system is difficult, there are best-practice ways to prepare. According to a 2019 report by the Prison Policy Initiative, the American criminal justice system holds almost 2.3 million people. They are confined to: • 1,719 state prisons, • 109 federal prisons, • 1,772 juvenile correctional facilities, • 3,163 local jails, and 80 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories. Not everyone that goes into the system gets the best outcome. Those that learn more can prepare more. By learning more about the system, they may be able to put themselves into a different algorithm, framing possibilities for a better outcome. By using good critical thinking skills, targets or defendants may influence decision makers to view them through a different lens, as if they’re fellow human beings rather than cogs that must grind through a criminal justice machine. All people facing challenges with the criminal justice system share common traits. Their family members, friends, and colleagues care about them. Defendants would like to live in a world where investigators, prosecutors, probation officers, and judges see them as normal citizens. They may have been charged with a crime, but defendants, like all people, have many attributes that are reflective of their character. A crime may be an aberration, a one-time act that is contextual and doesn’t resemble how they would act in most circumstances. Yet once the criminal justice system targets people for prosecution, stakeholders in the system turn their attention to the alleged criminal wrongdoing. A criminal charge can stop stakeholders from looking at an individual as a human being. In an instant, the person becomes a defendant. The goal, or objective is not always justice. It’s a conviction followed by a punitive sanction. Obviously, targets of criminal investigations would like to find some type of diversionary program to avoid prosecution. If they’re prosecuted, they want the best possible outcome. For most people, the best outcome means the least restrictive or least punitive sanction—preferably a sentence that does not include incarceration. But how does a person go about getting the best outcome? Unfortunately, statistics show that few people that encounter the criminal justice system know how to position themselves for the best possible result.   Who Are We? My name is Michael Santos. Together, my partner and I create content to help people understand court proceedings, sentencing, and prison. Access our content through our different brands: PrisonProfessors.com WhiteCollarAdvice.com ResilientCourses.com       Overview: Relatively few Americans have more than a basic understanding of our nation’s criminal justice system. On the surface, people know that law enforcement officers arrest people, prosecutors bring charges, and some defendants who are convicted go to jail or prison. Yet the system is much more complicated than that, with many moving parts. Targets should begin from the premise that the system has one function: to protect society. It has a series of procedures designed to enforce the laws of this country. The more we understand about the system, the better we can prepare to navigate the challenges. All branches of law enforcement work together to prosecute crimes. Just as some offenders will make every effort to evade detection and apprehension by law-enforcement, the different members of law enforcement will make every effort to solve a crime and win a conviction. As citizens, we’re all charged with the responsibility of abiding by our nation’s laws. Legislators pass the bills and heads of state sign the bills into law. It’s the criminal justice system that is responsible for enforcing the laws. Few people understand that our country has 53 separate criminal justice systems, including one for each state, one for the District of Columbia, one for the military, and one for the federal government. Within the different systems, there are hundreds of jurisdictions, each with a series of trial courts that make findings of fact. Higher courts may review whether trial courts followed accepted procedures. This elaborately complex system has evolved over hundreds of years. For a person that enters the system, it can feel like he’s been dropped into a byzantine labyrinth, with so many turns and dimensions that make it easy to lose direction. To put this into perspective, think of the system as a zero-sum game. We use the metaphor of a game for clarity, not to trivialize the conflict between accused and accuser. Defendants are the opponents of investigators and prosecutors. Both sides want to win. The defendants want to be diverted from prosecutions, acquitted, or receive the least restrictive sanction. Law enforcement officers want to convict. Prosecutors want to ensure that the defendants receive what they deem as an appropriate sanction. In this “game” of criminal justice, the judge acts as a referee. Judges strive to ensure that both sides of the game adhere to the rules, or due process. They must follow established procedures within the system. In some instances, juries will determine the outcome of this game. But in most cases, defendants will plead guilty before a judge. Then, the long game begins, with post-conviction proceedings. They include a pre-sentence investigation and a sentencing hearing. Classification processes follow. For some, the next step includes appeals, imprisonment, supervised release, and all of the collateral consequences that stay with the “felon” class. The sooner a target, or a defendant starts preparing, the more influence that person can have on a better outcome. As Mick Jagger sang, we don’t always get what we want. But if we try sometimes, we just might find, we get what we need. To get what we need, we must work with a criminal defense attorney. And the more we know about what is to come, the better we prepare ourselves to help our lawyers get us the best outcome. For example, if we know what follows in prison, we may be in a better position to understand the impact of a plea agreement or a prison term. In all cases, knowledge can help us make more informed decisions and restore confidence. In the next chapter, we’ll cover some thoughts to consider when working with a criminal defense attorney.   Outro: Thanks for listening to the prison professors podcast. Please subscribe. For more information on how we can help you prepare for court, sentencing, or prison, connect with us at Team@PrisonProfessors.com

Today I interviewed Jesse Barnes for our Prison Professors podcast. Jesse’s story was so inspiring that we decided to feature him in two, back-to-back episodes. If you’re struggling with the criminal justice system, or facing a significant length of time, learn from Jesse. His episodes will appear on the podcast numbers 86 and 87. We schedule them for release on March 20 and March 21, 2018. Why is Jesse’s story so inspiring? In episode 1, Jesse tells us about the extreme hardship he experienced while growing up. He was poor. He lived with envy. He developed a mindset that convinced him of what it means to be a man. That vision, for Jesse, meant violence. He carried a gun. He would retaliate with violence if he felt that someone had disrespected him. That mindset influenced Jesse’s decisions. He broke laws that brought him into the criminal justice system when he was a teenager. By the time he was 18, authorities convicted him of a first-degree murder.  In episode 1, Jesse tells us that he went into prison with a mindset that is remarkably similar to many men in prison. He wanted to build a prison reputation. Those decisions led to a difficult adjustment, but one that is not uncommon in a high security prison. During his third or fourth year in prison, while serving a lengthy stint in a segregated housing cell, Jesse saw the light—literally. It came through a window that was cut high into the concrete wall. He couldn’t see out of the window. But light came in. That light brought Jesse hope. He believed that he could change his life. That changed mindset led to changed behavior. Jesse spent the remainder of his time in prison preparing for success. It wasn’t easy. But he made it happen. And as a result of the decisions he made in prison, Jesse got out of prison after 21 years.  In episode 2, we learn about Jesse’s success after his release from prison. That wasn’t easy either. Yet Jesse’s journey inside prepared him for success. His paychecks every two weeks now exceed $4,700! How does that happen? It happens by sowing seeds. Then nurturing those seeds. Listen to the inspiring stories of Prison Professors Podcasts to prepare for your success.

Today I interviewed Jesse Barnes for our Prison Professors podcast. Jesse’s story was so inspiring that we decided to feature him in two, back-to-back episodes. If you’re struggling with the criminal justice system, or facing a significant length of time, learn from Jesse. His episodes will appear on the podcast numbers 86 and 87. We schedule them for release on March 20 and March 21, 2018. Why is Jesse’s story so inspiring?  In episode 1, Jesse tells us about the extreme hardship he experienced while growing up. He was poor. He lived with envy. He developed a mindset that convinced him of what it means to be a man. That vision, for Jesse, meant violence. He carried a gun. He would retaliate with violence if he felt that someone had disrespected him. That mindset influenced Jesse’s decisions. He broke laws that brought him into the criminal justice system when he was a teenager. By the time he was 18, authorities convicted him of a first-degree murder. In episode 1, Jesse tells us that he went into prison with a mindset that is remarkably similar to many men in prison. He wanted to build a prison reputation. Those decisions led to a difficult adjustment, but one that is not uncommon in a high security prison. During his third or fourth year in prison, while serving a lengthy stint in a segregated housing cell, Jesse saw the light—literally. It came through a window that was cut high into the concrete wall. He couldn’t see out of the window. But light came in. That light brought Jesse hope. He believed that he could change his life. That changed mindset led to changed behavior.  Jesse spent the remainder of his time in prison preparing for success. It wasn’t easy. But he made it happen. And as a result of the decisions he made in prison, Jesse got out of prison after 21 years.  In episode 2, we learn about Jesse’s success after his release from prison. That wasn’t easy either. Yet Jesse’s journey inside prepared him for success. His paychecks every two weeks now exceed $4,700! How does that happen? It happens by sowing seeds. Then nurturing those seeds. Listen to the inspiring stories of Prison Professors Podcasts to prepare for your success.

Learn from the profiles we complete of those who emerged from prison successfully. Use these stories to see the best possible outcome from our nation's prison system. For more information on #PrisonReform, visit www.PrisonProfessors.com

Michael Justice went to prison as a young man. While inside, he wasted 10 years in cycles of violence. Frequent fighting led him to maximum-security prisons. After a decade inside, a mentor inspired him. In today's podcast, Michael talks about the power of learning and the power of a solid work ethic. Since concluding his prison term, he took a series of jobs that didn't pay well. Yet by applying himself fully, Michael was able to learn and master his trade. Now he runs his company that generates millions of dollars in revenues. Get more information at Prison Professors: https://prisonprofessors.com  

This month GACDL President Scott Key interviewed Georgetown Associate Law Professor Shon Hopwood. Shon was a bank robber who studied law in prison and became a lawyer. In this interview, he shares some great tips on how to understand our clients' stories, how to better communicate with our clients, how to deal with "jailhouse lawyers," how prisons can improve, and more insights from the inside. We hope you enjoy this short and informative edition of the GACDL podcast. Some things discussed in the Podcast: 60 Minutes piece on Shon: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-a-convicted-felon-who-became-a-georgetown-law-professor/ Prison Professors, soon to be Yelp for prisons: https://prisonprofessors.com You can find Shon's book Law Man and other resources here: https://prisonprofessors.com/shop/ Shon's contact information: https://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/hopwood-shon.cfm Host Scott Key's blog can be found here: https://www.georgiacriminalappellatelawblog.com If you are a criminal defense lawyer anywhere in the US, we would value your membership. Click JOIN on GACDL's website: www.gacdl.org The judge who sentenced Shon had a blog. You can read it here: https://herculesandtheumpire.com/ Thank you for listening.

On today's Prison Professors podcast we hear from Vincent McCrudden. Vincent built a career on Wall Street. He traded commodities and then built a hedge fund. Discrepancies with leaders at different regulatory agencies resulted in his voicing his opinion. His opinions led to investigations. And those investigations led to his imprisonment. You can read about Vincent's experiences through a series of articles that Walter Pavlo published in Forbes, or you can listen to him tell the story on our podcast. If you'd like to read Vincent's book, check out the following title: Leverage and Extortion: One Man's Story of How the U.S. Government Operates

What Steps Can a Person Take to Prepare in Advance of Sentencing? People who face a sentencing hearing should prepare. It's crucial to help the stakeholders understand how or why you're worthy of mercy. Michael faced charges for having too many plants inside of a medical marijuana state. Today's podcast discusses steps that a defendant can take to prepare for the best possible outcome. Michael hired an attorney to help him prepare, but the attorney did not get him ready for sentencing. As a result, Michael has had to prepare himself. He asked for our help and we gave him that help live, on the Prison Professors podcast. Visit www.prisonprofessors.com for more information.

Jeff Grant Was a Lawyer who Went to Federal Prison Anyone can make decisions that can lead them down the path to prison. In today's Prison Professors podcast, we hear from Jeff Grant. Jeff built his career as a lawyer in New York City. During our podcast today, Jeff tells us how he built a career representing wealthy individuals and companies in real estate related transactions. He suffered an accident. While recuperating, he learned how to manipulate the medical profession to get more prescription medicine. He became addicted to opioids. As an addict, he began making bad decisions. Those bad decisions included commingling misappropriating funds. To cover up the crime, he looked for a loan. When filling out the paperwork for the loan, Jeff lied. Authorities began to investigate Jeff. In the podcast, he describes how he lived in denial. After a suicide attempt, he checked himself into a rehab center. And in time, he pleaded guilty to charges related to fraud. The guilty plea resulted in an 18-month federal prison term for Jeff. Jeff describes some of the challenges he faced. Authorities required Jeff to serve his sentence at the low-security federal prison in Allenwood. While he was there, Jeff had both successes and challenges. The salient points that I took away from his interview follow: Jeff prepared himself before surrendering to federal prison. Jeff became sober long before he surrendered to the Low-security Federal Prison in Allenwood. Jeff chose to pursue a new activity while in prison. He focused on exercise, fitness, and learning guitar. Jeff made a commitment to emerge better than when he went in. It's not easy to prepare for success after prison. But in this first of a two-part series, Jeff reveals his strategy. In the next episode, he talks about how he went on to earn a divinity degree, become a minister, and grew to lead the Family ReEntry nonprofit organization, with more than 100 employees.

Professor Aaron Thomas Kinzel had grew up in struggle. Members of his family were involved in criminal activity. They sold drugs. They were trapped in the criminal justice system. He grew up with anger problems, confrontational with authority. When Aaron was 18, police officers stopped him for a traffic violation. He resisted. A shootout followed. Later, authorities charged him with crimes that resulted in a 19-year prison term. Aaron served his sentence in the Maine State Prison System's high-security penitentiary. During the first several years, Aaron adjusted in the ways of the penitentiary. He lashed out with violence and resisted mentoring. Later, while in his sixth year, Aaron found mentors in some of the long-term prisoners. They encouraged him to participate in academic programs. Aaron attended his first college course as he passed through his 9th year of imprisonment. That college course changed his life. When he concluded his prison term, after a decade inside, Aaron continued with education. He earned an associate's degree. Then he earned a bachelor's degree. Then a master's degree. Now he is nearing completion of his doctorate degree. He is employed as a professor at the University of Michigan. In today's podcast on Prison Professors, we learn about Aaron's journey and about the collateral consequences that follow for formerly incarcerated people. The sooner people begin preparing for success, the sooner those people can overcome the challenges that follow a criminal conviction.

Roger Galvin shares his story of how he prepared before going to federal prison.   On today's Prison Professors podcast, we learn from Roger Galvin. He struggled with substance abuse and made some bad decisions. Roger learned of the synthetic drug market. Despite packaging labels that marked the products as being “Not fit for human consumption,” Roger said that he knew people purchased the products to get high.   The mislabeling resulted in Roger becoming a target of the Food and Drug Administration. Then the DEA got involved. He pleaded guilty to crimes that would result in his imprisonment.   A grand jury indicted Roger back in 2014. Longer than three years passed before a federal judge sentenced Roger to serve a 14 month sentence. During an episode that we recorded on Christmas Eve, 2017, Roger described the steps he took to prepare. He found hope in the work that our team at Prison Professors offers.   Roger created his own compass to guide him through his term in federal prison. His compass includes goals that he will work to achieve, and it includes a “Do-not” list as well. Below we copy the guidelines that Roger created in anticipation of his surrender to a federal prison camp.   If you'd like to learn how our team can help you, please text PrisonPro to 44222.   Goal list 1-)  Continue to improve my connection with Laura.         A-  Write her a letter every day I am away.                  B-  Talk on the phone daily or as often as she is available. 270 minutes p/month         C-  Email her everyday 2-)  Stay connected with all of my family and other contacts on my list.         A-  Write my family members and everyone else on my contact list one time per week this will be 3 to 4 letters per day         B-  Call my family members using the other 30 minutes I have left. 5 people=6 minutes p/month each family member.         C-  Email everyone on my contact list with group newsletter 2 times p/week 3-)  Lose weight.         A-  Goal weight is 178 lbs.  Current weight is 227 lbs   total 49 lbs         B-  Diet will be the main path to my objective here. Avoiding sugar and processed snacks and supplementing meals with protein from the commissary whenever possible. 4-)  Exercise daily for 90 minutes p/day         A- 1 hour walking/ running         B- 30 min  of interval/plyometrics training. Lunges/Sit Ups/Squats/Push Ups/Bird dog/Dead bug/Planks 5-)  Reading           A- 1 Book per week. 2 hours p/day  Taking notes while I read. Prepare a report stating the lessons and value I find in each one and how it can be applied to my life. 90 min p/week.  Share the report with my contact list.   6-)   Writing           A- Journal every day- stream of consciousness style      20 min p/day        B- Write 4 letters p/day. 1 to Laura. 3 to other family and people on my contact list on a rotating schedule. Approx.  1.5  hours  p/day        C- Write - 1 episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm  p/ month  8-10 hours p/episode 30 min p/day        D- Write 1 Column/Blog p/week on prison life/politics/accountability/Inspiration/meditation  This is where I  will explore my ideas on consulting and  my viewpoints on life and growth. 30-60 min p/day with revisions.        E-  mail or email these columns to be posted 7-)  Prayer and Meditation       A-) Pray every morning before getting out of bed and at night before I go to sleep and pretty much as needed all day long. Serenity prayer and Loving Kindness prayer (As I do now)      B-) Explore  freedom through mindfulness and meditation while being confined. Quiet places, loud places, eating, sitting standing,walking,showering,etc.   Recording my experience in my blogs. This is ongoing and can be done along with prayer throughout the day as I live my life of confinement.                                  8-) AA Meeting        Find a meeting at my facility or start one or have my own meeting out of the grapevine newsletter.  Daily if possible. 45-60 min.   Do not list   I will not expect my wife, family and friends in the outside world to stop their lives and cater to my needs. I will not expect them to send me letters and books but always be grateful if they do. I will not let my fear of offending people get me sucked into conversations and activities that waste my time and do not serve me. I will not let my instinct to please others let me get sucked into conversations and activities which waste my time and do not serve me. I will not interact with prison staff unless required to do so. I will not interact with other prisoners that interact with staff unnecessarily. I will not play group or team sports. I will not spend time in the TV areas. I will not sleep in past 5 am. I will not spend time in my bunk during the day. I will not complain to other inmates about the living conditions or the life we live while confined. I will not complain to my family and friends about my life in prison. I will not give unsolicited advice to other inmates ot staff. I will not question the behaviour of other inmates or staff. I will not question the adopted culture and processes of the inmate population and staff. I will not have a negative and defeatist attitude towards family, friends, other inmates or staff.

Billionaire Going to Prison Scott Tucker Built the Payday Lending Industry. He started in this industry back in the mid 1990s. From scratch, he put a team together that resulted in his generating billions of dollars in revenues. Despite his efforts to live as a legitimate businessman, the authorities went after Scott. He has been battled in courts for decades. But in 2016, decisions started to go against him. He found big financial troubles when the Federal Trade Commission levied a fine of more than $1 billion. The troubles didn't stop there. In early 2017, the federal government indicted Scott for violating a series of federal crimes. Those crimes included fraud and violations of the truth in lending act. As a result of his losing the judgment against the FTC, a judge froze all of Scott's assets. They even seized more than $30 million that he put in trust accounts to pay his legal fees. Without financial resources, the court appointed a team of attorneys from the public defenders panel t represent him. After eight weeks of trial, a jury convicted Scott on all counts. The jury rendered its decision after deliberating for only a few hours. As a result of the conviction, Scott faces decades in federal prison. To learn more how we Prison Professors can help you if you're facing time, text PrisonPro to 44222. We can help!

Nicholas Mitsakos Prepares for Federal Prison   Authorities charged Nicholas Mitsakos with a crime related to securities fraud. He graduated from USC and he earned an MBA from Harvard. Despite those impressive credentials, he now must prepare to serve a 30-month sentence in federal prison. In today's episode, Nicholas describes the dark feelings that accompanied his experience with the criminal justice system. For decades, he worked in the financial services industry with colleagues like Michael Milken. Nick said that his lawyer did not prepare him for the challenges ahead. Instead, he had to do his own research that would help his search for information. Nick's lawyer recommended that he contact Justin Paperny. They began working on a strategy that would get him ready for the journey ahead. On January 5, Nicholas must surrender to the federal prison camp in Sheridan, Oregon. While there, he will work to prepare for the successful life he wants to lead upon release. In today's podcast, we discuss strategies that empowered me through 26 years of imprisonment. Those same strategies can work for Nicholas, and anyone else who goes into the system. Those who want information on how they can prepare for a successful journey through prison should text PrisonPro to 44222. Or they should continue listening to the Prison Professors podcast! Please subscribe.

    If you've been listening to the past four episodes, you know that we've been offering a series to help those who want to prepare for prison. Learn how to master it quickly by following the guidance we offered. The first episode in the series explained the process of going in. In the second episode, we offered insight on how to influence the right decision makers. In the third episode, we covered custody and classification. In our fourth episode in the series, we spoke about the importance of preparing. Today brings our fifth and final episode in the series. We continue the theme of preparing, but this time by emphasizing how a personal narrative can help. Instead of complaining, start writing the next chapter of your life.   According to the Department of Justice, grand juries or prosecutors bring charges against more than 80,000 people every year. Statements made from our current Attorney General, suggest that those numbers will rise during the Trump administration. Documentation published on the Department of Justice website lead us to this conclusion. For example, consider the Memorandum that Jeff Sessions published on May 10, 2017:   MEMORANDUM FOR ALL FEDERAL PROSECUTORS   In the second paragraph, the Attorney General says:   “First, it is a core principle that prosecutors should charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense.”   The Memorandum goes on to rescind previous policy decisions that gave more discretion to prosecutors. As a result, prosecutors will bring charges against more people. In light of the Sessions Memorandum, we anticipate prosecutors will initiate more grand jury proceedings. Those proceedings will lead to more criminal indictments.   Prosecutors will also initiate charges through a process known as Rule 7 (b), a Criminal Information. With a Criminal Information, a person may waive indictment and simply agree to plead guilty to the charges a prosecutor brings.   Whether through an Indictment or a Criminal Information, at Prison Professors, we believe more people go to prison. That's why our team publishes so much free information to help. Subscribe to our Prison Professors podcast to learn while you drive, while you exercise, or whenever it suits you.   Each of my partners at Prison Professors knows a great deal about being charged. We also know the facts. According to easily verifiable statistics, prison follows for the vast majority of people who face charges in federal court. Yet a federal prison term doesn't necessarily mean the end of the road.   Staring down a lengthy prison term can bring a disheartening feeling, as if you're looking into an abyss. We've encountered many people who faced criminal charges. Many went to prison. Some of those people prospered in prison. Others fell into a deep hole. In segments that we published previously, we've given some initial insights about how to master prison quickly.   We could offer instructions for days. To break it down simply, we recommend adhering to the same principles to succeed or overcome any other challenge. There are specific steps, as follows:   Visualize success. What's the best possible outcome? Create a plan. What steps will take you from where you are today, to the success that you envision? Set priorities. As we've mentioned before, it's crucial that you set incremental goals. Know and understand that achieving one goal will put you on a pathway to achieving higher goals. More to come on this subject in future installments of our podcast episodes and chapters. Execute the plan. Although a plan is essential, without execution, it's nothing more than happy talk. Leaders take action every day. If you're following the Prison Professors pathway, you'll take action. You'll climb from where you are today, to the success you're determined to become tomorrow.   Still, we recognize that it isn't easy. Statistics show that the vast majority of people face many struggles upon release. Others return to society and thrive. As examples, I frequently cite my partners.   Our team shows people how to succeed through prison and beyond.   Our personal experiences convince us that if we prepare early, we enhance prospects for success. We don't mean success on a marginal level. We mean success on multiple levels. Success is a mindset. The sooner we can adopt that mindset of success, the sooner we can advance prospects for success.     Surrendering to Prison: When prosecutors choose to bring charges against a defendant, life changes. We never know when the time will come for us to surrender. For example, in Justin's case, prosecutors brought charges against him. Yet the judge did not order U.S. Marshals to take Justin into custody. Justin remained free on bond while his judicial proceedings played out. His judge allowed him to surrender to federal prison voluntarily several weeks after the sentence.   In my case, authorities took me into custody on the day of my arrest. I'll always remember that day. It was August 11, 1987. I was 23. I had never been to prison before. Yet the bad decisions I began making when I was 20 caught up with me. I faced a sentence of multiple decades in prison. I remained in custody until I concluded my sentence in a federal halfway house more than 26 years later, on August 12, 2013.   Take another case, like that of Paul Manafort. A federal grand jury charged Mr. Manafort with several charges, including conspiracy against the United States and money laundering. After he surrendered to face the charges, the court placed Manafort under “house arrest,” which is a form of imprisonment. After a month on house arrest, he pledged assets that allowed him to go free on bond until the charges were resolved.   We never know when authorities will require a defendant to surrender to prison. Yet we know that the sooner a person establishes a deliberate course of action, the sooner a person can stop the free fall that derails peace for so many defendants.   In our previous episode, we encouraged people to define success. We encourage people to remember the pathway to overcome challenges. For some people, challenges define the rest of their lives. For others, the way that they responded to challenges defines the rest of their lives.   We ask defendants to make a decision. Will they allow prison to define them? Or will they make decisions that show they can overcome.     Personal Narrative: One strategy that worked for us, and that we encourage for others, includes writing a personal narrative. Write that narrative at the soonest possible time. If possible, get that narrative into the presentence investigation report. Let me explain why.   When authorities allege that someone has committed a crime, that crime can have a tendency to consume the individual. Newspapers or media outlets may report the crime. A Google search will reveal that criminal charge. The statement from prosecutors or other authorities will begin to take on a life of their own. If an individual doesn't do something about it, that story will become an immutable part of his character. A personal narrative can help to counter those allegations.   We are all more than decisions we made at the worst moment of our lives. And the sooner we begin to write out our personal narrative, the sooner we can begin to write the next chapter.   I learned this lesson of writing new chapters at the very start of my journey. I was locked inside the Pierce County Jail back in 1987. Authorities arrested me for leading a group that trafficked in cocaine. When caught, the only thing I wanted was to get out of jail. As a result, I listened to every word my lawyer had to offer. He told me that there was a big difference between an indictment and a conviction. Anyone who knows how to research could find data that would undermine such a statement. When the federal government indicts someone, a conviction follows in more than nine out of every ten cases.   My lawyer told me what I wanted to hear rather than what I needed to hear.   After a jury convicted me, I realized that I made a horrific decision with my life.   At 20 I sold cocaine. At 23, I was arrested. Once in jail, I made the decision to grow, to reach my highest potential in the environment where I would be held. I made a decision to prepare in ways that would lead to success in prison and beyond.   I'll speak more about that transformation in future episodes. I've written a lot about it in the various books that we make available on PrisonProfessors.com.   But this series we're creating is about you, not us. Start with a question. Are you ready to make changes? If you've been targeted for a criminal prosecution in federal court, then decide how you want to emerge from the struggle of imprisonment.   In my case, transformation began with introspection. By thinking about my past, I could begin to connect the dots. Authorities locked me in prison because a jury convicted me of crimes related to selling cocaine. Introspection gave me a broader perspective. By reflecting on my past, I could see that I had begun to go astray long before the conviction. My life went off course long before authorities arrested me for selling cocaine. Decisions I made much earlier put me on a course for a bad outcome. No one could change that outcome but me.   I started to change that outcome with my personal narrative. I had to write out the person that I aspired to become.   Consider my partners. They have a similar story. I did not know Shon when he started serving his sentence. I know that he was young. He had longer than a decade to serve because he pleaded guilty to a series of armed bank robberies. Yet rather than allowing those armed bank robberies to define him, Shon began crafting a new narrative for his life. No one dismisses Shon because of his bank robbery conviction. He is a lawyer and he is a law professor. Shon wrote a new chapter for his life.   You can do the same.   Justin Paperny joined me inside the Taft Federal Prison Camp back in 2008. When we met, I had more than 20 years of prison behind me. Like many people coming into prison, Justin felt lost the day he surrendered. Justin had been a stockbroker and an asset manager. He defined himself by his degree from USC, his prior baseball career, and his profession as a financial-services professional. But authorities gave Justin a different narrative. He pleaded guilty of securities fraud. When he joined me in federal prison, he felt the weight of his past crushing his spirit. Justin didn't know what he would do with the rest of his life. I shared the same secret with him that I'm sharing with you. It's a secret that empowered me through each of the 9,500 days that I was locked in prison.   Justin had to write his narrative. He had to begin writing the next chapter of his life.   Justin didn't understand what I meant. We sat together each morning. I showed him how introspection could lead anyone through a difficult situation and into prosperity. It's a lesson that leaders have taught for thousands of years. Scholars attribute the following saying to Socrates:   The unexamined life is not worth living.   All lives are worth living. Yet I found enormous strength in the power of reflection. I showed Justin how lessons from Socrates and other philosophers empowered me through multiple decades in federal prison. He agreed that introspection could put him on a path to a better life, too. We worked together, side by side, to write his narrative. That commitment to writing resulted in his book Lessons From Prison. It launched an entirely new life for him.     Success Through Prison: We encourage anyone who faces a prison journey to use this same recipe to prepare for success. Introspect. Then begin writing a narrative that will become the new chapter of your life.   Again, at Prison Professors, we do not ask anyone to do or say anything that we didn't do or that we're not doing. Shon's book reveals how much thought he put into his future. Justin's book shows what he learned through introspection. During the 26 years that I served, I wrote extensively. I published several books under my name. Besides writing my own books, I interviewed other prisoners. Then I worked side by side with them to help publish books about their life stories.   A magical process unfolds through these exercises in introspection and writing. We feel empowered. We begin to see the patterns that led to where we are today. By documenting our journeys, we can take control of our destiny. We can set our lives on a new course. This process can show the how and why of our lives. We are who we are today because of the decisions we made yesterday. And at any time, we can begin making new decisions that will redefine our lives. Personal narratives can start.   Those who choose not to write their own narratives should understand what transpires. Prosecutorial statements will have a longer life. From directives in Session's Memorandum, we know that prosecutors will bring the worst possible charges that they can prove. But we also know that there is much more to every individual's life. The question is whether an individual will write a narrative that begins to show the next chapter of life, or whether the individual will allow statements from prosecutors to influence the future.   At Prison Professors, we urge our clients to prepare personal narratives at the soonest possible time. Some defendants feel so disoriented from the criminal charge that they cannot muster the concentration to write their own narratives. We show them how the process worked for us. We introduce them to our courses on writing personal narratives. In many cases, we conduct the interview and write the narrative on their behalf.   The personal narrative can serve several purposes. By writing the personal narrative early, the defendant can provide stakeholders in the system with a different perspective. Some defense attorneys use those personal narratives as tools to influence the prosecutorial process. They may use the narrative to show why the individual may be worthy of lower charges.     Presentence Investigation Report: Defendants can also use the personal narrative as a tool to influence the presentence investigation. After a defendant pleads guilty, or after a jury convicts a defendant, the next step will be for the defendant to meet with a probation officer. That probation officer will conduct an investigation that will culminate with a report known as the Presentence Investigation Report, or PSR.   During the investigation, the probation officer will ask the defendant whether he has anything to say about the offense. A good written narrative will show that the defendant has given a great deal of thought to why he is going to prison. That narrative can have an enormous influence on the journey ahead. Don't take our word for it. We encourage our clients to listen to what federal judges have said about the personal narrative. If a defendant succeeds in weaving his personal narrative into the PSR, he can influence his prison journey.   It's never too late and it's never too early to prepare for success. A person may write the personal narrative before surrendering to prison. Or a person may write the narrative once he or she is in prison. Either way, we're confident it will help. A personal narrative will clarify thoughts. It will lead a person to define a success. It will help the individual craft a plan. The personal narrative will help an individual establish priorities. And the personal narrative will motivate an individual to perform, or execute the plan.   Although a criminal indictment or conviction can feel like the end of the world, a personal narrative can set a person on a path to recalibration. It can lead to change. It can set a person on the pathway to success. That strategy of writing personal narratives worked for Shon Hopwood. It worked for Justin Paperny. And it worked for me.   We also encourage people to recognize that the process doesn't end with a sentencing hearing. The person will surrender to prison. Then, a series of authorities will judge the individual at different intervals. Those authorities will always look to the PSR—and the prosecutor's statements—when assessing the person. If an individual writes out his narrative, he can influence those eventual assessments.   That strategy of writing out a personal narrative had an enormous influence on my journey. If I had undergone the exercise of introspection, and writing a personal narrative early, I would have made different decisions. Better decisions would have meant that I would not have been sentenced to a term that required 26 years in prison.   But again, it's never too early and it's never too late to begin sowing new seeds. I wrote my narrative before surrendering to prison. Because of that narrative, I could influence the way that case managers in prison assessed me. I could influence where I would serve my sentence and what programs I could complete in prison. I could influence my level of liberty in prison, and I could influence when authorities would release me to a halfway house. Once I concluded my sentence, my personal narrative influenced the level of liberty I had on Supervised Release. It influenced the career I launched. And it persuaded authorities to advocate for my early termination of Supervised Release.   In conclusion, expect prosecutors to paint the worst possible picture of any defendant. As Jeff Sessions wrote in his Memorandum, they have a job of proving serious charges. Justice—in the eyes of many prosecutors—equates with convictions and long sentences. For defendants who want a better outcome, we encourage them to write personal narratives. We encourage them to use those personal narratives as blueprints. They lead to the next phase in the journey. They are essential to getting the outcome we want from a prison experience.   If you're an individual who wants to redefine his life, then start with a personal narrative. Do it soon. The sooner you start on a personal narrative, the more time you can invest to craft it well. Do not write the narrative to sell to readers. Rather, use your personal narrative to sell you.   In the chapters that follow, I'll describe how our team refined this strategy. We use those personal narratives to help us define success. We want all of our readers, viewers, and listeners to begin preparing for success. That is the essential lesson of Prison Professors. It's the essential lesson that will recalibrate your life, restore your confidence, and give you meaning.   But always remember, it's one thing to know the way to success. It's another thing to walk the way. Stay with us at Prison Professors to learn more.      

We're now into episode four of Prison Professors' five-part series on How to Master Prison. Those who aren't going into the prison system may find more interest in our interviews. Our team works with people from all types of backgrounds. Some face charges or served time for white-collar crimes. Others served time for drug offenses, or even violent crimes. Our interviews with those people show that regardless of what bad decisions a person has made in the past, it's never too early and it's never too late to begin sowing seeds for a better life.   In this series, we're offering content that will help people before they go into the criminal justice system. We know there's a lot of fear and anxiety about prison. Our team knows how to overcome it. And it's a bit thing to overcome the fear of prison, especially for those who don't know anything about it.   Howard Phillips Lovecraft, an American fiction writer, wrote a line that brought is often quoted:   “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear,” he wrote. “And the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”   If you've never been to prison before, then you may have some fear. That's normal. People who haven't been to prison don't really know what to expect. We've seen prisons depicted in movies. But are those representations real?   Prison population levels have soared over the past several decades. As a result, artists portray prisons in film, television, music, and literature. When artists portray scenes from prison, they feature the sensational. They produce the scenes to elicit an emotion. Frequently, film producers want to elicit the emotion of fear.   Our team at Prison Professors provides you with a different perspective. If you're going into the prison system, open your eyes to the best possible outcome. What does the best possible outcome look like in your case? If we can see the best possible outcome, we begin to realize that pathways to success exist.   Look at the success of our partners at Prison Professors.   Neither Shon nor Justin had been to prison before. One was going to prison for armed bank robbery. The other would serve time for a white-collar crime. Both men were afraid of what was to come. Prison would separate them from the people they love. It would separate them from the people who loved them. Neither knew anyone who had served time before. Yet both of them had seen the movies. They watched the television shows and they heard the stories.   Their outcomes on the other side of the journey, however, differed from what anyone would expect. Shon became the most successful jailhouse lawyer in history. He wrote briefs that won cases in District Courts, in Circuit Courts, and in the U.S. Supreme Court. Then, after completing his term, Shon went on to law school. He clerked for the D.C. Circuit Court. Georgetown Law School hired Shon. He's now a law professor and advocate for reforms.   Justin chronicled his story in Lessons From Prison. When he went to prison, he feared the type of life he would lead upon release. Justin's conviction for fraud resulted in the loss of his livelihood. He worried about how he would be able to earn a living. Like Shon, Justin, finished serving his sentence during the worst economic recession of our lifetime. Yet during the first few years since his release from prison, he began building businesses. Those businesses would generate millions in revenues. Clients for those businesses include law enforcement, the corporate sector, academia, law firms, the judiciary, and individuals who face time in prison.   Why did Shon and Justin experience a different outcome from what we see portrayed in media? They prepared for success!   I'm Michael Santos. My partners and I want to share everything we learned about mastering the prison experience. Like Shon and Justin, I went to prison as a young man. I started my prison journey in , when I was 23. I didn't get out of federal prison until 2013. Despite the 26 years that I served, every day felt productive. It felt productive because I wasn't only preparing for prison. I was preparing for the success I would want to achieve in prison and beyond.     How Do We Prepare for Prison: We prepare for prison in the same way that we prepare for anything else in life. Success begins with a definition: How do we define success? The person must ask the following question:   What is going to be the best possible outcome?   Answering that question is essential. None of us can change the past. But if we want to influence the future, we must begin by defining success. If we can define success, then we can engineer the path. That path should take us from where we are to where we want to go. Future chapters will define our methodical approach for defining success. We call it our Straight-A Guide. But for now, let's focus our preparation on defining success.   Defining a successful outcome from prison requires us to complete a self-assessment. What does our life look like now?   If we're a highly-educated person, that we may prepare in ways that differ from someone who doesn't have a high school diploma. If we have financial resources, we may prepare differently from someone who doesn't have enough money to live in prison. If we value close relationships with family, we may prepare differently from someone who wants to serve time alone. If we have a sentence in excess of 10 years, we may prepare differently from someone who is serving one year.   Preparing for a successful journey through prison requires us to define success. And as shown above, success for one person may differ from another person's success.   My partners and I all had different life experiences. Justin was a graduate from the University of Southern California and he was a licensed professional before he went to prison. Shon had a history of substance abuse and he was serving a sentence for armed bank robberies. I started selling cocaine when I was 20 and didn't have much of an education when I started.   But one fact united each of us. Justin, Shon, and I hated being in prison. We wanted a different outcome from what others would expect of us. We wanted to return to society as law-abiding, tax-paying citizens. We didn't want to live on the margins. We wanted success, and we prepared in ways that would be consistent with that outcome. Our preparations, however, began when we were already confined.     Prepare For Prison Early: The sooner a person can prepare, the better. Consider the oft-quoted adage on the best time to plant an oak tree. Do you know the best time to plant an oak tree? Some people say winter, some people say summer. Some people say fall, some people say spring.   A wise person knows the best time to plant an oak tree. It's 20 years ago. The second best time to plant an oak tree is today.   The same thing goes with preparing for prison. The sooner a person can start thinking about the outcome that he wants to achieve, the better a person can prepare for a successful journey inside.   Good preparations serve a person well. Preparations will serve a person going to prison in the in the same way that a blueprint can serve a builder. It provides a guide of what steps we must take.   Not all people get to prison the same way. Some judges allow people to surrender at some point after the sentencing hearing. Through counsel, the defendant can ask the judge for time to prepare and get affairs in order. When judges allow people to surrender, they typically allow at least 30 days to pass. Some of our clients have been able to postpone their surrender to prison for a year or longer. There may be a variety of reasons that make sense for someone to delay their surrender date. They may want to complete a class. They may have family obligations. They may need to complete a business transaction.   If there isn't a compelling reason to do the opposite, we encourage people to get started. Don't delay the surrender if there isn't a reason. While waiting to serve time, life can feel like it's on hold. It's hard to gain any traction in life when a prison term is looming ahead. For many people who must surrender to prison, the waiting can be interminable. It can feel like a person is serving time, but the time does not count. In Lessons From Prison, Justin describes how the period before surrendering to prison led to a depression. Others talk about drinking too much, or eating too much, or feeling traumatized with fear.   Each case is different, and we do not provide boilerplate guidance. But as a general rule, we find that it's best to start serving the time as soon as possible. The sooner a person starts, the sooner a person can get on a path toward building a successful future.   We provide tips through our website, through our YouTube channel, and through our podcast. Some of those tips will be specific for people who have an option to surrender to prison. Other tips apply to all people, whether they're surrendering to prison or whether they're going to be taken into custody without notice. It's important to remember that a judge has the discretion. The judge can leave a person out on bond for a lengthy period of time after the conviction. Or the judge can issue an order that results in an unexpected confinement. Consider the widely reported case of Martin Shkreli.   Martin Shkreli was widely castigated in the media. Headlines labeled him as the “Pharma Bro.” In 2017, a jury convicted him on charges related to fraud. While out on bond, he repeatedly appeared on social media. One post, supposedly, offered payment to anyone who could provide a piece of hair from Hillary Clinton. That post led prosecutors to say that Martin posed a thread. The judge agreed. He ordered the U.S. Marshals to take Martin into custody in September, long before his sentencing hearing. As a result, the Bureau of Prisons locked him inside a New York detention center.   Had Martin prepared better, the judge likely would have allowed him to surrender to a minimum-security camp. Life in a minimum-security camp offers considerably more liberty, and considerably less volatility than life inside of a detention center.   It's always best to prepare. Knowledge translates into better decisions, and better decisions translate into better experiences.     Designation Details: Many defense attorneys will stop their representation at the sentencing hearing. Others will be willing to assist their clients a bit further. For those who have a good legal team in place, we offer some advice. Ask the defense attorney to get some confirmations from the Marshals and the BOP regarding the designation. A process unfolds after sentencing. The U.S. Marshals will forward the Judgment Order and the Presentence Investigation Report to the Bureau of Prisons designation center in Grand Prairie, Texas. Administrators in Texas will consider many different factors. Then they will identify an appropriate prison for the person to serve the sentence.   The staff in Grand Prairie will be responsible for submitting the appropriate paperwork to the designated prison. Sometimes human errors occur. Those errors can mean that the paperwork is not in order. If the paperwork is not in order when the defendant arrives at the institution, staff members may lock the individual in the Special Housing Unit. That means the person will be held on lockdown, without access to the telephone or recreation. Time will be much more difficult.   If possible, prepare in advance. Ask the defense attorney to confirm with the Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshal service that all paperwork is in order. Our team has known many defendants who suffered because they were locked unnecessarily in Special Housing Units because they did not prepare in advance.     Point of Contact (POC): Identify a point of contact prior to confinement. Defendants may have a family member or friend who will serve as this point of contact. Let the POC know that they should expect to hear from you within two days. Defendants should understand that the Bureau of Prisons might not activate the phone or email system immediately. Still, if a defendant is on a prison compound, he will be in a community. Depending on the prison, a population level of between 100 and more than 1,000 people will serve time in the community. Someone will agree to help. They can have a family member reach out to your POC and let them know that you arrived safely and that you're okay.   Create a plan for your POC to follow. If your POC does not hear from you after three days, ask your POC to take action. Your POC should contact your attorney. If you don't have an attorney, you need an advocate who will help you. Your advocate should contact the Bureau of Prisons. Effective advocacy will lead the BOP to investigate why you're not able to communicate. If you're being held in the SHU because of misplaced paperwork, your advocate can take steps to correct the problem.   Alan was a client who could have used an advocate. Alan was convicted of healthcare fraud. He surrendered to a minimum-security camp to serve a 36-month sentence. Besides the instant offense, Alan did not have a criminal history. He expected to serve his time in the camp. Unfortunately, the BOP in Grand Prairie did not forward his presentence investigation report to the camp. As a result, when he surrendered to the camp, staff member locked him the Special Housing Unit. He remained in the Special Housing Unit for six weeks because the staff did not have a sense of urgency to fix the problem. Alan didn't know any better, and he didn't have a plan to fix the problem.     Finances: Create a finance plan as soon as possible. The plan should take into consideration the financial responsibilities outside of prison, and the financial needs while in prison.   Every individual has a unique situation. Some people have family members to support. Others do not have any financial responsibilities outside of prison. Think this through. Craft a plan that works for the support group. Coordinate a budget, or plan to assist through the journey.   It's possible to live in prison without any financial resources. Yet financial resources can ease the burden significantly. Remember that prison is a microcosm of our broader society. An underground economy will exist in every prison. By understanding how that economy works, a person can avoid problems that can complicate life inside.   In our book Earning Freedom: Conquering a 45-Year Prison Term, I wrote about my experiences with the prison economy. I describe why I would spend about $600 each month to live in prison. Those expenditures allowed me to pay for the email system, the telephone system, postage, and to purchase commissary.   Other people live without resources. Some people have “hustles” in prison that allow them to function in that economy. They wash clothes, they clean, they cook for other people. Other people earn an income while working on prison jobs. Those jobs may pay anywhere from $5 a month to $200 per month. Jobs that pay $200 or more a month are relatively scarce, and staff members award those jobs in accordance with seniority. It may take ten years in prison before a person can get into one of the higher paying jobs.   A good plan will keep a person on track. Take steps to understand the financial opportunities and limitations in prison. I've written extensively about my experience in prison. When I left prison, after 26 years inside, I had more than $100,000 in after-tax savings. Those resources allowed me to start my life. The financial resources reflected my preparation. The preparations began with a visualization of how I wanted to emerge. Then I put my plan in place. Then I set priorities. Then I executed the plan. Make sure that you do the same.     Reading: A good planner will see advantages everywhere. We encourage you to plan your reading list. That plan worked well for our partner Shon Hopwood. He chose to read selectively in prison. That selected reading plan led to his developing knowledge of the law. By reading, he became an expert in writing appellate motions. While in prison, Shon wrote briefs that led to liberty for many people. His briefs won in U.S. District Courts, in Circuit Courts, and in the United States Supreme Court.   Likewise, Justin followed a disciplined reading schedule while in prison. He read books that would lead to his success upon release. What books will you read while you're in prison? How will reading contribute to your success while in prison, and beyond?   In several of our programs, I describe the strategy that empowered me through prison. Each time I read a book, I would document the experience with a book report. The book report would follow a simple plan. I would answer three questions:   Why did I read the book?   What did I learn from reading the book?   How will reading the book contribute to my success upon release?   By responding to those questions, we show a disciplined, deliberate path to make time in prison work for you. It's part of an excellent preparation strategy.     Journaling and Reputation Management: At the soonest possible time, anticipate the challenges that you'll face upon release. Use your time inside to begin crafting your personal image. Anticipate the how prospective employers, creditors, business associates, and anyone else will perceive you. What will they find when they search your name on Google?   If you anticipate challenges in the future, you can begin sowing seeds today to overcome those challenges. That strategy worked well for Shon. It worked well for Justin. It worked well for me.   Each of us documented our journey in prison. Each of us chronicled our journey to show our disciplined, deliberate preparations inside. Those initiatives allowed us to overcome enormous obstacles. Shon persuaded a law school to admit him, he persuaded Bar to admit him, and he persuaded a federal judge to hire him. Justin's journaling and strategies for reputation management while in prison opened enormous opportunities. Within three weeks of concluding 26 years in prison, I was teaching as an adjunct professor at San Francisco State University.   What led to those opportunities? Our journaling and our efforts to redefine our image made all the difference. Rather than judging us for the bad decisions that led to our prison term. People judged us for our how we responded. We prepared while in prison.    

Are you facing a term in federal prison? I'm Michael Santos, and along with my two co-founders, Shon Hopwood and Justin Paperny, we want to help you master the system. The more you know about the system, the better you can position yourself to succeed.   We're now in our third episode of our five-part series, How to Master Prison. In our two previous episodes, we offered some insight. We discussed the process that brings someone into the system. Then we discussed how people going into the system should work to influence leaders. In this episode, we cover Custody and Classification. Those who have never been to federal prison may not know anything about custody and classification systems. But understanding the system can make all the difference in the world.   It's something that each of our partners knows a lot about. For those who are reading the chapters independently, rather than sequentially, I encourage you to tune into earlier episodes to learn about the members of our Prison Professors team. All readers should know why we're qualified to teach lessons on mastering the federal prison system. Our website at PrisonProfessors.com features a full bio on each of us.   As stated in the previous episodes, to master the federal prison system, start with an understanding of the massive bureaucracy. The system employs more than 40,000 staff members, and it confines more than 200,000 people. In an effort to keep decisions in harmony, the BOP relies about an extensive library of Program Statements and Policy Statements. The BOP invests heavily to train staff members so that they can make decisions in accordance with those Program Statements and Policy Statements.   The Bureau of Prisons operates a website at www.BOP.Gov. Through that website, visitors can access the Program Statements. The BOP published Program Statement 5100.08 on September 12, 2006. This Program Statement covers Inmate Designation and Custody Classification. It is the eighth version of the program statement. In time, the BOP will likely revise the Program Statement. When the BOP revises the Program Statement, it will be known as 5100.09. For now we will provide a primer on the system that is in use as of December 2017.     Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification Our team at Prison Professors has thousands of stories that reveal why an understanding of Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification is so crucial. We'll start with the case of Erik.   A federal judge sentenced Erik to serve a 48-month sentence for wire fraud. Prior to being charged, Erik said that he didn't know the meaning of wire fraud. He didn't consider himself a criminal. Many people make bad decisions during the course of their careers. Sometimes, those bad decisions lead to criminal prosecution. Erik owned, for example, a small finance company. Some financial structuring problems led prosecutors to indict Erik. Inappropriate use of Email and the Internet led to his guilty conviction. Regardless of his self-perception of not being a criminal, a federal judge ordered Erik to surrender to a Federal Prison Camp so that he could serve a 48-month sentence.   Had Erik understood the Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification system, he would have behaved differently, he said. Instead, Erik made decisions inside that really complicated his journey.   As anyone can see from the free calculators that we make available at PrisonProfessors.com, Erik should have finished his time in prison early. With credit for good time, credit for completion of the Residential Drug Abuse Program, and credit for halfway house, Erik should have served about two years in prison. Then he should have transferred to a halfway house. But Erik didn't understand the prison system. He made decisions inside that resulted in his serving the entire 48 month sentence.   Further, authorities prosecuted Erik a second time for possession of contraband in prison. Although he could have returned to his family in less than two years, he Erik ended up serving the entire four-year sentence. He also received a new felony conviction, and an additional six-month term. Instead of serving his time in a minimum-security camp, he served substantial portions locked in the segregated housing unit and then in a low-security prison.   How did that happen?   Erik's struggle came because he did not know the importance of decisions in prison. He did not consider himself a criminal. And he thought that others wouldn't consider him a criminal.   Yet Erik's self perception didn't have any bearing on how prison staff would treat him. Staff members would consider him an “inmate.” As such, they would judge him in accordance with what the various Program Statements prescribed.   The following sequence of events occurred. Erik surrendered to prison in accordance with the judge's order. As soon as he settled in, he wanted to use the phone. He didn't know the rules associated with the phone system. To use the phone, Erik had to wait for staff members to set up a list of approved numbers that he could call from his account. Erik grew frustrated. He wanted to talk with his parents, but the phone number wasn't approved. Not knowing the rules, Erik asked his wife to patch him through on a conference call. Staff members learned about the three-way call. After finding him guilty of violating the phone rules, a Disciplinary Hearing Officer sanctioned him with the loss of telephone privileges for six months. Erik responded by using a cell phone that he borrowed from another prisoner. Cell phones are contraband. Staff members caught him. Possession of a cell phone brought a series of new problems. Because it wasn't only contraband, it was also new criminal conduct. As a result of his decisions:   Erik lost his good time. He lost eligibility for RDAP and the time off that would have resulted had he completed the program successfully. Prosecutors charged him with new criminal conduct. He underwent more expenses with legal fees. He pleaded guilty to a second felony and he received a new six-month sentence that ran consecutive to his first sentence. He served more than a year in the Special Housing Unit—otherwise known as the hole. He served the remainder of his time in a low-security prison, where he faced other problems.   Erik liked to say that he wasn't a criminal. Yet those who worked in the system did not concern themselves with Erik's self-perception. They judged him in accordance with objective information.   He pleaded guilty to the white-collar crime of wire fraud. A judge sentenced him to serve a 48-month sentence. BOP staff members relied upon Program Statement 5100.08 for his Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification. The objective scoring showed that he should serve his time inside of a minimum-security Federal Prison Camp. Yet his adjustment in prison resulted in a new scoring. He received a Public Safety Factor that resulted in his serving the remainder of his time in a higher-security environment.     Security in The Federal Bureau of Prisons: At the time of this writing, at the end of 2017, The Federal Bureau of Prisons confines about 185,000 people. About 83% of those people, or 154,844 inmates, serve their time inside Bureau of Prisons facilities. The other people serve their time in privately managed prisons or other types of facilities. Males make up more than 93% of the federal prison population. Those people serve sentences in the following types of security levels:   Minimum-security Federal Prison Camps: 32,189 people, or about 17% of the population Low-security Federal Correctional Institutions: 69,437 people, or about 37% of the population Medium-security Federal Correctional Institutions: 55,377 or about 30% of the population High-security United States Penitentiaries: 21,524 people, or about 12% of the population Unclassified: 6,980 people, or about 4% of the population   Our partner Justin Paperny served time for a white-collar crime. He served his entire sentence in at the Taft Federal Prison Camp, a minimum-security camp. Shon Hopwood served time for armed bank robbery, and he served his entire sentence inside the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution in Pekin, Illinois. I served time for convictions related to selling cocaine. And over the course of 26 years, I served time in every security level.   Developing literacy of Program Statement 5100, also known as the Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification system, or the Custody and Classification Manuel, helps people who want to master the federal prison system. No one can change the past. At any time, however, we can start sowing seeds for a better future. In our book Earning Freedom: Conquering a 45-Year Prison Term, I show how I started sowing the seeds very early during my journey. The seeds I sowed allowed me to make significant progress in prison.   I took the opposite approach of Erik. He started in a camp. Once he surrendered, Erik made bad decisions that led him to higher-security prisons. I say they're bad decisions, because he told me they were bad decisions.   I started in a high-security United States Penitentiary. As soon as I got there, I started making decisions that would put me on a path to ease my adjustment. By understanding the Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification system, I laid the foundation carefully. That foundation would allow me to transfer to a medium-security Federal Correctional Institution. Then I transferred to a low-security Federal Correctional Institution. Then, at the soonest possible time, I transferred to a minimum-security Federal Prison Camps.     Understanding Program Statement 5100.08: The Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification system is an objective system. On our website, we offer a free calculator to help people determine how staff members in the BOP will score them. Simply visit PrisonProfessors.com, click on the “Calculators” button in the main menu, and respond to the questions.   The calculators simulate Program Statement 5100.08, seeking responses to questions on two separate levels:   Base Scoring Custody Scoring   To arrive at the scoring level, respond to 10 separate questions. The response to each question will provide an objective score. Those questions include the following:   What type of detainer do you have, if any? What is the severity of your current offense? How many months do you expect to serve before your scheduled release? What will the BOP say about your criminal history? Do you have a history of escape attempts? Do you have a history of violence? Will staff in the BOP recognize that I voluntarily surrendered to prison? What will the BOP say about your age? What will the BOP say about your education level? What will the BOP say with regard to your history of alcohol or substance abuse during the past five years?   Notice that we always ask what the BOP will say. It's not important what you or anyone else says. We need to assess what the BOP will say in order to calculate your score appropriately.   Program Statement 5100.08 will attach a score to each of your responses to those questions. This score will be known as your “Base Score.” When it comes to the base score, you will note that the questions focus on your past. For the most part, you will notice that they require static answers—meaning that you will not have opportunities to change the outcome. Since you cannot change the past, you must wait for calendar pages to turn to influence the Base Score.   It's important to understand this score as early as possible. You may be able to influence the score during the presentence investigation process.   Once you calculate the Base Score, the next step will require you to answer questions that will lead to your Custody Score. Those questions follow:   What will the BOP say with regard to how much time you've served as a percentage of your sentence? With regard to program participation, will the BOP assess you as average or good? How will the BOP assess your living skills? What will the BOP say with regard to your record of disciplinary infractions? What will the BOP say about the frequency of disciplinary reports you've received in the past year? What will the BOP say about your community ties? What will the BOP say about your gender?   Program Statement 5100.08 will assign a score to each answer that you provide. The sum of those scores will result in your Custody Score. Then, Program Statement 5100.08 will require you to consult a variance table that may either add or subtract from your score.   By taking all factors into consideration, you receive a scoring. That scoring reflects all of your security points. Those security points will determine the type of prison where you will serve your sentence. Your behavior in prison will determine whether you move to higher security levels, and potentially extend your release date, as was the case with Erik. Or if you pursue the path of a master, your behavior in prison will result in your moving to a lower-security prison, and potentially advancing your release date.   These scores will come from your Presentence Investigation Report. If you want to influence these scores, then learn as much as possible before the PSI. We urge you to review the information available on our website. It will help you understand the importance of the PSR, and it will offer guidance on how to influence that PSR. If you need guidance, contact us today.   Higher-Security Prisons as Compared to Lower-Security Prisons The security-level of a prison influences the level of liberty. As stated earlier in this chapter, about 18% of the federal prison population serves time in a minimum-security camp. More than 80% of the federal prison population serves time in higher-security prisons. Regardless of where a person starts the sentence, various factors can influence the security scoring. A change in security scoring can result in a transfer to either higher or lower security prison.   Learn how behavior in prison influences the Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification. Although nothing but the passing of time will influence the Base Score, the Custody Score is more dynamic. In other words, behavior in prison can result in lowering or raising the Custody Score. By understanding how the Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification system works, a person can choose to behave in ways that reflects a mastery of the system.     Experience in Different Security Levels: As a founder of Prison Professors, I would be remiss if I did not share what I learned from serving time in prisons of every security level. I started my term in 1987. Initially authorities locked me inside a detention center in Miami. At the time, it was called the Metropolitan Correctional Center. Since then, the BOP changed MCC Miami into FCI Miami. When I started, I didn't understand the system at all. I only cared about getting out of prison. Later, after a jury convicted me and a judge sentenced me, I changed my thought process. I wanted to leave prison successfully. Every decision that I made inside would put me on the trajectory of success.   What types of decisions will you make?   After being sentenced, authorities transferred me to the United States Penitentiary, in Atlanta. I had a 45-year term. Under the laws that existed at the time, I could earn credit for good behavior. As long as I didn't lose any of those credits for good behavior, I could complete that term in 26 years. I started to set goals. I wanted to get out of prison at the soonest possible time. Further, I wanted to make sure that when I returned to society, I would be in the best possible position to succeed. I understood that there were some things I could not control. But I had opportunities to make decisions every day. Those decisions would lead me closer to success, or further away from success.   Coincidentally, Program Statement 5100.08 rewards decisions that I consider to be consistent with success. By avoiding disciplinary infractions in prison, I could put myself on a path to move to lower security levels. It wasn't going to happen overnight. Yet by gradually working through programs in prison, I could begin to influence change. I could assess my environment. Although I couldn't avoid the volatility of prison, I could make choices that would minimize my exposure to problems. I could choose jobs that would be more consistent with my goals. I could maneuver my way into the best possible housing situation. By understanding Program Statement 5100.08, I could succeed in a high-security penitentiary. I did not receive any disciplinary infractions. I earned an undergraduate degree. I successfully coordinated my transfer to the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution of my choice.   Once I got to the next stop, I repeated the process. At the soonest possible time, I transferred from the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution to the low-security Federal Correctional Institution of my choice. By the time I arrived, I had a master's degree. While in the low-security prison, I continued the same pattern. While there, I married the love of my life. And at the soonest possible time, I transferred to a minimum-security camp. While there, I built many relationships that influenced my success in prison and beyond. Indeed, I met my co-founders at Prison Professors while I was serving time inside of those minimum-security federal prison camps.     Get Ready to Master Federal Prison If you or a loved one is facing challenges with the criminal justice system, we urge you to understand the Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification system. You may research the entire manual by reading Program Statement 5100.08. If you want a quick assessment of how the Bureau of Prisons will score you, turn to our free calculators at PrisonProfessors.com. The more you know about the system, the stronger you will become. As you restore confidence, you'll make better decisions. Those better decisions will show that you're a master of the system.   Regardless of where you serve your sentence, you can make decisions that will lead to a life of meaning and relevance. That said, we ask you to consider Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. We all have the basis need of safety. If you can maneuver your way into less-volatile environments, then we urge you to do so. By understanding the Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification system, you'll know how to seize upon opportunities to influence the scoring level. The sooner you get started, the better off you will be. Our courses and books at Prison Professors will help.   Contact us today if you want more personal assistance.  

I'm Michael Santos with Prison Professors. Along with my partners, Shon Hopwood and Justin Paperny, we're glad to provide more information about how to prepare for the prison journey. Earlier episodes have given extensive biographical information on us. Complete your own due diligence. You'll see why we're exceptionally well qualified to help anyone who is going into the system.   More importantly, we're well qualified to help people who want to get out of the prison system successfully. Each of us succeeded after prison because we understood how to make good decisions as we worked our way through the journey. Always remember, the right decision at the wrong time is the wrong decision.   This episode is part of our series that we're calling how to prepare for prison. In the previous episode, we explained a bit about the process. As Dr. Stephen Covey advised in his best-selling book, it's always best to seek to understand before we seek to be understood.   In this segment of the Prison Professors podcast, we're going to discuss the importance of understanding stakeholders in the criminal justice system.     Federal Prison Hierarchy To succeed in the federal prison system, it's crucial to understand how it operates. Our partner, Shon Hopwood, tells a story that might help us illustrate the point. When Shon began serving his sentence for armed bank robbery, he wanted out. Many people in prison want out.   Shon read a case that highlighted a favorable decision. He thought the legal ruling might apply to him. Shon wrote a motion and he filed his motion in a court that he thought would grant relief. The judge refused to accept Shon's motion. Instead, the judge offered advice. He suggested that if Shon wanted to get relief in court, it would behoove him to file in an appropriate court that would have jurisdiction on his case.   Obviously, Shon went on to master the judicial system. As Steve Kroft of 60 Minute said, while serving his sentence, Shon became the most successful “jailhouse” lawyer in history. The legal briefs that he wrote for other prisoners resulted in victories in the district courts, circuit courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court. His legal victories changed laws and resulted in liberty for many people in federal prison.   But if Shon did not learn how to master federal prison first, he would not have succeeded in mastering the federal judiciary, or become a skilled jailhouse lawyer. We must take first steps first. And for people going into the prison system, it's essential to understand how the Bureau of Prisons operates.     Branches of Government Like the federal courts, the Federal Bureau of Prisons is a massive bureaucracy. Many years may have passed since some of our readers took a class in civics. As a quick reminder, our nation has three bodies of government. They include the following branches:   The Legislative Branch The Judicial Branch The Executive Branch   Our elected members of Congress make up the Legislative Branch of government. They include representatives from each of the 500+ districts in the United States, and they include the two senators that represent each state. Those members vote on legislation in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Once they're in agreement, the legislative bills go to the President. If the President signs the legislative bills, they become laws.   In our country, we have more than 90 federal Judicial Districts. For example, in California, there are four separate federal Judicial Districts—including the Northern District Court, the Central District Court, the Southern District Court, and the Eastern District Court. Each of those Districts is part of a Circuit. We separate those Circuits by geographic regions. For example , California is in the Ninth Judicial Circuit. New York is in the Second Judicial Circuit. We have the U.S. Supreme Court that presides over all Circuit and District Courts. We have more than 1,000 federal judges that preside over the various courts. Each of the judges strives to ensure that people receive due process—meaning, the judges strive to apply fairness in the courts for all.   The Executive Branch of government oversees the many different applications of government. Our president appoints people who oversee the different departments. For our purposes, we know that the Attorney General of the United States oversees the Department of Justice. And the Attorney General of the United States oversees the Director of the Bureau of Prisons. For that reason, we must understand how the hierarchy operates.     Politics and Prisoners: Earlier, I encouraged you to complete your due diligence on my partners and me. That way you could assess the veracity of our claim to have mastered our time in federal prison. It takes a lot of discipline to grow in prison. In my case, I went through 26 years.   By the time that I met our co-founder Justin Paperny in the Taft Federal Prison Camp, our country was going through a historic election. The economy was in the tank, sliding into the worst recession in recent memory. Unemployment was on the rise. Justin asked me why I followed the political race so closely.   As a prisoner, I explained, we must live with decisions that come down from the top. The president's perspective on governing will influence the policies that he wants to set. As a prisoner, we must live with those policies. If the president believes that people have a capacity to change, the president will appoint an Attorney General that shares that liberal viewpoint. If the president believes that we need to preserve the systems that are in place, then the president will appoint an Attorney General that shares such a conservative viewpoint. Policy shifts in prison will reflect the perceptions of both the president and the Attorney General.   To illustrate, let us provide two recent examples of such change.   The Second Chance Act provided prison administrators with new discretion regarding halfway house placement. Prior to the Second Chance Act, leaders in The Bureau of Prisons could authorize prisoners to serve the final six months of their sentences in a halfway house. After The Second Chance Act, leaders in The Bureau of Prisons could authorize prisoners to serve the final 12 months of their sentences in a halfway house.   Obviously, from a prisoner's perspective, 12 months in a halfway house would be better than six months in a halfway house. But it was up to the Bureau of Prisons to apply the law.   The U.S. Congress passed The Second Chance Act. But leadership in the BOP has discretion. When President Obama was in office, the Attorney General was Eric Holder. Under that administration, people in prison could have some influence on how much halfway house time they could receive. As a master of federal prison, I succeeded in putting myself on a pathway to get the full 12 months of halfway house. Similarly, as a master in the federal prison system, Justin succeeded in getting the maximum halfway house placement that was available to him.   In 2017, President Donald Trump appointed Jeff Sessions to serve as the Attorney General. Both President Trump and Attorney General Sessions had a different perspective. President Trump and AG Sessions had a conservative perspective, meaning that they believed that people should serve the maximum amount of time in federal prison. The 2017 administration cut funding to halfway houses.   But a master of federal prison would know how to cope with such change.   To prevail on maximum halfway house time—or any other matter pertaining to federal prison—Prison Professors urges people to understand the system. Pursue a strategy to get the best possible outcome, depending upon the political philosophy of the administration in power. The strategy that may result in success during a conservative administration may differ from the strategy that could result in success in a liberal administration.   To master federal prison quickly, make sure that you understand the political philosophy on both a macro and a micro level.     Directors of the Bureau of Prisons: The Bureau of Prisons is a massive organization. It employs more than 40,000 staff members that serve in six different regions. Those regions include federal prisons in most states, halfway houses in all states, regional offices, training centers, and headquarters in Washington D.C. The Director of the Bureau of Prisons presides over the entire bureaucracy. He reports to the Attorney General of the United States.   For the nearly 200,000 federal prisoners, it's important to understand the different roles in the BOP. What is the role of the Director?   Well, the Director must make sure that the prison system is operating in accordance with the wishes of the Attorney General. And the Attorney General wants the Director to operate the Bureau of Prisons in accordance with the political philosophy of the President.   The Director is not going to express concern for individual prisoner issues. Rather, the Director focuses on systemic policies. When prisoners attempt to seek relief from the Director, the prisoner reveals a lack of understanding for how the system operates. Masters understand the system. And they learn how to succeed, given the limitations of the system itself.   Unless a prisoner wants to advocate for systemic change, it doesn't make sense for him to advance arguments at the highest levels of the Bureau of Prisons. In fact, doing so can cause problems. Leaders know that the right decision at the wrong time is the wrong decision. Although people in prison may see many injustices on a systemic level, as masters, we should always have a very clear perspective. How are we defining success? What battles are we striving to win? What price are we willing to pay in pursuit of success over our battles.   By focusing on victory as we define victory, we know where to concentrate our energy. It rarely works in our interest to seek relief from the highest levels of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.   To oversee the Bureau of Prisons, the Director relies upon a large team. That team includes a Deputy Director, several Acting Directors, and several Regional Directors. It would be highly unusual for any of those directors to make decisions regarding any individuals in prison. Rather, the directors rely upon their subordinates. We should expect the subordinates to make decisions in accordance with the political philosophies of the people in power. Directors set policies and oversee budgets. Subordinates carry out those policies.   Federal Prison, an Overview: We know that the Bureau of Prisons is a massive bureaucracy. It includes many different divisions. People who want to master federal prison should broaden their understanding of how it operates. The more people understand, the more likely they become to get on the best trajectory.   Masters seek to understand more so that they can influence more.   Although a later chapter discusses custody and classification levels in detail, we can provide a brief overview here. The Bureau of Prisons categorizes in accordance with security levels. Consider the following:   ADX: This designation refers to an Administrative-Maximum U.S. Penitentiary. It is the highest level of security. Most people who serve time in an ADX start in a lower-security prison. They make decisions in prison that result in new criminal charges, or disciplinary problems. When a team or staff member identifies people in prison as being sufficiently disruptive, they may send them to an ADX penitentiary.   SMU: This designation refers to a Special Management Unit. Like the ADX, the SMU is a highly restrictive prison. Staff members may send people to an SMU when they want to restrict their communication. Although most people who are in an SMU have violent histories, it's important to remember the adage “The pen is mightier than the sword.” If staff members consider a prisoner to be a prolific writer, and the prisoner writes content that staff members consider inflammatory, they may confine the person in an SMU.   USP: This designation refers to a United States Penitentiary. In the broader community, people consider the word penitentiary as being synonymous with prison. But in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the word penitentiary has a different meaning and connotation. It means high-security. People going to a USP live in restrictive conditions. Staff members consider USPs to be more volatile. They govern USPs in response to population levels that include higher percentages of people who have violent, volatile, and disruptive histories.   FCI: This designation refers to a Federal Correctional Institution. The FCI includes both medium-security and low-security prisons.   FSL: This designation refers to a Federal Satellite Low Security Prison. The people in an FSL have the custody scoring of people in a camp. But they have some issue that prevents them from going to a camp. For example, they may have a detainer of some type, or they may have longer than 10 years to serve.   SCP: This designation refers to a Satellite Prison Camp. The camp is adjacent to a secure prison, and the inmates in the camp provide labor that keeps the prison operating.   FPC: This designation refers to a federal prison camp. It is frequently a stand-alone camp, meaning it is not tied to another prison, as with the SCP.   FCC: This designation refers to a Federal Correctional Complex. A complex will have several prisons of different security levels in a single location. People in one prison do not mix with people in another prison, but they're all in the same geographical location.   FDC, MCC, or MDC: These designations refer detention centers. People in detention centers, ordinarily, await outcomes of judicial proceedings. Although some people serve the entire term in detention centers, or they are assigned to the work cadre—performing maintenance on the prison, they are not necessarily serving time.   FMC: This designation refers to a Federal Medical Center. People who need medical attention may serve all or a portion of their time in an FMC.   FTC: This designation refers to the Federal Transfer Center, in Oklahoma. Prisoners may spend time in the FTC while traveling to other institutions, or they may serve their sentence in the FTC if they're part of a work cadre.   CI: This designation refers to a privately operated federal prison.   CO and RO: These designation refers to the Central Office and the Regional Office. We can use our understanding of the regional office and the central office to influence our placement, or to influence favorable outcomes.   Mastering the federal prison system requires some knowledge of the different types of institutions. The more we know about the Bureau of Prisons and the staff, the better we can position ourselves to get to the best possible environment.   All secure institutions include the following staff members:     Warden: The warden is the CEO of the institution. Wardens have an enormous amount of influence with regard to how the prison operates. Some wardens make themselves approachable. To the extent that a person in prison positions himself well, he can influence the warden's perception.   As a prisoner, it's crucial to begin with a clear understanding of success. Exercise discretion when it comes to approaching a warden—or anyone else. Lay the groundwork first, before asking the warden to intervene on anything. Understand that the warden has enormous power with regard to every person in the prison. In the various books that Prison Professors have written, we described how wardens influenced our success through the journey. Pay close attention to the extensive amounts of back work that we did, and also note how we were selective when requesting assistance.   Associate Wardens: The associate wardens are part of the warden's executive staff. They oversee various departments within the prison. For example, the Associate Warden of Programs will oversee unit staff. The Associate Warden of Operations will oversee facility management. The population level of the prison will influence how many AWs are available.   Department Heads: Department heads oversee specific departments. For example, the Unit Manager oversees all case managers. A Unit Manager reports directly to the Associate Warden of Programs. The Unit Manager will ask inmates to resolve matters directly with the case manager.   Line Staff: Line staff includes case managers, cook supervisors, counselors, landscape foreman, maintenance leaders, and others who work in various departments. They report to their respective department heads.   Case Managers: Case managers oversee all matters that pertain to a person's case. Once the judge sentences a person “To the custody of the attorney general,” that person becomes an “inmate” as far as concerns the system. And case managers will have direct oversight of the inmate. The inmate will not have a lawyer. The inmate must learn how to advocate for himself effectively. Case managers will be a key person to influence. Although policies guide decisions, there is always some discretion. A master will learn how to influence staff members in the Bureau of Prisons in a positive way.   Counselors: Counselors in federal prison do not offer the type of counseling that someone outside of prison would expect. Rather, they perform jobs like approving visiting lists and assigning jobs. It's best to understand the limited role that counselors play in federal prison. That way, people spare themselves the disappointment that comes from expecting too much.     Influence and Manipulation At Prison Professors, we discuss the long-term approach of influencing a positive outcome. That differs from shortsighted efforts to manipulate staff members. To influence does not mean to manipulate.   For obvious reasons, staff members are extremely cynical. Every day, staff members in prison work with convicted felons. Many of those people have criminal mindsets. That is why staff members expect inmates to lie. They expect inmates to do or say anything that will ease their burden. Masters of the system do not whine or complain about this reality. Rather, they learn how to work within the system, and how to succeed in spite of the challenges.   Masters know that the Bureau of Prisons invests a considerable amount of resources in staff development and staff training. Part of that training teaches staff members how “to be firm but fair.” The Bureau of Prisons wants to make sure the public is safe, the prisons are safe, and the staff members are safe. As such, it's extremely conservative. Training encourages staff members to rely upon policy when making decisions, and it trains them to interpret those policies conservatively. For that reason, it's crucial for masters to understand all policies. By understanding the opportunity costs that come with every decision, masters can make better progress than those who flounder.   If you want to master federal prison, work through all of the programs available through PrisonProfessors.com. You will learn our strategies for making exceptional progress in prison. More importantly, you will learn how to succeed upon release.    

I'm Michael Santos and I want to welcome you to another Prison Professors podcast episode. Earlier episodes provided you with the background information on my partners and me. Today we're recording a series of five podcasts that will help our listeners understand a bit more about the process of going into the criminal justice system.   As of now, I have five episodes planned. They include the following:   Understanding the Process Understanding the stakeholders Understanding the custody and classification system How to Prepare for Prison Why Writing a Narrative Can Assist You Through the Journey   Understanding the Process   We're going to start by paraphrasing Stephen Covey. In his timeless bestseller, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Dr. Covey advised that we should try to understand before we try to be understood.   That guidance applies to anyone who wants to master prison. We're recording this series of episodes of the Prison Professors podcast specifically for people who anticipate that they may go into the criminal justice system. Those who have a solid understanding of the system may want to skip this episode.   Our goal is to help listeners make decisions that will put them on the path for the best possible outcome.   And the best possible outcome requires good decisions. To make good decisions going forward, we need to understand how the process works. So let's begin with some instructions on how someone goes into the criminal justice system.     The Investigation: Investigators frequently start the process. Those investigators may work as part of the SEC, the IRS, the FBI, or the DEA. Allegations of misconduct can lead to an investigation. During that investigation phase, agents will collect evidence. The agents will work closely with federal prosecutors. The federal prosecutors will make a decision on how to proceed. If they want to charge a person with a crime, they have different options.   But once investigators and prosecutors decide to bring charges, especially in the federal system, the person becomes a defendant. The Charge: When prosecutors choose to bring a case against someone, chances for a conviction become exceedingly high. At first, the person may be a “target” of an investigation. The investigation can take place secretly, with a grand jury.   In the grand jury proceeding, a prosecutor puts together a group of citizens. Those citizens listen to evidence that the prosecutor presents. That evidence includes live testimony from investigators and other witnesses. Grand jury members listen to the witnesses respond to the leading questions from the prosecutor. At some point, the prosecutor will ask the members of the grand jury to “indict” the target of the investigation.   In some cases, prosecutors use a less formal way of charging people. Rather than going through a grand jury, they may file a “criminal information.” The criminal information can result from an agreement that the prosecutor makes with the defense team.   Regardless of how prosecutors bring charges, things change. To start, a person becomes a defendant. We have all heard stories that in our country, we have a presumption of innocence. Yet few people who have been charged with a federal crime recognize that distinction.   Statistics show the consequences. We encourage our listeners to do their own research. Simply type into Google “United States Attorneys' Annual Statistical Report.” Or download it from our website at PrisonProfessors.com. Read the data. That data should help people make better decisions as they advance through the process.   At our website, PrisonProfessors.com, we offer an abundance of articles, blogs, and videos that will help people understand more about the criminal justice system. Learn as much as possible. We do not dispense legal advice, but we provide a lot of content that will help our audience make better decisions.   Our co-founder, Shon Hopwood, is a lawyer. But he does not use our site to provide legal advice. To participate in litigation, Shon would need to know details of the case. Details of a case require many hours of research, and time comes at a premium. We trust that our listeners will have a solid legal team in place to advise them.   On the other hand, we members of our audience to understand the opportunity costs that come with every decision. Those who want to master prison quickly should realize implications of every decision along the way. We make better decisions when we have a more complete understanding of the process.       The Defense Attorney: Once prosecutors charge a person, the defendant will need a defense attorney. If a client does not have the resources to hire a defense attorney, the Court will provide an attorney. The court-appointed attorney may be a part of the federal defenders. Or the court-appointed at torney may be a defense attorney that agrees to work on the CJA panel. Every federal judicial district has a roster of attorneys who are experienced in federal court.   Regardless of whether the defense attorney serves on the panel or with the federal defenders, that person will have been exposed to extensive amounts of training and resources. Federal defenders and panel attorneys are well qualified to represent defendants in federal court.   Other defendants may retain counsel. Attorneys who have extensive practice in federal court charge a premium. Hourly fees for defense attorneys with experience in federal court depend upon how long the attorney has been practicing and geographical locations. Defendants should expect to spend tens of thousands for any representation in federal court. For those who lack access to capital, we urge defendants to use federal defenders rather than hire an attorney who lacks experience in federal court.   Our team has a process for vetting defense attorneys in federal court. We also offer consulting services to assist defendants who need this guidance. Your defense attorney will become an essential part of your team, so choose wisely.     The Plea: If prosecutors bring charges against a defendant, a plea hearing will follow. That plea hearing can happen quickly, or it can be postponed. We work with some defendants who may wait for years before they actually face charges and enter a plea. In most cases, people enter not-guilty plea hearings. Then, after defense attorneys work out the most favorable deal, defendants change their plea to guilty in accordance with the plea agreement.   Let's talk about pleading guilty.     Pleading Guilty: Entering a guilty plea is a formal proceeding. There will not be much conversation. Early in the hearing, the defense attorney will let the judge know that the defendant wants to enter a plea, or a change of plea. The judge will then ask the defendant to rise. The defendant must swear to tell the truth, under penalty of perjury. The judge will let the defendant know that he is not bound by any deal the prosecutor may have made. The defendant must acknowledge that he understands. After the judge is satisfied that the defendant understands, the judge will read each criminal charge. Then the judge will ask the defendant if he is guilty of the charge. The defendant will not have an opportunity to explain or elaborate. He will simply say, “I plead guilty.” Opportunities for explanations and elaborations will come much later.     Pleading Not Guilty: If the defendant persists with a “not guilty” plea, a trial will follow. The trial can last for days, weeks, or months. During the trial, prosecutors will present evidence. The defense attorney will argue to discredit the evidence. The judge will decide what evidence the jury will hear. And in time, the jury will render a verdict. If the verdict is not guilty, the judge will release the defendant—and he can go home. If the verdict is guilty, the process will continue with a Presentence Investigation.     Presentence Investigation: A federal probation officer will begin the Presentence Investigation (PSI) by reviewing a report from the federal prosecutor. That prosecutor's report will present the government's version of events. Probation officers will cut and paste the prosecutor's version of events into a report that is known as the Presentence Investigation Report, or PSR.   To continue the investigation, the probation officer will speak with the defendant. The defense attorney should be present during the PSI interview. If a defense attorney chooses not to prepare the defendant for the PSI, the defendant will have a red flag; he is not being advised appropriately. Defendants should take every effort to prepare for the PSI, as it will have lasting implications. Those implications stick around long after the sentencing hearing.   During the PSI interview, the probation officer will ask the defendant about what he or she has to say about the offense. We advise defendants to prepare for this question. Ideally, the defendant will have written a narrative in advance. The defendant can explain the process by thinking through the content of that narrative.   According to video interviews our team has done with federal judges, which are available on our YouTube channel, that PSR can have an enormous influence at sentencing. Further, it will have an influence on placement in the Bureau of Prisons. The PSR will influence the journey in prison. It will influence when the defendant transfers back into the community. And it will influence the level of liberty the defendant has while on Supervised Release. For those reasons, we urge defendants to take every opportunity to understand the presentence investigation, and to prepare.   Fortune, as you know, always favors those who prepare.   The probation officer will conclude the investigation with an extensive presentence investigation report. The PSR will include what the probation officer learned from the defendant and also from other people who are related to the defendant. That may include family members, it may include employers, it may include creditors, it may include victims.   The PSR will include both objective and subjective information. The objective information includes information about the conviction. It will also include information that will influence the federal sentencing guidelines. Those federal sentencing guidelines are complex. We urge defendants to learn how various factors influence those guidelines. Also, it's crucial for defendants to know how they can work to get the most favorable outcome during the sentencing hearing. It all starts with the presentence investigation report.     Sentencing Hearing: Learn and understand about sentencing hearings before the inevitable date. Unfortunately, when federal prosecutors bring charges, more than 80 percent of the defendants face a sentencing hearing. Influencing the outcome with a well thought-out sentence-mitigation strategy—that is essential. Learn what steps you can take to move the needle in your direction. Although every case is different, and requires a highly customized approach, we can provide some bullet point suggestions.   For example:   Think about the perspective of all stakeholders. Their perception is much more important than your perception. Learn more about stakeholders in the following chapter. Think about the victims of the crime. If you don't think your crime has a victim, then you're not thinking about the stakeholder's perceptions. From the stakeholders' perception, the crime has victims. Who are they? How have they suffered? Prepare to reveal what you've learned from the process. In what ways have you grown as a result of this experience? Execute a plan that will differentiate you from other defendants. Think about the judge's perception. Influence the process by showing what steps you've taken to make things right. Help the judge understand how you will adjust your life in light of this experience. Convince the judge that you'll never appear in Court as a criminal defendant again.     Designation in the Bureau of Prisons: In some cases, a comprehensive strategy will result in an alternative sanction that does not include time in custody. Our team at Prison Professors does its best to help defendants who want to advance arguments for a non-custodial sentence. No one can change the past, but we all can sow seeds for a better future. Unfortunately, in most cases, sentences include prison. When prison becomes part of the journey, the next step after the sentencing hearing will be for the Bureau of Prisons to assign the appropriate prison.   Several factors go into the equation of prison designations. The Bureau of Prisons relies upon the latest edition of Program Statement 5100 to determine prison designations. The complicated matrix assigns points to objective factors that include criminal history, type of offense, severity of crime, and so forth. A variance table makes additional adjustments. Public Safety Factors and Management Variables can also influence the custody and classification. Our website includes a calculator that calculates the point system.   Besides custody and classification scoring, the Bureau of Prisons will also consider judicial recommendations, medical needs, prison population levels, institutional needs, and geographical locations. All of those factors go into consideration of the Bureau of Prisons' decisions. Then, the BOP will order the prisoner to begin serving the sentence in a specific prison.   Defendants should learn everything they can about the designation process. The more they understand, the better prepared they become to influence where they will serve the time. Although we can master any environment, the earlier we get started in mastering the process, the better off we are.   Isn't that always the case in life?     Serving the Sentence: Success through any prison journey begins with a clear understanding. When we can define what success looks like on the other side of the journey, we have a start. The heart of this book will describe how to take us from where we are today, to the life we want to create. Although many of us would like to change the past, we master the system when we deal with the world as it exists—rather than as we would like it to be.   Our team at PrisonProfessors.com will help you every step of the way.     Outro: Thank you for listening to Chapter 1 of our free ebook, How to Master Federal Prison—Quickly. To get the entire free ebook at once, take one of the following actions:   Text LIBERTY to 44222, or Simply visit PrisonProfessors.com and enter your email.   We will send you a copy instantly.   Shon Hopwood and Justin Paperny are my partners at Prison Professors. I'm Michael Santos. Our team creates digital content and we offer consulting services.   We assist people who face challenges with prosecution, sentencing, and prison.   We also assist agencies that want to improve outcomes in their institutions. Our clients include individuals, law firms, state and federal prison systems, the courts, and school districts.   Visit us at PrisonProfessors.com or contact Justin at 818-424-2220 to learn more. Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes. And please leave us an honest review!   Stay tuned for another 20 to 30 minute episode with Prison Professors.  

Justin Paperny is a co-founder of Prison Professors. He leads our marketing and consulting divisions. Justin Paperny went to federal prison after he pleaded guilty to violating securities laws. As a graduate of the University of Southern California, Justin, and a licensed stockbroker, Justin didn't have insight. As a white collar offender, he didn't know where to turn for guidance. Without guidance, he was lost, without a pathway to prepare. Justin surrendered to the minimum-security federal prison camp in Taft, California. He didn't have a plan. In his interview today on the Prison Professors podcast, Justin describes his initial thoughts. He wanted to spend time exercising. He simply wanted the time to pass. During his first several weeks in prison, Justin says that he found a new path. He describes learning how to serve his sentence in a deliberate manner. Insteading of waiting for time to pass, he started working toward goals. Those goals would lead Justin to return to society successfully. The methodical activities Justin pursued while he served his sentence for securities fraud led Justin to build confidence. Rather than wasting time, he began investing time. He wrote to document his journey. When he left prison, he had a book to help launch his career. With Lessons From Prison, Justin began building platforms that would we would use to build digital businesses. Justin concluded his sentence in 2009. With Lessons From Prison, he began building the new business. He connected with many lawyers. Those lawyers represented white collar offenders. Justin began to provide mentoring and coaching to those people. With his help, those people prepared. They put themselves on a path to get the lowest possible sentence and have the best possible experience. Since concluding his sentence for securities fraud, Justin has mentored, coached, and consulted several hundred people. Besides PrisonProfessors.com, Justin operates WhiteCollarAdvice.com. He also operates BrandingFast.com. All of those ventures help people in struggle make better decisions.

Hello, hello. My name is Michael Santos and I welcome you to our new Prison Professors podcast. As stated in the intro, I'm part of a team that includes two co-founders, Shon Hopwood and Justin Paperny. Every day we'll publish a new Prison Professors episode. What do we mean by every day? We mean every day. Why would we do this? Well, we have a lot of reasons. Primarily, we want to teach our audience about America's prison system, the people it holds, and strategies for growing through prison successfully.  Over the past few years, we've seen a lot more interest in the prison system. The big interest began when Michele Alexander published her amazing book, The New Jim Crow. Ms. Alexander's book launched an entire movement that brought awareness to mass incarceration. Since then, Netflix dramatized Piper Kernan's book, Orange is the New Black. At the same time, television networks began publishing all types of shows that sensationalized the prison experience. Recently, Ear Hustle became all the rage by profiling lives of men serving time inside of San Quentin.  Prisons have become mainstream. But the message of intergenerational failure isn't something that we want to promote. At Prison Professors, we offer something different.  When we prepared to launch Prison Professors, people questioned the graphics we chose. Overall, people didn't relate to people in suits going to prison. And it's true. Our prisons incarcerate disenfranchised people of color more than anyone else. Our team does a lot of work to reform prison and sentencing systems across the United States. With our Prison Professors podcast, however, we strive to disrupt the thinking about America's prison system. Our logo may be one way to start. Our nation confines more than 2 million people. We incarcerate more people per capita than any nation on earth. At Prison Professors, we don't complain about these troubling statistics. Nor do we make any judgment on the influences or decisions that led people to prison. We know that anyone can go to prison.  With our podcast, we strive to show people the best possible outcomes. We strive to disrupt the thinking of taxpayers and anyone going into the prison system. Rather than complaining about how bad our prison system is, or why mass incarceration represents one of the greatest social injustices of our time, we strive to show people pathway to success. Our team has always believed that we need to live in the world as it exists—not as we would like it to be. The truth is, our government has passed thousands of laws that can lead people to prison. And a felony conviction can result in lifelong complications. Those complications derail prospects for happiness. They can have ancillary consequences that include under employment upon release—or no employment. They can lead to a lack of access to housing, to financing, to social services. Those are realities. At Prison Professors, we want to help people who must content with such struggles. We want to show pathways to success in spite of such struggles. For that reason, we offer new content every day.  We will structure our Prison Professors podcast in one of two formats. Either I'll narrate an episode or I'll interview a guest. Some episodes will stand-alone. Other episodes will work together as part of a series on a specific subject. For example, you may enjoy our upcoming multi-part series on how to master prison quickly. Or you may want to learn from our series on Scott Tucker, which we title Billionaires Preparing for Prison.  At Prison Professors, our team helps people master the prison experience. Through our podcast, we'll bring more awareness. And we'd like to offer suggestions on how people can make it through the journey strong, with their dignity in tact. Our Prison Professors podcast offers daily insight for people who want the best possible outcome.  My co-founders and I have a great deal of experience with the prison system. Through our website at PrisonProfessors.com, we offer an index with notes on all shows. We encourage you to visit PrisonProfessors.com. Enter your name to become a member of our mailing list, or follow us on social media. Subscribe to our channel on YouTube and you'll receive a notice each time we feature a new video. If you subscribe to our Prison Professors Facebook page, you'll learn about efforts we're making to improve outcomes of our nation's prison system. In episodes two and three, I'll introduce you to my two co-founders. You may be familiar with their work already In October of 2017, 60-Minutes featured a segment on Shon Hopwood. Shon also describes his story in his best-selling book, Law Man: Memoirs of a Jailhouse Lawyer. Law Man is relevant to listeners of the Prison Professors podcast for many reasons. Shon's inspiring story shows that regardless of what bad decisions a person has made in the past, an individual can start sowing seeds that lead to success.  The FBI arrested Shon in 1998 for a series of armed bank robberies. A U.S. District Court Judge sentenced him to a term that would require Shon to spend more than 10 years in federal prison. Yet Shon found a way to prosper inside. He studied case law. He wrote briefs that brought victories for people in district courts, in circuit courts, and in the U.S. Supreme Court. After his release, Shon earned his undergraduate degree and he earned a law degree. He clerked for two federal judges. Now Shon serves as a tenure-track professor at Georgetown Law School.  Without a doubt, Shon Hopwood is a success story. He is also a co-founder with Justin and me at PrisonProfessors.com and the Prison Professors podcast.  Justin Paperny is our other co-founder. His skills as a young baseball player led to Justin's scholarship at the University of Southern California. After earning an undergraduate degree, Justin went on to a career as a stockbroker. He managed assets for professional athletes and hedge funds. As a result of his failure to report a Ponzi scheme, authorities charged Justin with the crime of violating securities laws.  I met Justin at the Taft Federal Prison Camp, in California. We became friends soon after he arrived, in 2008. We began to engineer a strategy that would lead to Prison Professors and other business opportunities while we were still serving time. Justin and I understood that many people face challenges with the criminal justice system. A lack of understanding can make matters worse. In some cases, the wrong decisions can bring disastrous results.  While serving time in the Taft camp, Justin and I worked together. We crafted plans that would lead to the best possible outcome for anyone who has concerns about the criminal justice system. Upon Justin's release, he began building the properties we would need to bring our products and services to market. We now have several platforms that include:  PrisonProfessors.com MichaelSantos.com WhiteCollarAdvice.com PrisonNewsBlog.com BrandingFast.com, as well as our Prison Professors YouTube channel, Facebook page, and Twitter feed. We encourage you to follow us everywhere. You'll learn all about Shon and Justin in episodes two and three. I'll share my story with listeners during the remainder of this episode. As I said at the start, my name is Michael Santos. My journey through the criminal justice system followed some bad decisions I began making when I was a young man. In 1984, I was 20 years old and I started selling cocaine. When I was 23, in 1987, authorities arrested me. After a lengthy trial, a jury convicted me of operating a Continuing Criminal Enterprise.  We were at the dawn of our nation's war on drugs and I faced a possible sentence of life in prison. I'd never been incarcerated before, and I didn't know what to expect.  Like many people who go into the criminal justice system for the first time, I only wanted one thing. That was to get out! My ignorance of the system led to some bad decisions, and those bad decisions resulted in my serving much longer than I should have served.  During an awkward transition between the conviction and my sentencing date, I decided to begin preparing for a better outcome. Rather than worrying about what was going to happen to me, I started thinking about ways that I could prepare for a brighter future. We reveal this story in our book: Earning Freedom: Conquering a 45-Year Prison Term.  Earning Freedom, along with our other books, are available through our website at PrisonProfessors.com. Readers of Earning Freedom will learn that leaders like Socrates, Viktor Frankl, Nelson Mandela, and others inspired me. Leaders like Steve Jobs and Bill gates taught me to think differently, Instead of dwelling on the problems, I needed to focus on solutions.  From those leaders, I learned to chart my own path from struggle to prosperity. That path through prison included a three-pronged focus. I would work to:  Earn academic credentials. 2. I would work to Contribute to society in meaningful, measurable ways, and 3, I would work to Build a support network. That three-pronged path led me through 9,500 days as federal prisoner, number 16377-004. I concluded my prison term on August 12, 2013.  When I went into the prison system, I didn't know what to expect. My judge sentenced me to serve a 45-year sentence. I learned that if I avoided disciplinary infractions, I could conclude that sentence in 26 years. But that was a long time for me to contemplate. I was only 23 when I started, so I hadn't yet been alive as long as the system would expect me to serve.  What was the best possible outcome?  I didn't know at the time. But I started to think. Instead of dwelling on the time that I had to serve, I began thinking about the life I would lead when I got out of prison. How would society judge me? Would I be able to find employment? Would the decades I served in prison anchor me in a cycle of failure?  To put the length of time into context, take today's date. Add 26 years. Think of the challenges to maintain a high level of energy and a high level of discipline over that length of time. It's not easy to maintain a positive attitude while weeks turn into months, months turn into years, and years turn into decades.  By reading about others, I found a key to keeping a strong mental attitude. It begins with defining success. If we train our mind to see the best possible outcome, we can start engineering a new path. That path can lead us from where we are to where we want to go. To become successful, regardless of where we are, we need to define success.  I learned that lesson from Socrates. I was still lying in the Pierce County Jail awaiting sentencing when I read a story of The Crito. Socrates lived longer than 2,500 years ago. Back then, laws prohibited people in the elite class from teaching the poor. Yet Socrates believed that every human being had value. He willingly taught everyone. Despite warnings from authorities, Socrates continued to teach. Eventually, he was tried and convicted. Judges sentenced him to death.  At the time that I found the story on Socrates, I didn't have much of an education. I never would have read a philosophy book if I were not beginning my life in struggle. Yet when I read Socrates, I learned a great deal. I learned lessons that would frame my adjustment decisions through prison.  Socrates made principled decisions. Through him, I learned how to make principled decisions. Rather than run away like a coward from problems he created, Socrates said that he would stand and face his punishment. He would die with his dignity intact.  Socrates taught me to think differently. Instead of whining about problems that my own decisions created, I would need to take the punishment. I would need to figure out how I could get the best possible outcome.  I especially value Socrates' lessons on how to ask better questions. Many people have heard about the art of Socratic questioning. As I began to serve my lengthy term in prison, the questions I asked had a monumental influence on how I would adjust inside. As a young man going into the prison system, I felt as if my world was completely imploding. I was married, but my wife was divorcing me. All of the ill-gotten gains I received from selling cocaine were gone. I was starting a journey that would require decades in prison. I'd spend it alone, without any money. What would my life be like when I got out? That was a good question. It prompted me to think in terms of how my life would be if I didn't make some changes.  I learned to stop dwelling on my own problems. Instead, I began to focus on the best possible outcome. It's important to remember the qualifiers: “best possible outcome,” with the keyword being “possible.”  Obviously, I would have liked to get out. But getting out wasn't a possibility. My conviction carried a mandatory-minimum sentence of 10 years. The statute gave my judge discretion to impose a life sentence.  Regardless of what decision my judge made, I had to make better decisions. Since the law required my judge to sentence me to a minimum of 10 years, I had to think about that. What would be the best possible outcome in 10 years?  I began thinking about the people I would meet. The world would move on over a decade. I would be stuck in prison. If I didn't create a deliberate adjustment plan, after 10 years, I would only know other people who were in prison. And how would those people influence my future?  I hated being in prison. I mean I really hated it. I wanted out. But I couldn't get out. What kind of life would I have after 10 years if I adjusted to the ways of the prison? How would I talk? How would the words I chose influence the way that other people perceived me?  Unless I adjusted well while inside, I would face real problems when I got out. I wouldn't have any money. I wouldn't have a support network. I wouldn't have any work experience. I could get stuck in a cycle of failure unless I created a course of action that would lead to success.  By reading about Socrates, I learned how to introspect. I learned how to assess influences that led to my troubles. I was in prison because a jury convicted me for crimes related to selling cocaine. Yet in truth, my bad decisions began long before I sold cocaine. If I made better decisions, Socrates convinced me that I could get out of prison as a better man, with more opportunities.  Better decisions would begin by thinking about the people I would meet in the future. Or rather, thinking about the people I wanted to meet in the future.  If I were going to persuade employers to believe in me, what would they expect me to accomplish while I was in prison? That was one question I had to answer.  If I wanted more liberty from a probation officer, what could I do while in prison to influence his decisions? That was another question that I had to answer.  If I wanted to launch businesses in the future, how could I persuade customers to believe in me even though I'm a convicted felon? I had to overcome challenges for the rest of my life.  Those questions inspired me. They set me on the three-pronged approach that I described earlier in this introductory episode. I would work to:  Earn academic credentials. 2. I would work to Contribute to society in meaningful, measurable ways, and 3, I would work to Build a support network. Those three concepts became my compass. I tried to make every decision inside in accordance with those three principles. It's a strategy that Rick Warren later wrote about in his book The Purpose Filled Life.  Even from the depths of a prison cell, I could ask questions that would improve my outcome. I wanted the best possible outcome. For me, that meant being able to return to society successfully. Even if I served multiple decades in prison, I wanted to return unscathed. Regardless of how much time I served, I didn't want others to know by looking at me that I was once a prisoner. With that guidance from Socrates and others, I began to find my way. The strategy influenced the books I read. Strategy influenced the social network I developed, and every other decision I made while serving my sentence. As a result, I earned university degrees. I became a published author. I built a strong support network. I even got married to the love of my life, Carole. Work that I completed in prison allowed me to earn an income to support Carole.  When I finished my sentence after 26 years, I returned to society more than $100k in the bank. I could use those funds to launch my life.  That didn't happen by accident. It convinced me that success comes with good strategy. And good strategy is what my partners and I teach through the Prison Professors podcast. We teach a pursuit of excellence. And we show that if we could do it, anyone can do it.  I concluded my obligation to the Bureau of Prisons on August 12, 2013. A few weeks later, I began teaching as an adjunct professor at San Francisco State University. While working there, I began creating products and services to help improve outcomes of our nation's prison system. Those products and services now contribute to our company at PrisonProfessors.com.  Our clients include individuals who are going into the system. We also have contractual relationships with the Bureau of Prisons, the California Department of Corrections, the Washington State Department of Corrections, and many other large groups. Federal judges, federal probation officers, and U.S. Attorneys, as well as many law firms have purchased our products and services. We sell to the corporate sector, to sales organizations, and to anyone who wants to succeed after struggle.  It's a big market. Because regardless of where we are today, we all face struggle at one time or another in our lives.  If you research our team at Prison Professors, you'll see our authenticity. Both Shon Hopwood and Justin Paperny have my 100% confidence. And I consider it an honor to work with each of them. Each of us will work hard to prove worthy of your trust.  We look forward to revealing more through our Prison Professors podcast. Expect us to launch new episodes every day. We will publish show notes on our website at PrisonProfessors.com. When we conduct interview-style podcasts, to the extent possible, we'll record in both a video format and an audio format. You can watch the videos on our YouTube channel or on our website.  We'll ask you to support the Prison Professors podcast by subscribing to us on iTunes. If you choose to subscribe, please rate the show with the number of stars you deem appropriate. Leave us an honest review. Your reviews and subscriptions will persuade iTunes to increase our distribution. The more distribution we have, the more effective we will be at spreading the message on steps we can take to improve outcomes of America's prison system.  That is my story. In future episodes, opportunities will open for me to reveal more. Let me tell you what you can expect in the upcoming episodes. As I mentioned, episodes two and three will introduce you to my partners, Shon Hopwood and Justin Paperny. After that, we're going to present a series on how to master prison. Then we'll follow with interviews.  If you'd like to be a guest on our show, please reach out through Prison Professors.com. Check out our podcast link. And connect.