Click Here For Guide Through System Chapter

Thriving Through The Criminal Justice System

Why you need a prison consultant.

So you and your family can move forward with strength and confidence.  With my guidance you’ll triumph with peace, a clear plan and you’ll emerge as a wiser, more balanced person.

Before I surrendered to Taft Federal Prison Camp, I made some terrible decisions that truly exacerbated my troubles. I just could not come clean and accept the role that I played in facilitating a Ponzi scheme. As a result of my failing to accept responsibility sooner in the process, I delayed the healing that could have begun sooner. I also spent hundreds of thousands more in legal fees and I served longer in prison.

I am not an attorney and I would never presume to disperse legal advice. Lawyers have a role in our justice system that cannot be displaced. Lawyers, however, can’t relate to the challenges you will face before, during, and after your prison term. I have gone through an experience that will prove invaluable to you as you encounter the criminal justice system for the first time. Why? The criminal justice system presents a dynamic that is absent in any other American community. I asked my attorney what pre-trial, the PSI interview, guilty plea, sentencing hearing, prison, and ultimately probation would be like. He couldn’t answer in a way that would prepare me for the journey. If you were going to climb Mt. Everest, would you want to read about the journey or talk with someone who conquered it?

A good prison consultant is someone who has not only survived prison, but thrived through prison. Aren’t you tired of visiting prison consulting websites only to see expensive “prison crash courses” teaching ostensibly proven techniques on how not to get raped or killed? Our prison system released more than 700,000 people in 2008; they all survived prison, but how many were prepared to re-enter a society that frowns upon those with felony convictions?

My consulting will help you remove the boredom associated with confinement by working on tasks that have a real relationship to the challenges you are certain to face upon release. A proactive prison adjustment means you are not waiting around for time to pass. Too many men, I observed, walked into prison boundaries and serve time by the hour. These men, literally, watch the hands on the clock turn, always waiting for something. They wait for the next meal, for mail delivery, for one week to advance into the next, or the marking of another month. Others are stuck on the legislative watch, waiting for lawmakers to bring reform that will release them. Such a capitulation to the system did not work for me and I don’t recommend it. Without proper preparations, I promise, your 18, 36, or 60-month sentence will feel like 10 years. With a proactive prison adjustment, on the other hand, you can create your own opportunities.

From the moment I hit the compound on 28 April 2008, I had a clear picture of how I wanted to emerge from prison. Beginning with the end in mind, so to speak, enabled me to chart a course to success. I also learned from observing others who have thrived through the adversity of imprisonment for many years. These men who thrived through prison, like my friend and advisor Michael Santos, convinced me that to make the most of confinement an individual has to make decisions that are similar to those who lead optimal lives in any setting. It makes little difference whether you’re serving a sentence of one year or ten years. If you can envision how you want to emerge from the prison experience, you can then manage your day-to-day adjustment more effectively. You must create your own opportunity for a meaningful existence. In other words, you don’t sit back and let life pass you by. By leading a proactive adjustment, I was able to use my time inside as a kind of sabbatical that enabled me to prepare for richer experiences on many levels. Instead of serving time, I can honestly say that the time served me.

Naturally, my consulting practice addresses all facets of the justice system, including the rules in prison, both written and unwritten. Some, but not all areas we will cover include:

  • Pre-Sentence Interview and Pre-Sentence Report which is the bible in the prison system. Failure to prepare for this interview can lead to irreversible consequences.
  • Benefits that follow cooperating. I cooperated with both the Department of Justice and Securities Exchange Commission. My guidelines called for a sentence of more than 5 years yet I received only 18-months, even after the government recommended 2 years at sentencing. My cooperation convinced the SEC to waive the $350,000 in fines and penalties I agreed to pay.
  • Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP) which can reduce a prisoner’s sentence by up to 18 months – 12 months in prison and 6 months in a community confinement or halfway house.
  • Second Chance Act, Financial Responsibility Program aka FRP- for those who have restitution or fines, Work Furloughs, Education, Halfway House placement, and Home Confinement
  • Preparations for your guilty plea and sentencing
  • Help and support with letters to the court prior to sentencing
  • Visiting, Phones, Commissary, Bunks, Showers, Toilets, Jobs, Call Outs
  • Self Surrender vs. Remanded to Custody
  • The underground Economy or prison hustle
  • Disciplinary Process
  • Con Air and the prisoner transport
  • Religious issues and meals
  • Health Services and Education
  • Probation or Supervised Release

A lot to consider, I know. Truthfully, writing about the justice system and prison adjustment patterns would require volumes of literature, much more space than this brief introduction can provide. I served nearly 400 days in a federal prison. Through my prison consulting practice, I’m striving to teach you the steps necessary to overcome the obstacles presented by confinement. Life for felons is harder; it’s supposed to be. By preparing for the journey, however, it is possible to leave prison stronger, better and more equipped to deal with the consequences of your conviction. It won’t happen by accident, however, and embracing this truism now will help you down the road.

To learn more about the justice system and my prison consulting practice, I have attached The Guide Through System Chapter from Lessons From Prison. The chapter is located at the top right of this page.  This chapter provides a detailed description of everything you can expect from the day you become a target of the investigation, until the day you leave prison. Nearly 20 pages of content designed to help you better prepare for your journey. Please take the time to read the words I have written. You and your family will be more prepared, I guarantee you.

To thrive through the criminal justice system you must prepare diligently and methodically for the road ahead. If your budget allows, invest the money in a well-trained prison consultant. I have mastered the prison system and the policies administrators use to manage the institutions. My expertise and guidance will assure that you have the necessary tools required to power through the criminal justice system with dignity and strength.

My life changed dramatically the day I retained a prison consultant. His expert advice and unwavering support helped me surrender to prison from a position of strength, and as result of my deliberate adjustment through confinement I thrived through prison. So can you!

Please call me at 818-424-2220 or e-mail justinpaperny@etikallc.com to inquire into rates and payment schedules. Referrals are available upon request.

Good luck and work hard. Never forget you can do great things, even from prison.

-Justin Paperny