Why do your telephone consultations cost $5,000?

I charge $200 per hour for personal consulting services that teach others how to sustain a high-level of discipline, energy, and focus through imprisonment. My clients face challenges with the criminal justice system, an experience many recognize as having life-altering implications. Clients who retain me seek competent guidance from someone who has faced similar troubles and triumphed. I am uniquely qualified to show criminal defendants how to return to society strong, with their dignity intact.  I teach people in struggle how to reach the best possible outcome when facing challenges from the criminal justice system. Whereas lawyers provide legal strategies, my experience and insight provide more specialized services for those who choose to make the investment of learning from my 26 years of experience as a federal prisoner; I teach others how to return to society with values, skills, and resources that translate into success and I teach from easily verifiable personal experience.

I work with clients to help them navigate the personal, professional, and family challenges associated with imprisonment. I always encourage clients to research me. Those who take the time to research my work will understand the value that I can bring as a guide through difficult times. Many retain me to help them prepare sentencing-mitigation packages, some retain me  to help them establish strategies that will lead to their successful journey through prison or success upon release. I am not a lawyer and I do not offer legal advice. Instead, I help defendants understand the process ahead. I help them set strategies in place that lead to the best possible outcome when criminal charges are a possibility. To work with clients I require a minimum payment of $5,000 which provides for 25 hours of my time, billed at the rate of $200 per hour. I offer a 100 percent money-back guarantee.  Although I cannot change the past, I show my clients how to prepare for the best possible future given their current circumstances.

How long do most clients retain you for sentencing-mitigation services?

Generally, clients begin with the five-hour retainer at the cost of $5,000. Sometimes I meet with clients in person, but most times communication is via phone or online via Skype or other available videoconferencing platforms.  Individuals who retain me for comprehensive work preparing for sentencing-mitigation strategies should anticipate working with me for between 25 and 50 hours, or a cost of between $5,000 and $10,000. The costs may be higher for clients who require more time, but 25 and 50 hours is a good rule of thumb. I invest many hours interviewing my clients in order to thoroughly understand the history and background that led to the offense.  I work with my clients to prepare a narrative that explains rather than excuses their actions.

By working with clients to create sentencing-mitigation packages, I provide a resource the client may use to argue for the lowest possible sanction. Under Title 18 United States Code, Section 3553(a), a sentencing judge has discretion to consider the history and characteristics of the defendant. That effort requires many hours of one-on-one interviewing and extensive amounts of writing, editing, and rewriting. It is an investment that a client must be willing to make in the future.

How long do most clients retain you for prison-consulting services?

My minimum retainer is $5,000 for 25 hours of my time, billed at $200 per hour. Clients generally extend that initial retainer for an additional 10 hours as they prepare for time in prison. Those who retain me receive the benefit of lessons I learned while overcoming 26 years in prisons of every security level. A review of this website will show my credentials, as evidenced by all that I accomplished while incarcerated. I created opportunities in every prison that held me. More importantly, I returned without bitterness and with my dignity intact. Through my work I show clients how to tune out the noise and negativity of imprisonment. I teach clients how to prepare for success while in custody. Most importantly I share strategies with clients that result in their making the most of current circumstances so that they return to society in the best possible way, at the soonest possible time. Those seeking free information may review my published writing on the web; those with lower budgets may purchase my books. Those who want to invest in their futures may retain me at $200 per hour so that I can show them how to extract the best possible outcome from an experience that could involve imprisonment.

Which one of your books about prison will help my loved one the most?

I’ve written numerous books that describe various aspects of the prison system. Each of those books serves a specific purpose. One book wouldn’t be enough to describe all aspects of imprisonment any more than one book would sufficiently describe all aspects of healthcare. Read below for a brief overview of each book:

• Earning Freedom: Conquering a 45-Year Prison Term tells the entire arc of my journey in story form, from the day of my arrest on August 11, 1987 through the day that I transitioned out of prison on August 13, 2013 to serve my final year under the custody of a halfway house. Readers will learn from the ways that I sustained a high level of energy and discipline while advancing through prisons of every security level over the course of a quarter century. They will read how I tuned out the negativity of imprisonment while focusing on educating myself, contributing to society, and building a thriving support network. Earning Freedom offers hope to prisoners enduring a lengthy period of time in confinement. If your loved one is facing a lengthy sentence, Earning Freedom will show that a deliberate adjustment strategy can lead to a better life. I also use it as required reading for the course I teach at San Francisco State University. This book is 442 pages long and includes personal photographs.
• Inside: Life Behind Bars in America provides readers with a graphic look at prisons of every security level. Whereas Earning Freedom tells my own story, from the day of my arrest until the day that my wife picked me up to drive me to a halfway house, Inside shows readers the adjustment patterns of others. It begins with a look inside of a county jail, then takes readers through transfers, and prisons of every security levels. It introduces readers to several characters, showing the culture of prisons across America. I wrote this book using the language of prison, showing readers the gangs, the corruption, the rape, and the injustices that our nation’s commitment to mass incarceration breeds. Inside is required reading for my course at San Francisco State University; professors in universities from across America use at as required reading also. The Huffington Post rated Inside: Life Behind Bars in America as one of the top-ten prison books of all time.
• Prison! My 8,344^th Day is the story of a typical day in prison my prison journey during my 23^rd year of confinement. I wrote Prison!  to describe the discipline I found necessary to prepare for success while enduring a prison term. Set in a minimum-security camp, readers learn what to expect in the environment where most white-collar offenders serve their sentences.
• Triumph! The Straight-A Guide: Conquering Imprisonment and Preparing Prisoners for Reentry teaches readers the adjustment patterns that translate to a successful journey through confinement. I compare and contrast adjustment patterns of people who succeed in prison with the adjustment patterns of people who flounder.
• Success: The Straight-A Guide: A Guidebook for At-risk Youth and Young Offenders is written specifically for young people between the ages of 13 and 21. It teaches the strategies that helped me tune out the negativity of my environement and ignore external influences while I focused on success. Young people find value in the stories I present in this book.

Can you help me understand various issues about imprisonment?

• I’ve written and published hundreds of free articles and videos that describe all that I learned while climbing through 26 years in prisons of every security level. For a modest fee, my books provide hundreds of pages that describe prison. Individuals who want me to respond to questions, provide guidance, or assist them with sentencing mitigation efforts or strategies to conquer imprisonment may retain me through this website’s prepaid consulting services. My rate is $200 per hour with a five hour minimum of $5,000. I am uniquely qualified to help people navigate their way through prison to success, as a review of my credentials will verify. Providing consulting services is a service I offer for a fee.