WHEN YOUR CASE REQUIRES MORE THAN ORDINARY PRISON CONSULTING
Specialized guidance for clients and their attorneys in sensitive, high-profile, and complex federal cases.
You may not have heard of me because I don’t try to be everything to everyone. I work with defendants, families, and defense attorneys facing sensitive, high-profile, and complex federal prison cases that require specialized experience and practical insight.
Attorneys understand the law. My role is to address the prison issues that arise before sentencing and continue long after it. That includes preparing clients with sensitive offenses to enter prison safely, identifying PSR language that could affect designation, understanding SOMP and sex offender treatment issues, and addressing protective custody concerns before they become real problems.
Not every federal prison case requires specialized consulting. But when the stakes are unusually high, ordinary prison consulting isn’t enough.
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How I Help
Prison Strategy for Sensitive and High-Profile Cases
Preparing for federal prison involves dozens of decisions that can affect a client’s safety and daily life. I help clients and defense attorneys evaluate protective custody options, review PSR language for potential prison implications, understand SOMP and sex offender treatment requirements, prepare for designation, and develop a plan for entering federal prison safely and with realistic expectations.
Family Guidance and Crisis Planning
Families often face the same uncertainty as the defendant. I help families understand what to expect before sentencing, during incarceration, and after release, including preparing for designation, responding to prison emergencies, and separating fact from rumor during one of the most stressful periods of their lives.
Reentry and Supervised-Release Strategy
Release from prison is the beginning of a new phase, not the end of the process. I help clients pursue early termination of supervised release, understand and comply with release conditions, address registration-related concerns, overcome housing and employment obstacles, and develop practical strategies for long-term success after federal custody.
Federal Post-Conviction Consulting
Federal post-conviction work often requires more than filing motions. I assist clients and attorneys with case organization, issue identification, legal research support, and strategic preparation for post-conviction litigation. My role is to help ensure that important issues are identified, organized, and presented as effectively as possible.
Latest blog posts
In-Depth Insights
Practical analysis on federal custody, sentencing, post-conviction trends, and supervised-release issues, written for defendants, families, and attorneys who want clear, accurate information.
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Government Snitches: Incentivized Witnesses Are the Leading Cause of Wrongful Convictions
[Note: This is a column of mine originally published as a cover story for Criminal Legal News Magazine in March 2019] Every year, innocent people go to prison, or even death row, because of government informants who lie to get a good deal in their own criminal cases. The problem, studies show, is the fact…
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Why the Abortion Drug Case was No Surprise
After reading and hearing all the stories about how shocking it was for the conservative Supreme Court justices “sided” with the liberal side in the abortion drug case, it’s no surprise why all the justices were on the same side with this case: It was about standing, or the legal ability to even hear the…
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Government’s Failure to Correct Error at Sentencing Breached Plea Agreement
A defendant’s sentence for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud was vacated because the government breached the plea agreement by endorsing the higher guidelines calculation in the PSR after having agreed to a lower calculation in the plea agreement, and the breach affected the defendant’s substantial rights as there was a reasonable probability the…
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Do Long Sentences Promote Respect for the Law?
There are 63,913 people in federal prison convicted of drug trafficking crimes, as of April 2024. With a total population of 158,547 prisoners, this means that 40% of the people in federal prison are serving time for drugs. This doesn’t even consider the hundreds of thousands of people in state prison for drug offenses, assuming…
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Harvey Weinstein’s Rape Conviction Overturned
Today, the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, overturned Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction and 23-year sentence. The court concluded that allowing witnesses to testify at trial as to other “bad acts” by Weinstein unfairly prejudiced him because it essentially amounted to a conviction that was proven more by evidence of an uncharged…
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Favorable Federal Court Cases for Prisoners Week Ending March 22, 2024
Here are some favorable cases decided in the federal courts for the week of March 22, 2024: United States v. Oliveras, No. 21-2954, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 6226 (2d Cir. Mar. 15, 2024) The defendant-appellant, Alex Oliveras, was sentenced to sixty-three months’ imprisonment and a three-year supervised release term for possessing cocaine with intent to…
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What is the Difference Between a Motion to Dismiss and a Motion for Summary Judgment?
In most habeas corpus and postconviction cases, once the petition is filed and passes initial review, the court orders the government (called the respondent) to respond to the claims. But that “response” doesn’t always come in the form of an answer in opposition to your request for relief. More often, the government files a motion…
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Weekly Federal Prison Newsletter for January 27, 2024
Not a bad week for favorable cases. While most of these cases were decided on direct appeal, remember that these can be converted into ineffective assistance claims for a 2255 motion, if argued correctly. United States v. Colon-Cordero, Nos. 22-1171, 22-1172, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 1300 (1st Cir. Jan. 19, 2024)Luis Ángel Colón-Cordero was convicted…
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But I Only Said What My Lawyer Told Me to Say! How to Challenge a Guilty Plea
In postconviction proceedings, the court frequently uses plea hearing statements to deny a challenge to a guilty plea. Often, this includes comments that the person understood their plea and any rights waived. The court may even ask if their lawyer was effective. The answers are invariably “yes,” since otherwise the court would reject the favorable…