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==Practitioners==
==Practitioners==
Becoming a prison consultant requires no formal training or certification, and no agency tracks those in the business. Many, but not all, prison consultants learned the ropes by serving prison time themselves. The [[Federal Bureau of Prisons]] takes no position on consulting.<ref name= "NYT_2009-10-10">{{ cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/sports/11consultants.html|title=Consultants Are Providing High-Profile Inmates a Game Plan for Coping|publisher= ''[[The New York Times]]''|date=October 10, 2009| first=Jonathan| last=Abrams| accessdate=May 22, 2010}}</ref>
Becoming a prison consultant requires no formal training or certification, and no agency tracks those in the business. Many, but not all, prison consultants learned the ropes by serving prison time themselves. The [[Federal Bureau of Prisons]] takes no position on consulting.<ref name= "NYT_2009-10-10">{{ cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/sports/11consultants.html|title=Consultants Are Providing High-Profile Inmates a Game Plan for Coping|publisher= ''[[The New York Times]]''|date=October 10, 2009| first=Jonathan| last=Abrams| accessdate=May 22, 2010}}</ref>

===Michael Santos===
[[Michael G. Santos|Michael Santos]] was arrested in 1987 and he served 26 years as a federal prisoner. While incarcerated he earned an undergraduate degree from Mercer University and a master's degree from Hofstra University.<ref name=SantosEthicsDaily>{{cite news|last1=Harris|first1=Colin|title=Michael Santos – Rare Success in Prison Rehabilitation|url=http://www.ethicsdaily.com/michael-santos-rare-success-in-prison-rehabilitation-cms-18258|accessdate=17 February 2015|work=EthicsDaily.com|date=26 July 2011}}</ref> He published seven books that university professors use to help people understand prisons, the people they hold, and strategies for growing through confinement. Upon his release, he taught for a year at San Francisco State University.<ref name=SantosPBS>{{cite news|last1=Brown|first1=Jeffrey|title=Former inmate speaks out against U.S. ‘commitment’ to mass incarceration|url=http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/santos-former-prisoner-looks-help-others/|accessdate=17 February 2015|work=PBS Newshour|date=2 April 2014}}</ref><ref name=SantosNBC>{{cite news|last1=Thomas|first1=Garvin|last2=Fernandez|first2=Lisa|title=From "Scarface" to SF State: One Teacher's Remarkable Journey|url=http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/From-Scarface-To-SF-State-One-Teachers-Remarkable-Journey-228289111.html|accessdate=17 February 2015|work=Bay Area Proud|agency=NBC Bay Area|publisher=NBCUniversal Media, LLC|date=18 October 2013}}</ref>

===Frank Sweeney===
Frank Sweeney is a convicted [[fraud|swindler]] and veteran of 17 federal prisons. Sweeney's first prison sentence came after he shot and wounded an investigating police officer while testing a reactivated collector's-edition [[submachine gun]].<ref name="TBlade">[http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=oIAUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=XAMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5869,1086132&dq=frank-sweeney+consultant+convict Ex-con offers advice to others headed to prison -- until his probation officer shuts him up], ''[[Toledo Blade]]'', March 5, 1994</ref>

In 1993, after reading that one of the officers charged in the [[Rodney King|Rodney King beating]] was "terrified" at the prospect of going to prison, he got the idea of charging first-time convicts $200 for prison advice. He ran advertisements in ''[[USA Today]]'' that said, "Going to prison for the first time? We will tell you what to expect and how to survive. Our consultants are graduates of the Federal prison system."<ref name="NYTsweeney">[http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/23/weekinreview/conversations-frank-sweeney-prison-graduate-sells-new-fish-words-live-time.html?pagewanted=all Prison Graduate Sells 'New Fish' Words to Live (or Do Time) By], ''[[New York Times]]'', January 23, 1994</ref><ref name="NWsweeney">[http://www.newsweek.com/id/96058 Lessons From The Big House: An Ex-Con Sells The Benefit Of His Hard-Time Experience], ''[[NewsWeek]]'', August 25, 1997</ref>

Sweeney tells his clients, most of them males over 40, not to worry about being [[raped in prison]] because "by the time you're in your late thirties, you've lost your boyishness." He warns them to stay away from prison gangs, the drug culture, and avoidable disputes such as over failure to repay a loan. He advises them they can get a better bunk by feigning [[epilepsy]]. His own experiences in [[gaming the system]] include feigning mental illness to get a private cell and severe [[arthritis]] to get easier work assignments. In order to get a more desirable [[kosher]] diet, he persuaded a prison rabbi that his mother, a Lutheran whose maiden name was Schellhammer, was a Jew.<ref name="TBlade"/><ref name="NYTsweeney"/>

===Jimmy Tayoun===
[[Jimmy Tayoun]], a white-collar felon and former Philadelphia City Councilman, says he realized that such a service was needed when he saw a new arrival surrender at his prison wearing a fur coat.<ref>[http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/19435195.xml?dids=19435195:19435195&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug+13%2C+1995&author=Jackie+Spinner&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=An+Insider%27s+Guide+to+White-Collar+Prison+Life%3B+Convicted+Politician+Sells+Advice+to+Those+Who+Follow+in+His+Footsteps&pqatl=google An Insider's Guide to White-Collar Prison Life; Convicted Politician Sells Advice to Those Who Follow in His Footsteps], ''[[Washington Post]]'', August 12, 1995</ref>

While Tayoun was incarcerated, he wrote a 64-page guide called "Going to Prison?" After his release in 1995, and perhaps using the term "prison consultant" for the first time in a press release, he set up a [[1-900]] number to answer the questions he kept getting from fearful first-timers. For $2.50 a minute, callers selected from a menu of seven topics. Tayoun's recorded advice included getting a doctor's note to avoid being assigned a top bunk, and arranging private transportation to prison to avoid being handcuffed on the trip.<ref>[http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2XAVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7eoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6685,6481659&dq=prison-consultant Novice jailbirds can call 900 number], ''[[Eugene Register-Guard]]'', April 26, 1995</ref>

===Larry Jay Levine===
[[Larry Jay Levine]] of Wall Street Prison Consultants and American Prison Consultants spent ten years in various federal prisons for securities fraud, narcotics trafficking and weapons possession.<ref name="DFP"/> Released in April 2007, he now advises a mix of white collar and drug offenders.<ref name="PI">[http://articles.philly.com/2009-08-30/news/25276178_1_fumo-federal-inmate-inmates-and-staff No place for titans. Behind bars, Fumo to go from king to serf], ''[[Philadelphia Inquirer]]'', August 30, 2009</ref>

His offerings include "Fedtime 101", advertised as a "telephone crash course designed to help you get out alive." Levine says the biggest challenge white-collar offenders have when entering prison is their lack of street smarts. He tells clients, "Show some manners because people are under a lot of stress. Don't be a jerk. Say 'excuse me'. Say 'thank you'. Don’t get into arguments or stare people down. Don’t go into the showers in the middle of the night. Use common sense."<ref name="Macleans">[http://www2.macleans.ca/tag/larry-levine/ An etiquette guide for the modern prisoner], ''[[Maclean's]]'', May 6, 2009</ref> He also advises them to develop a routine, including keeping a Bible on their bed to discourage guards from touching it.<ref name= "NYT_2009-10-10"/>

Levine's use of photos of the facade and [[trading floor]] of the [[New York Stock Exchange]] in advertisements asking "Going from the exchange floor to the prison yard?" drew a [[cease and desist]] order from the exchange. He says business has been steady since the recent financial crisis started turning up evidence of corporate crime.<ref name="Guardian">[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/13/nyse-reputation-consultants-convicted-financiers NYSE takes offense at advice for white collar criminals], ''[[The Guardian]]'', July 13, 2009</ref>

Levine frequently appears on CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, ABC News, and CBS News providing commentary on the Federal Prison system and the criminal justice system in America, and hosts a weekly radio show on LA Talk Radio with retired Federal Bureau of Prison official Bruce Cameron called "CRIME and Punishment".

===Tom Miller===
Tom Miller of the Dr. Prison consulting service served prison time for dealing methamphetamine.<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/27/local/me-prison-consultant27 About to do time? Meet your best pal], ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', February 27, 2009</ref> He advises clients that going to prison is like going to a foreign country they have never visited, with different languages, customs and mannerisms. The company assesses a client's "prison demeanor" and gives advice accordingly, perhaps suggesting that shy people learn to play cards or talk sports in order to fit in. Clients are told to always stick with inmates of their own race, regardless of what associations they may have formed in the outside world. They are warned to be humble, but never allow another inmate to cut in front of them in the food line.<ref name="NYT">[http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/07/28/us/AP-US-Prison-Brokers.html Prison Consultants Help Inmates Get Good Digs], ''[[New York Times]]'', July 28, 2009</ref>

===Herbert Hoelter===
[[Herbert J. Hoelter|Herbert Hoelter]] is director of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA), a [[prison reform]] and sentencing-advocacy group. He has appeared before the [[United States Sentencing Commission]] regarding alternatives to incarceration. NCIA works with defense attorneys and defendants to design and present to judges individualized sentencing recommendations that may include alternative punishments such as [[home confinement]] and [[community service]], as well as recommendations for an appropriate prison.<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,963435-1,00.html Considering The Alternatives], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', February 2, 1987</ref>

Hoelter, who has advised Bernard Madoff, Martha Stewart and Michael Vick, says safety is not a major issue in the minimum security prisons where most of his clients end up, because bad behavior results in longer sentences.<ref name= "NYT_2009-10-10"/> He warns former executives who may have controlled thousands of employees that the pressures on them in prison will be considerable – they will be told when to eat, when to go to work, when to sleep and how much money they can spend in the commissary.<ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR2006101901659_pf.html Skilling's Last Stand], ''[[Washington Post]]'', October 20, 2006</ref>

===Steven Oberfest===
'''Steven Oberfest''' was one of the leading pioneers of the industry now known as "Prison Consulting". He originated one of the first companies that catered to white collar criminal facing prison for the first time. His original company was formed in 2002 called 'IOP'- Incarceration Optimization Program.<ref>
money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2.../8394995</ref> In 2006, Mr. Oberfest was featured in CNN MONEY 2.0 discussing the birth of an industry"While many companies go directly to jail operators for their business, others target consumers still outside the system but holding a reservation to check into Club Fed.

Steven Oberfest was working as a personal trainer four years ago when one of his clients' friends was convicted of a nonviolent crime. Though she wasn't facing Oz-like conditions, she asked him to train her to defend herself. "I thought, 'Why not? This could be a business,'" he says. With that first trainee, Oberfest founded Incarceration Optimization Program International in New York City, offering a 100-hour, $20,000 course that instructs mainly white-collar criminals on the finer points of prison etiquette. "Prison time for someone who lives in a penthouse on Park Avenue?" Oberfest says with a laugh. "You might as well send them to the moon." His timing couldn't have been better: The stock option back-dating scandal may well produce a new wave of executives headed for the Big House. With a limited number of federal prison beds, convicted execs these days face the possibility of serving time with violent offenders.
Oberfest, a tattooed professional fighter who says he has been arrested but never did hard time, met with police officers and former prison guards and tracked down regulations for facilities within the Bureau of Prisons to develop his class. It combines coursework, physical and mental training, self-defense, and role-playing.

Oberfest's clients learn slang terms, how to address guards and other inmates, and generally what daily routines will be like inside. His program is one of the dozens offered by consulting firms on everything from witness preparation and sentence-reduction lobbying to prison inspection and certification.
Oberfest says his business is expanding, and he anticipates 2006 revenue of $600,000 from 30 clients. In 2007, he expects a 25 percent growth in his clientele. "This still has so much potential and the ability to grow in various different ways," he says.<ref>The Hard Sell The nation's 2 million inmates and their keepers are the ultimate captive market: a $37 billion economy bulging with business opportunity. Business 2.0 Magazine By Michael Myser, Business 2.0 Magazine March 15, 2007: 12:37 PM EDT</ref>

In 2009 Steven Oberfest launched "Prison Coach" and was featured in the Daily News.<ref>Schapiro, Rich. [http://www.nydailynews.com/money/shanks-advice-white-collar-crooks-learn-jail-survival-ex-con-article-1.400539#ixzz2g2ZwW18b "Shanks for the advice: White-collar crooks learn jail survival from ex-con"], ''Daily News'', July 19, 2009.</ref>


==Additional advice==
==Additional advice==

Revision as of 05:36, 1 December 2015

A prison consultant provides newly convicted criminals with advice on how to cope and survive in the unfamiliar surroundings of prison. Prison consultants may also provide a client's attorney with advice on how to lobby the sentencing judge for a shorter sentence, and how to get a client sentenced to a lower security level prison (the higher a prison's security level, the more violent and dangerous). They may advise white-collar and celebrity criminals, high-level drug dealers and disgraced politicians.

Consultants charge anywhere from several hundred to many thousands of dollars, with no promises made. Among their past clients have been Bernard Madoff, Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Mike Tyson, Michael Vick, Plaxico Burress, Martha Stewart, and Leona Helmsley.[1][2]

Practitioners

Becoming a prison consultant requires no formal training or certification, and no agency tracks those in the business. Many, but not all, prison consultants learned the ropes by serving prison time themselves. The Federal Bureau of Prisons takes no position on consulting.[1]

Additional advice

In general, consultants will advise prison-bound clients to keep a low profile and avoid offending other inmates. Offenses can include joining a conversation without an invitation, asking personal questions without a proper cue, and taking liberties with the television (most fights take place in the TV room).[3]

Consultants can help navigate early-release programs and will recommend entry into a drug or alcohol rehab program even for clients who were not recognized as abusers in their pre-sentencing report.

Consultants may advise about Federal Bureau of Prisons employee personality types; how to defend one's self in a prison fight; and how best to avoid being raped, stabbed or beaten.

Clients are warned to expect strip searches and to accept a complete loss of personal control to the guards.

Commentary on infamous inmates

Much news and discussion of prison consultants has centered on Bernard Madoff. Herbert Hoelter, who advised Madoff, says that Madoff's sentencing to the medium-security Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina is appropriate because the facility is next door to a medical center, and if Madoff becomes eligible for transfer to a low-security prison, there is one within the same complex. Hoelter expects that a number of his other clients in Butner will take Madoff under their wing, saying "It's like a buddy system." He thinks Madoff's lengthy term "will give him credibility with other inmates." His advice to Madoff was "It’s a matter of keeping your space and having respect for other people".[4]

However, Steven Oberfest of The Prison Coach says Madoff enters prison at a disadvantage because the other prisoners know everything about him from the media, but he knows nothing about them. Oberfest calls Butner "a general, nasty, medium-security-type prison" and says Madoff needs to be careful of other inmates who might be paid by those he defrauded to intimidate or harm him.[4] Similarly, Larry Levine expects that someone will make a payment to another inmate's family, a dining-hall distraction will be created, and Madoff will be stabbed.[5]

Hoelter says convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky "is in for a tough, tough ride". Unlike Madoff, who lives among his fellow prisoners, Sandusky will likely have to spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement for his own safety. A similar high-profile child sex offender, John Geoghan, was targeted and murdered by a fellow inmate in 2003. Levine points out that the danger in prison to sex offenders of any type is very real.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Abrams, Jonathan (October 10, 2009). "Consultants Are Providing High-Profile Inmates a Game Plan for Coping". The New York Times. Retrieved May 22, 2010. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ "Ex-cons offer prison primers for soon-to-be incarcerated execs". Chicago Tribune. February 24, 2011. Retrieved December 29, 2012. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Madoff’s Prison Consultant Weighs In On Inmate No. 61727-054, Wall Street Journal, July 15, 2009
  5. ^ Fox Biz: How Madoff Will Be Killed In Jail, Fox Business, July 14, 2009
  6. ^ Sandusky begins grim transition to prison, Detroit Free Press, October 7, 2012
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