Avoiding Regret: Why Planning Ahead for Sentencing and Federal Prison Matters
On behalf of Prison Professors, we would like to go ahead and summarize our weekly webinar on May 4, 2023.
The first part of the webinar focused on the unfortunate repercussions that followed when Robert failed to prepare for his sentencing adequately. He was unaware of how he could truly influence his sentencing. Additionally, his expectations could have been better managed by his legal team. He received 84 months in prison; he was told he would receive 1-3 years.
By sharing the consequences of poor preparation, we encouraged our community members to take action and make informed decisions when preparing for sentencing and federal prison.
In the second part of the webinar, we presented an inspiring story of a community member who took the courageous step of following through to hold his lawyer accountable. As you will hear in the webinar, the lawyer would not even read the personal narrative. The lawyer essentially said he would read months later before sentencing.
Our client learned through our probation report course the value of getting the personal narrative into the probation report–therefore, he pushed the lawyer. Then he pushed more, demanding the lawyer read it.
The lawyer acknowledged the narrative’s value and agreed it should be sent to the probation officer immediately.
Now, that is self-advocacy in action!
As the webinar drew close, we shifted our focus to developing a proactive prison routine based on our values. We delved into strategies for avoiding inevitable boredom and discussed the significance of documenting one’s journey throughout the prison experience.
We extend our sincerest gratitude to all our webinar attendees for their active participation and engagement.
We look forward to seeing you next week!
Prison Professor’s Team!