Prison consultant
Encyclopedia
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
, John Rigas, Michael Milken
, Ivan Boesky
, Mike Tyson
, Michael Vick
, Plaxico Burress
, Martha Stewart
, and Leona Helmsley
.
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.
and veteran of 17 federal prisons.
Sweeney's first prison sentence came after he reflexively shot and wounded an investigating police officer while testing a reactivated collector's-edition submachine gun
.
In 1993, after reading that one of the officers charged in the 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."
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.
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.
of Wall Street Prison Consultants spent ten years in various federal prisons on securities fraud and narcotics trafficking charges. Released in 2007, he
now advises a mix of white collar and drug criminals.
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." He also advises them to develop a routine, including keeping a Bible on their bed to discourage guards from touching it.
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.
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.
Hoelter, who has advised Bernard Madoff, Martha Stewart and John Rigas, 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. 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.
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 search
es and to accept a complete loss of personal control to the guards.
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".
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.
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.
White-collar crime
Within the field of criminology, white-collar crime has been defined by Edwin Sutherland as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" . Sutherland was a proponent of Symbolic Interactionism, and believed that criminal behavior was...
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
Bernard Madoff
Bernard Lawrence "Bernie" Madoff is a former American businessman, stockbroker, investment advisor, and financier. He is the former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, and the admitted operator of a Ponzi scheme that is considered to be the largest financial fraud in U.S...
, John Rigas, Michael Milken
Michael Milken
Michael Robert Milken is an American business magnate, financier, and philanthropist noted for his role in the development of the market for high-yield bonds during the 1970s and 1980s, for his 1990 guilty plea to felony charges for violating US securities laws, and for his funding of medical...
, Ivan Boesky
Ivan Boesky
Ivan Frederick Boesky is an American stock trader who is notable for his prominent role in a Wall Street insider trading scandal that occurred in the United States in the mid-1980s.-Life and career:...
, Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson
Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson is a retired American boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles, he was 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old...
, Michael Vick
Michael Vick
Michael Dwayne Vick is an American football quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League...
, Plaxico Burress
Plaxico Burress
Plaxico Antonio Burress is an American football wide receiver who currently plays for the New York Jets of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers eighth overall in the 2000 NFL Draft...
, Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising...
, and Leona Helmsley
Leona Helmsley
Leona Mindy Roberts Helmsley was an American businesswoman and real estate entrepreneur. She was a flamboyant personality and had a reputation for tyrannical behavior that earned her the nickname Queen of Mean...
.
Practitioners
Becoming a prison consultant requires no formal training or certification, and no agency tracksthose in the business. Many, but not all, prison consultants learned the ropes by serving prison time themselves. The Federal Bureau of Prisons
Federal Bureau of Prisons
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is a federal law enforcement agency subdivision of the United States Department of Justice and is responsible for the administration of the federal prison system. The system also handles prisoners who committed acts considered felonies under the District of Columbia's...
takes no position on consulting.
Frank Sweeney
Frank Sweeney is a convicted swindlerFraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
and veteran of 17 federal prisons.
Sweeney's first prison sentence came after he reflexively shot and wounded an investigating police officer while testing a reactivated collector's-edition submachine gun
Submachine gun
A submachine gun is an automatic carbine, designed to fire pistol cartridges. It combines the automatic fire of a machine gun with the cartridge of a pistol. The submachine gun was invented during World War I , but the apex of its use was during World War II when millions of the weapon type were...
.
In 1993, after reading that one of the officers charged in the Rodney King beating
Rodney King
Rodney Glen King is an American best known for his involvement in a police brutality case involving the Los Angeles Police Department on March 3, 1991...
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
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
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."
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
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
.
His own experiences in gaming the system
Gaming the system
Gaming the system can be defined as "[using] the rules and procedures meant to protect a system in order, instead, to manipulate the system for [a] desired outcome".According to James Rieley, structures in organizations Gaming the system (or bending the rules, playing the system, abusing the...
include feigning mental illness to get a private cell and severe arthritis
Arthritis
Arthritis is a form of joint disorder that involves inflammation of one or more joints....
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.
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.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.
Larry Jay Levine
Larry Jay LevineLarry Jay Levine
Larry Jay Levine is an American federal prison consultant. In October, 2006, Larry Levine founded American Prison Consultants, a legal services firm that provides information and federal criminal litigation assistance to offenders going through criminal proceedings in U.S...
of Wall Street Prison Consultants spent ten years in various federal prisons on securities fraud and narcotics trafficking charges. Released in 2007, he
now advises a mix of white collar and drug criminals.
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." He also advises them to develop a routine, including keeping a Bible on their bed to discourage guards from touching it.
Levine's use of photos of the facade and trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
in advertisements asking "Going from the exchange floor to the prison yard?" drew a cease and desist
Cease and desist
A cease and desist is an order or request to halt an activity and not to take it up again later or else face legal action. The recipient of the cease-and-desist may be an individual or an organization....
order from the exchange. He says business has been steady since the recent financial crisis started turning up evidence of corporate crime.
Tom Miller
Tom Miller of the Dr. Prison consulting service served prison time for dealing methamphetamine. 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.Herbert Hoelter
Herbert Hoelter is director of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA), a prison reformPrison reform
Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, aiming at a more effective penal system.-History:Prisons have only been used as the primary punishment for criminal acts in the last couple of centuries...
and sentencing-advocacy group.
He has appeared before the United States Sentencing Commission
United States Sentencing Commission
The United States Sentencing Commission is an independent agency of the judicial branch of the federal government of the United States. It is responsible for articulating the sentencing guidelines for the United States federal courts...
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
Community service
Community service is donated service or activity that is performed by someone or a group of people for the benefit of the public or its institutions....
,
as well as recommendations for an appropriate prison.
Hoelter, who has advised Bernard Madoff, Martha Stewart and John Rigas, 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. 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.
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).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
Presentence Investigation
A presentence investigation report is a legal term referring to the investigation into the history of person convicted of a crime before sentencing to determine if there are extenuating circumstances which should ameliorate the sentence or a history of criminal behavior to increase the harshness...
.
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 search
Strip search
A strip search is the stripping of a person to check for weapons or other contraband.-Legality of strip searches:...
es and to accept a complete loss of personal control to the guards.
Commentary on Bernard Madoff
Much recent 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
Butner, North Carolina
Butner is a town in Granville County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 7,591 at the 2010 census]. Butner was managed by the state of North Carolina from 1947 through 2007. A bill passed by the North Carolina General Assembly incorporating the town was signed by Gov. Mike Easley on...
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".
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.
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.
External links
- You've Got Jail, New York MagazineNew York (magazine)New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
, July 15, 2002