Do Other Prisoners Feel They Received Accurate PSI Reports?
As a long-term prisoner, I have adjusted by learning as much as I can about America’s prison system. Primarily, I gather my information by talking with other prisoners and listening to their experiences. For the past five years I’ve been confined in minimum-security camps. Prior to that, I walked inside the fences and walls of […]
I was not prepared for my Presentence Investigation
Prior to the day my probation officer came to visit me in the Pierce County Jail, I did not have any knowledge about the presentence investigation. Part of the reason for my ignorance, I think, was that I had dismissed the attorney who had represented me during my criminal trial after I was convicted. Most […]
Did My PSI Accurately Reflect My History and Personality?
Although more than 21 years have passed since a US Probation Officer conducted my presentence investigation, I think he did a good job of reflecting who I was in the report I wrote. My probation officer was named Todd Sanders, and as I recall, he was not much older than I was. He asked my […]
My Contact With the Probation Officer Who Prepared My PSI
I was locked in the Pierce County Jail when a guard called me out from my cell to meet with the probation officer. I had been arrested in August of 1987 for charges related to the distribution of cocaine, and I was held pending the outcome of my case. After a jury convicted me, the […]
Inmate Ignorance Regarding the Presentence Investigation
Through my work as a long-term prisoner, I’ve interviewed hundreds of other prisoners. I write what I’ve learned from them with hopes of offering information to help other prisoners prepare for successful journeys through confinement. One step in the criminal justice process that I think incoming prisoners need to know about concerns the Presentence Investigation […]
What I Knew About the Presentence Investigation Before Sentencing
I was 23-years-old when my troubles with the criminal justice system began. At the time, I had never been incarcerated and I certainly didn’t know much about how my Presentence Investigation Report would influence the sentence Judge Tanner would impose. All indications I had received from my lawyer were that Judge Tanner handed down tough […]
How the Presentence Investigation Report Influenced My Sentence
In 1987 I was arrested for leading a group that trafficked in cocaine. After a jury convicted me on all criminal charges, I participated in a presentence investigation with a US Probation Officer. I was confined in Tacoma’s Pierce County Jail at the time of my presentence investigation. My participation in the process was limited […]
Ice Pick Leaves Prison for Compton
Ice Pick is 35-years-old, and he has been incarcerated since he was 21. He was sentenced to serve 30 years, but a judicial decision resulted in Ice Pick’s sentence reduction. He transferred to this minimum-security camp in Taft, California because his time cut resulted in reclassification. Ice Pick hails from what he described as a […]
Prison Reforms Yield High Success Rates, Low Recidivism Rates
In the January 2009 issue of Inc. Magazine, I read Mike Hofman’s article that described the Prison Entrepreneurship Program sponsored by the Texas Department of Corrections. A former financial executive leads the program that teaches skills to prisoners that they’ll need to function in business. During the five years of the program’s operation, 440 prisoners […]
Prison Administrators Should Not Close Programs that Encourage Prisoners to Contribute
On Tuesday, January 13, 2009, Patrick McGreevy published an article in the LA Times describing how state prison officials eliminated a program that had been allowing non-violent offenders to earn their freedom. Instead of allowing the inmates to make contributions to society through meaningful work projects, those in charge of corrections made the administrative decision […]
Prison Reforms Should Include Incentives for Prisoners to Earn Freedom
Congress made several findings in its publication of the Second Chance Act. One finding indicated that American jails and prisons release 650,000 felons each year into American communities. Of those people who re-enter society from places of confinement, more than six in ten will return to confinement for one reason or another. That means 400,000 […]
The Moment Prison Was Harder On Me Than On My Wife
On most occasions, I would say that imprisonment is harder on the family members who are not incarcerated. The prisoners grow used to life inside boundaries. The rules and rituals become part of life, no more annoying than a rainy day. I grew up in Seattle, so I’ve learned to thrive in spite of the […]
Helping At-risk Youth Avoid Criminal Decisions
I enjoy contributing to a program at Taft Camp that strives to help at-risk adolescents avoid criminal behavior. As federal prisoners, those of us who participate in the group have a degree of credibility with those who sit in our audiences. With the 45-year sentence that I’m serving, and the 21-plus years that I’ve been […]
Taft Prison Camp Makes Budgetary Cuts
The prisoners at Taft Federal Prison camp are feeling pinched by the economic crisis. Administrators are citing budgetary restrictions as a reason for discontinuing subscriptions to all newspapers and magazines. Inmates support the library by donating books. Now, the only way that prisoners at Taft Camp will have access to news periodicals will be if […]
Expand RDAP-Type Incentives in Federal Prison
Forbes published Time Off for Bad Behavior, by Kai Falkenberg, in the magazine’s 12 January 2009 issue. The article described how white-collar offenders maneuver their way into the Bureau of Prisons’ Residential Drug Treatment Program. The RDAP represents the only program available for qualifying federal prisoners to earn an administrative time cut. Those who qualify […]