Category: Tips
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You Know You Can’t Run Forever, Right? Often, Kyle Sandler, founder of Federal Prison Tips, gets asked: was it worth it to run? Why? Because he was on the run for 17 months to evade prosecution. He used to think running was worth it, and that he got sentenced correctly considering the totality of his…
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There Is Something You Can Do About It We hear it all the time: “The BOP won’t tell me anything about my loved one in federal prison.” If you’re new to federal prison, or if you have somebody going to federal prison, make sure you fill out one of these release of information consent forms.…
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A Quick Explanation We recently were asked in our Facebook group: “Do they have tablets in camps? Do they provide them or do you have to buy them?” You can join our Facebook group here. It’s active every single day with families in similar circumstances supporting each other and answering one another’s questions. Every security…
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Every Day Counts. If your inmate or loved one in federal prison is currently incarcerated after being incarcerated in a county jail, and that county time was in service of the federal charges, they are entitled to that time coming off their federal prison sentence. There’s no such thing as “dead time,” or time incarcerated…
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What Is The System? How Does It Work? The “email” system in federal prison functions through the federal prison operating system called TRULINCS, and is only available on computer systems in dedicated rooms set up in each housing unit. As it currently stands, this system cannot be accessed through the SCORE-7c tablets that can be…
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What Does It Mean And What Happens? A separatee occurs in federal prison when an inmate had a co-defendant who testified against them in federal court. Either the U.S. Attorney, the judge, or other court officials put a note for a separatee into their record. The U.S. Marshals will notify the BOP, and when the…
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There’s Lots Of Scores – Only One Matters We recently had a question posed to us in our Facebook Group, also called Federal Prison Tips. If you haven’t already joined this group, do so today by clicking this link. The question was as follows: 26 level what prison security will I go to I got…
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Failing The Test Might Not Be So Bad Shortly after you arrive in federal prison, you’re going to take a needs based survey on the TRULINCS computer system. As per the First Step Act (FSA), every new inmate in federal prison now takes this needs based survey that assesses your programming needs for FSA. You…
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First Step Act Introduced The PATTERN Score PATTERN in the Federal Bureau of Prisons stands for the Prisoner Assessment Tool Targeting Esimated Risks and Needs. It’s used when referring to an inmate’s PATTERN score, which is meant to calculate someone’s risk of recidivism. Recidivism, of course, is the likelihood that an inmate will return to…
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It Starts With The Plea Agreement When you get your plea agreement, it will most likely come with a two-point downward variance for acceptance of responsibility for your crimes. You will then be eligible for a third point at sentencing. Those two points will be explicitly provided as per the terms of the plea agreement,…
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If These Things Don’t Come Naturally, You’ll Learn Quick If you can live every day with those three things in mind, you can make it through a federal prison sentence without any scrapes and scratches. It doesn’t matter what security level we’re talking about, or whether it’s state or federal prison – those are three…
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Planning Ahead With Your Phone When You Self-Report When you’re self-reporting to begin your sentence at a federal prison, you obviously can’t bring your cell phone with you to begin your confinement, and they aren’t going to mail it back to you. Most obviously, if you’re self-reporting with a family member or loved one, they…
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Some Things Are Allowed, Most Are Not What can you bring with you with you self-report to federal prison? This is a question we get a lot on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. The truth of matter is ,you are extremely limited in what you can bring. You can bring your glasses – no contacts allowed.…
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Hint: There’s A Reason It Doesn’t Happen Often Federal Prison Tips specializes in post conviction work. We have 11 staff members and three paralegals. Our work speaks for itself – our testimonial videos are everywhere, and you have probably come across a few. But we, most other post-conviction firms, and even law firms shy away…
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What Are The 68 Disqualifying Offenses? 18 USC § 3632(d)(4)(D) outlines the specific offenses that make an inmate ineligible to earn First Step Act (FSA) time credits. If any of the offenses listed below are among your charges, you will not see any sentence reductions from the First Step Act. Offense Code Offense Description Section…
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Addressing The Details Before You Leave Preparing to leave federal prison should start the day you arrive. But, here’s a pro tip. About halfway through your sentence, you need to make sure you don’t have any existing warrants or detainers. The BOP will not release you to a halfway house if these haven’t been addressed.…
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Use Administrative Remedies Sparingly Don’t overuse administrative remedies in federal prison – regardless of who told you otherwise. We recently had someone in one of our Facebook groups talking about using administrative remedies and appealing to Congress for small issues that happen to their inmate in federal prison. Even though Josh Smith, Deputy Director of…
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Generally, judges look at it this way: if you’re healthy enough to do the crime, you’re healthy enough to do the time. Especially when it’s early on in the sentence. We get a lot of messages from inmates interested in filing compassionate release motions regarding their medical issues. And yes, many of these issues are…
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So, what is a Federal Detention Center as opposed to a Federal Prison? Federal detention centers are where some defendants are housed on federal charges prior to going to federal court. If you’ve been picked up by the DEA or FBI and don’t make bond or aren’t given a bond, you’ll wait for your day…
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“I thought the statute of limitations was up.” That’s something we hear a lot from people in federal prison on a drug conspiracy charge or any other kind of conspiracy. Why does it seem like the statute of limitations is irrelevant in these kinds of cases? Well, federal prosecutors have a tool called an “overt…