Humility Is One Of The Hardest Things For Many White Collar Offenders
There are thousands of white collar offenders awaiting trial, sentencing and self report. Many of those offenders will be going to minimum security camps and low security prisons. But even in those spots, humility can be the toughest lesson for these kinds of offenders.
Truth be told, many white collar offenders are used to being in positions of stature in the free world. There are many doctors, lawyers, business owners and entrepreneurs who have made a bad decision or two and found themselves facing Federal Prison. These guys are used to being on top, in a world where the common man is beneath them.
Well in prison, you are one of those common men. When you watch the video above you’re going to see a mistake Prison Consultant, and white collar offender Justin Paperny made on his first day at the Federal Prison Camp he was sentenced to over a decade ago. The mistake was simple, he politely introduced himself to a guard and reached his hand out for a handshake. He was quickly rebuffed by the staff member and told that staff members don’t shake hands with inmates.
This dynamic was life changing for me. If you’ve seen the HBO documentary, Generation Hustle, it focuses on the stature I had in my community before my crime. I was a well known business owner. I had a venture fund, a very popular incubator outside Auburn Alabama in a town called Opelika with a second location in Mobile. I was also the creator of the multi location Family Fun Concept “Planet Putt”. The city council in Opelika even had a “Kyle Sandler Day” in November of 2014. I regularly hung out with the mayor, sheriff and other public officials. That didn’t matter one iotta once I arrived in both the county jail and Federal Prison.
I’ve seen first hand billionaires like Greg Lindbergh proclaim “Do you know who I am?” Well in Federal Prison you’re just a number like everyone else.
Bragging Will Get You Messed Up
When you arrive in Federal Prison, especially if you’re high profile, like I was, or Greg Lindbergh, the whole compound knows you’re arriving. If they smell money, you’re ripe for extortion. If you talk about money, you’re just confirming what others thought.
In the video above we see Ian Bick talking about having to pay for protection. This was at the low at Fort Dix, and if you ask anyone who’s ever been there, as long as your paper is good, and you keep your head down you have nothing to worry about. If you’re familiar with Ian you know that he quickly tells anyone and everyone within earshot that he was a big shot club owner at 18 booking national acts. He’s also from Connecticut, so that made him ripe for extortion in a prison that typically doesn’t have a lot of that kind of thing going on.
My best advice is to buckle down and resolve yourself to where you are at, both in life and physically. You’re in a Federal Prison, this isn’t a work retreat, conference, or luxury hotel, it’s prison.
Federal Prison Tips LLC helps the justice impacted navigate the federal system from indictment to re-entry and everything in between. If you’re headed to Federal Prison check out our services page here.
Contact us here or call (407)735-6995 from 9:30am-9:30pm Eastern Time.
