Facing federal charges

You've been charged. Here's the part before the sentence.

A case exists and nothing is settled. Most of what gets written about federal prison starts at sentencing, which is months or years from where you are. This is the stretch nobody covers: the first 48 hours, and the hearing that decides whether you go home while the case runs.

Start with part 1: Turning yourself in I'm past that, take me to bail

Read this first

Where this comes from

I am not a lawyer, and this is the one stretch of the process I did not live. I self-surrendered after my plea. I was never arrested, never sat through a detention hearing, never had a bond of my own. Both pages here are the mechanics, pulled from the statute and from court sources rather than from memory of doing it, and each one says so at the top.

Everything else on this site is written from the other side of it. My conflicts and limits are on their own page, and they are worth two minutes before you take anything here as gospel.

If somebody was arrested today

Call a criminal defense attorney. Not tomorrow. The single most useful thing that happens in this window happens before the detention hearing, and it only happens if somebody is there to do it.

The guide

Exhibit A

Two parts, in the order they happen

Part 1

Turning yourself in

The surrender-or-arrest choice, what a lawyer can do with that window, and what booking and the initial appearance actually look like.

Part 2

Bail and bond

Why there is no bail schedule, what the Bail Reform Act actually asks, the four kinds of release, and what a cosigner is really signing.

Nothing filed yet

Exhibit B

If there is no case yet, this is the wrong page

Both parts above assume charges exist. If you have a target letter, a grand jury subpoena, or agents at the door and no indictment, the useful moves are completely different and almost all of them are legal ones.

You think you're under investigation

Target letters, grand jury subpoenas, and agents at the door. What target, subject and witness mean, what to say, why deleting things is worse than the underlying case, and how to find and pay a federal defense lawyer.

After this

Exhibit C

Where it goes from here

This guide stops at the bail decision. If there is a plea or a conviction, the next thing that matters is the presentence report, and the two audience hubs take over from there.

For the one going in

Your name is on the docket. The checklists, the FAQ, and the guides covering before you go, while you're in, doing time at a low, getting out, and the years after that.

For the one waiting

Somebody you love is going. The family checklists, the family FAQ, a twelve-part guide to mail, visiting, money, and the release date, and the page on staying together.

My timeline

One case in order, from the arrest through supervised release. What each step is officially called, next to what it actually was. Useful if you want to see how far this actually runs.

Need help with this? Just ask.

These pages cover the general rules. Your situation has details they don't. Email me a question. Answers are free, and "you don't need to pay anyone for this" is my most common answer.

josh@federalprisondude.com

I answer in the order received, usually within a couple of days. I have a day job. If your situation genuinely needs more than an email, I take a limited number of consults, so say so and we'll work it out.

Pass it on

Somebody just got the call and has nobody to ask what the next 48 hours look like.