For the one going in

You are the one going

Everything on this site written for the person whose name is on the docket, in one place. There is a ten-minute version, a version you search when you have one question, and a long version you read straight through. Same material, three depths. Pick by how much time you have.

Start with the ten-minute version I have one specific question

If someone on the outside sent you here, send them their half. Their problems are not yours.

How this fits together

Three depths, not three topics

The checklists, the FAQ, and the guides cover a lot of the same ground on purpose. They are not sequential and you are not meant to read all three. The checklists tell you what matters most and what it costs to get wrong. The FAQ answers a specific question in a paragraph. The guides explain the reasoning underneath both, in the order things will actually happen to you.

Most people arrive with one question, get it answered, and come back later for the long version once they have time to sit with it. That is the right way to use this.

Ten minutes

Exhibit A

Start here if you have no time

If you are reporting soon and read nothing else on this site, read this.

The checklists

Thirty things across the three stages of a sentence, ranked by what getting them wrong costs you. Almost none of it is about danger and nearly all of it is free. Three parts, ten minutes.

One question

Exhibit B

Look something up

Around 150 questions people actually sent me, grouped so you can find yours.

The FAQ

Hygiene, cellies, sex, drugs, phones, money, food, fights, discipline, staff, release, medical, family, work, identity, and the head stuff. Sixteen sections. Where I do not know, the question stays up and says so.

The long version

Exhibit C

Read it through, in order

Three stages, in the order they happen. Read them before you go, because you cannot read them after.

Stage one

Before you go in

Sentencing to the door: the presentence report, designation, getting your affairs in order, and what to memorize. Four parts.

Stage two

While you're in

After the door: cars, the unwritten rules, debt, the economy, working with staff, and doing the time. Nine parts.

Stage three

Getting out

The halfway house, home confinement, supervised release, and the work of rebuilding. Twelve parts.

Branch off stage two

Doing time at your security level

Not a fourth stage. This is While you're in narrowed to where you actually land: camp, low, medium, or penitentiary. What the level changes, how you get scored into one, and the level-specific guides. The low is written up in full; the rest is honestly marked.

Whatever you read

Exhibit D

The four everyone needs

Not specific to going in, but you will want all of these before you report.

Time calculator

How long you will actually serve. Good conduct time, FSA credits, jail credit.

PATTERN score calculator

The risk score that decides whether your FSA credits get applied at all.

The facility guide

Stamp rates, store markups, housing style, and how each place runs.

The glossary

Count, callout, shot, car. Learn the words before you need them.

All the tools and rules

For your people

Hand the rest of this site to your family

You will not be able to look things up once you're inside. They can, and this is where: everything written for the one waiting — a twelve-part guide to mail, visiting, money, and your release date, plus their own FAQ and checklist. Alongside it, a guide to every facility with email alerts when visiting stops, the support group directory, calculators for your release math, and free answers when they have questions.

Send them the link before you report, not after they can't reach you.

Still stuck?

These pages cover the general case. Yours will have details they don't. Email me the 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 is about to go in with none of this. Pass it on.