What to expect

# Before you go in

This covers the period between now and the day you walk through the door. It is organized by where you are, not by topic. Find where you are and read forward.

Four parts, organized by where you are in the process. Below: the four moves that matter most, then the parts themselves.

Start here

## The four things that matter most

If you read nothing else:

Cheat sheet

- **Fix errors in your presentence report (the report that follows you the whole sentence) before sentencing.** After sentencing the report cannot be amended.
- **Set up your digital and financial life** on the assumption that the person handling it becomes unreachable.
- **Do your intake assessments in your first week.** They gate your time credits.
- **Ask about halfway house (the halfway house before release) placement at your first team meeting, and keep asking.** This is where months are won or lost.

The guide

## Find where you are

### [Before sentencing](/going-in/before-you-go/before-sentencing)

The shortest window and the one people waste. The presentence report, judicial recommendations, self-surrender, and mitigation that is worth the effort.

### [Sentenced, waiting for designation](/going-in/before-you-go/waiting-for-designation)

Who actually decides where you go, how to run your own points, and getting your digital, financial, and medical life in order while you still can.

### [Designated, counting down](/going-in/before-you-go/designated-counting-down)

Learn the place, set up money and communication before you go, start the visiting list now, and know what report day actually looks like.

### [What to carry in your head](/going-in/before-you-go/what-to-carry-in-your-head)

You cannot look any of this up once you are inside. Week one, your own release math, and the halfway house push. Short, because it is meant to be memorized.

After the door

## Then the other guide starts

This guide ends the day you report. What is on the other side of the door — cars, the unwritten rules, debt, working with staff, and how the days actually run — is [its own guide](/going-in/while-youre-in). Read it before you go, because you cannot read it after.

A note on sourcing

## Where this comes from

Most of what follows is either documented policy or something I lived. Where a claim rests on secondhand information, or where a number moves around and you should confirm it yourself, it is marked.

Policy citations point to Bureau of Prisons (the federal Bureau of Prisons) [Program Statements](/resources/program-statements), which are public. If someone tells you something that contradicts a Program Statement (an official BOP policy document), they are probably wrong, and you can print the page.

**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](mailto:josh@federalprisondude.com?subject=Going-in%20question)

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.