Every federal prison consultant I could find.
No license, no board, no register. Nobody keeps an official list of who does this work, which is how a guy with a website and a confident phone manner ends up looking exactly like somebody with twenty years inside the system.
So here is the list that should already exist. 19 people and firms, sorted by where their authority actually comes from, with what they sell and where the claim came from. You are about to hand somebody several thousand dollars in the worst month of your life. You should get to see the whole field first.
I wouldn't pick those words for myself. What I do is answer questions from people about to go through something I went through eighteen months of, and sit down with a few of them to build a plan. Call that a guide. But "prison consultant" is what people type at two in the morning when they're scared, so it's what this page is called and it's roughly what I get called.
Hold everybody below to that. Nobody here earned the label. They picked it, same as me.
I'm on this list and I take money, so I compete with almost everybody named below.
Nobody here is recommended by me. I haven't hired any of them, I haven't watched any of them work a case, and I can't tell you whether a given one is good at the job. Being listed means they exist and I found something public about them.
Being left off isn't an accusation either. It almost certainly means I didn't find them.
Nobody paid to be on this page. Nobody can pay to get added, moved up, or taken off. No referral fees, no affiliate money, no advertising, from anyone, ever.
And read the obvious conflict: I make money when you pick me instead of them. Weigh every line below with that in front of you.
What is here and what is not
All of it comes from public sources: news coverage, Wikipedia, BBB profiles, court reporting, and the firms' own marketing. Where a claim only exists in somebody's own marketing, I say so. "His site says" and "the Associated Press says" are not the same sentence, and this industry runs on you not noticing.
I haven't verified anybody's results, their client outcomes, or their fees beyond what's published. None of this is a complaint about anybody's work. Where a public record shows a dispute, I linked the record instead of characterizing it.
What the list is good for is calibration. Read it end to end and you'll see the service menus are nearly identical and the backgrounds are not.
Then use the real tool: the eight questions to ask before you pay anyone. They apply to every name here, mine included.
Former federal inmates
The biggest group by a wide margin. Almost all of them built the practice on their own case, and almost all of those cases were fraud.
Craig Rothfeld, Inside Outside Ltd.
Worked in the securities industry, was indicted on financial charges, and served 18 months. Out in 2017.
Sells mitigation before and after sentencing, plus help navigating the time itself, across Rikers Island, New York state prisons, the BOP, and several other state systems.
The celebrity name on this page. NBC News has connected him to the Luigi Mangione and Sean Combs cases; he says high-profile work is about two percent of his business. He does not put prices in public.
Site: insideoutsideltd.com. Where this came from: NBC News profile, Wikipedia.
Sam Mangel, The Sam Mangel Federal Prison Consulting Group
Ran a life insurance brokerage in Pennsylvania. Caught a wire fraud case in 2016, got 60 months, served around 20.
Sells PSR preparation, designation strategy, RDAP qualification, clemency and commutation guidance, and family support.
Leads with the media resume: CNN and NPR contributor credits. His site puts him near the Steve Bannon, Peter Navarro, and Sam Bankman-Fried cases, which I could only find in his own marketing.
Site: sam-mangel.com. Where this came from: Wikipedia, Prisonpedia.
Justin Paperny, White Collar Advice
Stockbroker at Bear Stearns and UBS. Served 18 months for conspiracy to commit mail, wire, and securities fraud. Out in 2009.
Sells sentencing narratives and mitigation packages, character reference letter coaching, self-surrender prep, and paid speaking on ethics.
Co-founded Prison Professors and wrote Lessons from Prison. The widest press footprint on this page: New York Times, CNN, Fox, Forbes, Dr. Phil.
Site: whitecollaradvice.com. Where this came from: Wikipedia.
Michael Santos, Prison Professors
Served 26 years of a 45-year cocaine trafficking sentence after a 1987 arrest. Earned a BA from Mercer and an MA from Hofstra while he was in.
Sells courses and consulting for defendants and for people currently inside. His Preparing for Success After Prison course is used by the National Institute of Corrections.
Co-founded Prison Professors with Justin Paperny and Shon Hopwood. The books, Earning Freedom and Inside, are sold as part of the practice.
Site: prisonprofessors.org, michaelsantos.com. Where this came from: Wikipedia, BOP reentry profile.
Larry Levine, Wall Street Prison Consultants
Ten years in federal custody across eleven prisons and several security levels, which is more of the system than most people on this page have seen.
Sells coverage from indictment through trial, sentencing, doing the time, and supervised release. He also runs White Collar Prison Consultants under similar branding.
The firm says he was the first person to turn prison consulting into a business. That is his own claim and I have not found anyone independent backing it.
Site: wallstreetprisonconsultants.com. Where this came from: Firm site.
Dan Wise, Federal Prison Time Consulting, known as RDAP Dan
Managed a pill mill pain clinic in Georgia. Pleaded guilty in 2014 and served 43 months on federal drug charges.
Sells RDAP and almost nothing else: qualifying for it, and the sentence reduction that comes with it. Also character letters, PSR prep, and what he calls mindset coaching.
More than 500 free YouTube videos feeding the paid work. The channel is the business.
Site: federalprisontime.com, rdapdan.com. Where this came from: Corrections1 profile, Spokesman-Review.
Richard Zaranek, Executive Prison Consultants
Did BOP time for a financial crime tied to his former job as a public administrator.
Sells a Defendant Services package: plea agreement analysis, placement, self-surrender, security scoring, and orientation before you go.
Run with Patricia Zaranek, and going about 17 years, which makes it one of the older shops here.
One thing to check for yourself: the firm's BBB profile carries a complaint alleging payment taken without services delivered. One complaint is one complaint, and you should read it rather than take my summary of it.
Site: executiveprisonconsultants.com. Where this came from: Interview, BBB profile.
Mike Sabo, Prison Consultants of America
Founded the firm in 2006. The firm's marketing says he has been incarcerated himself; I could not verify that anywhere except the firm.
Sells strategy for shorter sentences and for reentry, aimed at white-collar and nonviolent cases.
Advertises appearances on Unsolved Mysteries and Discovery ID.
Site: pcamer.com. Where this came from: Firm site.
Christopher Zoukis, Zoukis Consulting Group, inside Elizabeth Franklin-Best P.C.
Served 12 years in federal prison. Earned a bachelor's degree, an MBA from Adams State, and paralegal certifications while he was in.
Sells preparation before, advocacy during, sentencing mitigation, early release strategy, reentry planning, and post-conviction work.
Wrote the Federal Prison Handbook, the Directory of Federal Prisons, the Prison Education Guide, and College for Convicts. His firm's blog also interviews and links to several other people on this page, which is worth knowing when you find it while researching them.
Site: federalcriminaldefenseattorney.com, zoukisconsultinggroup.com. Where this came from: Prisonpedia.
Josh, this site
That's me. I'm on my own list, because a map of the industry that leaves out the person drawing it is worth nothing. (Don't know why I chose a rainbow but whatever.)
Eighteen months at FCI Thomson, a men's low. Out in 2025 and still on supervised release. My case was a sports streaming site, not fraud, which makes me the odd one out in this category.
Sells a limited number of paid consults, at a price published on the site. Everything else here is free: the answers by email, the calculators, the facility guides, and the annotated rulebook. I would call it guiding rather than consulting, but nobody searches for that.
I am one of the people this page is about, and I profit when you walk away from the others. That is the reason to read all of this with your guard up, including the parts about me.
Site: federalprisondude.com.
Former Bureau of Prisons and government staff
Authority from the other side of the count. They ran the system rather than served in it, which is a different kind of knowing and a genuinely useful one.
Jack Donson, My Federal Prison Consultants
23 years as a BOP case manager, plus unit manager, case management coordinator, central inmate monitoring coordinator, and hostage negotiation team roles.
Sells coaching for federal defendants on how the time actually works, from the staff side of the desk.
Also Director of Programs and Case Management Services at FedCURE, a sentencing reform coalition. His rate is reported around $200 an hour, which is the only hourly number I found published anywhere on this page.
He has no site of his own that I could find. The interview linked below is the best public profile there is, which is a strange thing to be true of somebody with that resume.
Where this came from: Interview.
Jeff Carson, The Law Offices of Alan Ellis
The firm lists him as a former BOP deputy director for health services and a former warden at FMC Rochester in Minnesota and FPC Alderson, the women's camp in West Virginia.
Sells consulting on health care, mental health care, case management, and issues specific to women inside. He also testifies at sentencing about the medical impact of incarceration.
One of the few people in this whole industry whose specialty is medical, which is exactly the situation where paying somebody is most defensible.
Site: alanellis.com.
John Webster, National Prison and Sentencing Consultants
A former practicing lawyer rather than former BOP staff or a former defendant. Founded NPSC in Nashville in 2001.
Sells plea agreement review, guideline calculations, PSI review, mitigation, designation, and RDAP help.
Sells an A+ BBB rating and longevity.
Site: nationalprisonconsultants.com. Where this came from: Firm site, LinkedIn.
Law firms with a consulting arm
Not consultants exactly. Practicing firms that added mitigation and placement work as a division, which means the legal work and the prison work sit under one roof.
Alan Ellis, The Law Offices of Alan Ellis
Criminal defense lawyer for more than 50 years. Past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a Fulbright recipient.
Sells federal sentencing work, designation and placement, transfers, disciplinary matters, 2255 habeas work, and appeals. The in-house mitigation staff includes two former US probation officers, a forensic clinical social worker, and two former senior BOP people.
The firm quotes a Ninth Circuit opinion calling him a nationally recognized expert in federal sentencing, and sells three guidebooks he wrote. Offices in San Francisco, New York, and per the firm site, Shanghai. Third-party commentary puts him at the expensive end of everything here.
Site: alanellis.com. Where this came from: Firm overview.
Elizabeth Franklin-Best P.C., Prison Consulting Division
A South Carolina law firm that houses Christopher Zoukis's prison consulting division.
Sells prison prep, help with problems that come up in custody, reentry planning, sentence reductions, earned time credits, clemency, pardons, and commutations.
If you have contacted Zoukis, this is the same operation with a bar card attached to it.
The nonprofit origin
One entry, kept here for context. This is roughly where the whole business came from.
Herbert J. Hoelter, 1950 to 2024, National Center on Institutions and Alternatives
A trained social worker, never incarcerated. Co-founded NCIA in 1977 with Dr. Jerome G. Miller, originally around juvenile justice reform and deinstitutionalization.
Moved into federal sentencing mitigation in 1978, and is reported to have worked on roughly 15,000 cases between 1977 and 2022.
AP and the Boston Globe treated him as one of the people who invented sentencing mitigation. Past clients included Martha Stewart, Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, and Bernie Madoff.
He died in 2024. NCIA still operates, but it has broadened into disability services and vocational training and is not primarily a prison consulting operation anymore. He is here as history, not as somebody to call.
Site: NCIA organization profile. Where this came from: Wikipedia, InfluenceWatch.
Other niches
People whose angle does not fit any of the categories above.
Tara Lenich, Liberty Advisors LLC
More than ten years as a federal prosecutor, then federal criminal charges and civil litigation of her own. She has stood on both sides of a federal courtroom, which nobody else here can say.
Sells mitigation specialist work, sentencing advocacy, prison consulting, and preparation for trial or plea, incarceration, and reentry.
Site: libertyadvisorsllc.com.
Brian Brown, Brown Reentry Consulting LLC
Formerly incarcerated. His first opportunity after release was as a job coach in the disability field. Founded the firm in 2021.
Sells something different from most of this page: supported employment for people with records who also have intellectual or developmental disabilities. Job development, coaching, career planning. No pre-sentencing or prison prep work at all.
If your problem is the job hunt after the sentence rather than the sentence, this is the only entry here pointed at it.
Where this came from: Idealist profile.
Jail Time Consulting, Firm branding, no named founder in public sources
Branded as a firm rather than a person. I could not find a named founder in anything public.
Sells RDAP, compassionate release, Second Chance Act eligibility, and home confinement guidance.
Markets heavily on radio, TV, and news segments.
Site: jailtimeconsulting.com.
Five things you only see with all of them side by side
Nobody is licensed, including me
No certification, no continuing education, no oversight body, nothing to take away. Anybody can call themselves a
The field is smaller than it looks
By the practitioners' own estimate, reported by NBC News, maybe half a dozen firms in the country have real national reach. Everything else, this page included, is a second tier of regional and niche operators. If the same four names keep coming up while you search, that's not a conspiracy. That's the size of the industry.
Everybody sells the same six things
Almost nobody publishes a price
Here are the only public numbers I found across every name here: around $200 an hour for Jack Donson, and reported flat packages of $5,000 to $6,000 at Executive Prison Consultants. Everything else takes a phone call. When the price gets set on a call, it gets set on how frightened you sound.
Most of this list is fraud guys selling to fraud guys
Look at the first category again. It's overwhelmingly former white-collar defendants, and the marketing points at the person about to become one. That works when the client is a securities executive. It works worse when the client is headed to a low, where a lot of the population is doing drug sentences. So the question worth asking is not who is most famous. It's whose time looks like the time you're about to do.
Background reading, none of it mine: Wikipedia on prison consultants, the New York Times on Making Crime Pay, and NBC News on how the business started.
Before you call any of them
Work out what you're actually buying. Most of what this industry sells is information somebody already published, and most people who email me don't need to hire anybody. That's a bad thing to write on a page listing my competition, and it's still true.
Then run whoever you're considering through the eight questions. Then check whether the thing you need is even this job. Paying a non-lawyer for legal work and paying anybody to get you to a specific prison are the two most common ways money leaves a family in this situation.
Where I'm useful and where I'm not is written down, including the cases I turn away.
You don't have to pick anybody off this page. Email me the question you were going to pay somebody to answer. Answers are free, and "you don't need to hire anyone for this" is still my most common answer.
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.
Somebody you know is about to pay one of these firms without comparing any of them. Pass it on.