Prison Professors

Companies primarily adopt compliance programs because they recognize the need to mitigate risk. Leaders want to get the end result of a safer workplace with less legal exposure. Merely adopting a compliance program, however, without comprehensive implementation, may not yield the return on investment that a leader wants. On any given day, we can turn to the Department of Justice website to read pr...

Visit us at ComplianceMitigation.com As described in earlier modules, government investigators do not act without having a specific intention. If they ask questions or subpoena documents, they likely already have invested thousands of hours and they believe they can build a case. When they start talking with people in a company, they want to gather more evidence. Their investigations will be in an...

ComplianceMitigation.com Previous modules offered insights we believe leaders should consider when designing an effective compliance program and risk-management strategy for their organizations. The more leaders customize their compliance and best-practice programs, the better they safeguard against intrusive investigations that could threaten the business and its team members. Regardless of what...

Compliance Mitigation dot com   For reasons expressed throughout these modules, every business leader should consider possible steps to lessen potential exposure to a government investigation. Three suggestions follow: Show a commitment "to doing good" in all communications. Document processes that show a commitment to operating the business with principled, transparent policies that are easily de...

Visit us at Compliance Mitigation.com   Although we can control our own behavior, we don't always have an ability to know how others will behave. When business leaders delegate responsibilities, they simultaneously raise their level of risk. Business leaders may not know what a team member is saying to a customer or how that team member may be acting in fulfilling job responsibilities. When that h...

Establishing a compliance and training system begins with a commitment to transparency. The first step would be to document the company's story and the value proposition it offers to consumers. The next step would be to write a process map and training schedule. The more detail leaders can bring to the process map, the more they will minimize exposure or vulnerability to a government investigation...

Visit us at ComplianceMitigation.com   What are some of the early signs that a government agency has launched an investigation? Subtle clues may surface. For example, a trusted friend or colleague may start asking questions, or sending emails that detail criminal acts. Those inquiries may be fishing expeditions, or an effort to get incriminating evidence, like an admission of complicity in wrongdo...

How Government Agencies Conduct Investigations   Business leaders and team members should understand how government agencies begin investigations. Typically, neither business leaders nor front-line staff even know that agencies may have taken an interest. Despite their lack of knowledge, investigators may be looking into operations at the company, or they may gather evidence against individuals th...

When it comes to limiting exposure from corporate fraud, we can learn from two philosophers, Socrates and Sun Tzu   Socrates gave us the wise saying, "Know thyself" Sun Tzu followed with the equally wise saying, "Know thy enemy"   With Socrates, we're taught the importance of introspection. When we reflect on the connection between our past decisions and our where we are today, we see relationship...

Hello to you. My name is Michael Santos and on behalf of everyone on our team, I welcome you. Our websites include Prison Professors dot com and Compliance Mitigation dot com. We offer services to help people and businesses with risk mitigation and avoiding government investigations. For those who have been targeted for prosecution, we create mitigation strategies. We help with sentencing and prep...

Hello to you. My name is Michael Santos and on behalf of everyone on our team, I welcome you. Our websites include PrisonProfessors.com and ComplianceMitigation.com.   We offer services to help people and businesses with risk mitigation and avoiding government investigations.   For those who have been targeted for prosecution, we create mitigation strategies. We help with sentencing and preparatio...

Download a free copy of Prepare by visiting PrisonProfessors.com.   Thoughts on Self-Surrendering: Unless a person has a valid reason to postpone the surrender date, it may be best to start serving the sentence as quickly as possible. Intuitively, many people want to postpone their surrender date. In our accompanying course, available at ResilientCourses.com, we offer many examples of successful j...

Reading from Prepare: What Defendants Should Know About Court, Sentencing, and Prison Get free download at PrisonProfessors.com or send an email to Team@PrisonProfessors.com   It would be best to avoid problems while in prison. But as described throughout this book, that isn't always easy. Depending upon security levels, complexities surface. People in prison must interact with hundreds, or thousa...

Get free copy of Prepare: What Defendants Should Know About Court, Sentencing, and Prison at  PrisonProfessors.com, or email Team@PrisonProfessors.com . Call 949-205-6056   When people go into the prison system, our team encourages them to go in with their eyes wide open. When Michael began serving his sentence, back in 1987, he was 23 years old and didn't understand a thing. As a result of not un...

From the book Prepare: What Defendants Should Know about Court, Sentencing, and Prison Chapter 11: What Should I Know About Staff Hierarchy in the Bureau of Prisons Get Your free copy by visiting PrisonProfessors.com or sending an email to Team@PrisonProfessors.com     Navigating the bureaucracy of prison requires at least a cursory knowledge of the key players and their roles. This section provid...

Visit PrisonProfessors.com to get a free download of our book:     Prepare: What Defendants Should Know about Court, Sentencing, and Prison   Send an email: Team@PrisonProfessors.com or call 949-205-6056 for more information       What Should I Know About Prison Transfers?       Based upon the number of minimum-security camps in the federal prison system, we estimate that less than 20% of the fede...

In most cases, after a person enters a guilty plea, or after a jury finds a person guilty, the judge sets a sentencing date. Those sentencing dates may be extended if the person is cooperating with authorities. Sometimes a person doesn't get sentenced for several years after the guilty plea. In most cases, a person will face a sentencing hearing within a few months of pleading guilty. On the other...

In the previous chapter we discussed the structure of PSR reports and how a Statement of Reasons can help some people overcome problematic PSRs. Probation officers prepare the PSR specifically for the sentencing judge. But the PSR follows the person all the way through the journey. In fact, our team would argue that the PSR has a bigger influence after the sentence is imposed. After all, a judge l...

What Should I Know About the Pre-sentence Investigation Report? After a person pleads guilty or is found guilty, the presentence investigation will be the next step. For more details, check out Rule 32 of the U.S. Rules of Criminal Procedure in the federal system. Each state system has a similar rule in the book of criminal procedure. In federal cases, probation officers conduct these investigatio...

When is the right time think about a sentence-mitigation plan? Answering that question reminds me of an old saying about the best time to plant an oak tree. I heard a speaker ask that question to members of his audience. Predictably, audience members ventured a guess. In the morning? In the winter? In the summer? No one had a clue. Pausing for dramatic effect, the speaker then gave the answer. The...

What Are Post-Conviction Proceedings? In the United States, we like to say that a person is presumed innocent until there has been a finding of guilt. Defendants don't always feel that presumption of guilt. A criminal charge may result in being ostracized by friends, loss of employment, and even loss of housing. Those collateral consequences make a difficult situation worse. From a legal perspecti...