Drew Chapin and Brent Cassity are members of our White Collar Support Group that meets on Zoom on Monday evenings.
In this episode, host Brent Cassity interviews Drew Chapin, a tech entrepreneur who faced legal troubles and imprisonment. Drew shares his journey from childhood to becoming a tech CEO and the challenges he faced in the startup world. He discusses the pressure to succeed, fundraising struggles, and the ethical dilemmas he encountered. Drew also opens up about his arrest, the plea deal he took, and the waiting period before reporting to prison. The episode highlights the emotional and mental toll of facing legal consequences and the uncertainty of the criminal justice system. In this conversation, Drew Chapin shares his experience of going to prison and his journey of rebuilding his life after release. He discusses the disorientation and nervous system reaction upon arriving at the prison and the support he received from fellow inmates. Drew emphasizes the importance of setting goals and finding ways to cope with hard days in prison. He also talks about the challenges of the halfway house and the need for more thoughtful and intentional decision-making. Drew’s biggest takeaway is the importance of being mindful and acknowledging the interconnectedness of all individuals.
In this insightful episode of The Lawyer Millionaire Podcast, host Darren Wurz sits down with Jeff Grant, a remarkable figure in the legal field who has turned his tumultuous journey into a beacon of hope for others.
Beyond his personal struggles in the past- a past riddled with opioid addiction, financial turmoil, and professional misconduct, Jeff shares how he was able to launch a renewed law practice that’s not only thriving but helping individuals navigate the daunting waters of white-collar prosecution.
Jeff’s story is not just a testament to personal resilience; it’s an incredibly relevant narrative for law firm owners on structuring a business that aligns with their values and the modern world’s demands.
Jeff Grant is on a mission. After a hiatus from practicing law, Jeff has founded the law firm of GrantLaw, PLLC, is once again in private practice in New York City and is committed to using his legal expertise and life experience to benefit others.
GrantLaw, PLLC, is a new type of law firm providing private general counsel services to clients facing, who have previously faced, or who could possibly be facing white collar prosecutions and/or regulatory proceedings, and their companies and families. In this role, Jeff and his team assist clients in making critical and timely business and family decisions, and in executing on them, so that they have the best chance to come out the other side with lives of purpose, meaning and success.
He also provides a broad range of legal services, all in a highly attentive, personalized manner. These include private general counsel, white collar crisis management, strategy and team building, services to family-owned and closely-held businesses, and support to special situation and pro bono clients. He practices in New York and on authorized Federal matters, and works with local co-counsel and criminal defense counsel to represent clients throughout country.
For more than 20 years, Jeff served as managing attorney of a 20+ employee law firm headquartered in New York City and then Westchester County, New York. The firm’s practice areas included representing family-owned and closely-held businesses and their owners, business and real estate transactions, trusts and estates, and litigation. Jeff also served as outside general counsel to large family-owned real estate equities and management and brokerage organizations.
Jeff is admitted to practice law in the State of New York, and in the Federal District Courts for the Southern District of New York and the Eastern District of New York. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, the New York City Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Guiding people forward in their lives
After an addiction to prescription opioids and serving almost 14 months in Federal prison (2006–07) for a white collar crime he committed in 2001, Jeff started his own reentry. He earned a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, majoring in Social Ethics. After graduating, Jeff was called to serve at an inner city church in Bridgeport, CT as Associate Minister and Director of Prison Ministries. He then co-founded Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. (Greenwich, CT), the world’s first ministry devoted to serving the white collar justice community. On August 10, 2023, Jeff celebrated 21 years of sobriety.
An ordained minister, Jeff has more than three decades of experience in crisis management, business, law, reentry, recovery (clean & sober 20+ years), plus executive and religious leadership. He works frequently with people prosecuted for white collar crimes (and their families) who want to emerge from isolation and join a supportive community. In this role he helps them navigate their journey through the criminal justice system to new, ethical, productive, joyful lives on the other side of their issues.
Sometimes referred to in the press as “The Minister to Hedge Funders,” Jeff regularly uses his experience and background to guide people forward in their lives, relationships, careers, and business opportunities — and help them avoid making the kinds of decisions that resulted in loss, suffering, and shame.
Service and more service
A verified Psychology Today professional, he also serves on the ministry team at St. Joseph Mission Church (Cliffside Park, NJ) and as Chaplain to the Woodbury Fire Department (Woodbury, CT).
From 2016–2019, Jeff served as Executive Director of Family ReEntry, Inc. (Bridgeport, CT), a 100+ person criminal justice organization with offices and programs in eight Connecticut cities. Jeff is the first person in the United States formerly incarcerated for a white collar crime to be appointed Executive Director of a major criminal justice nonprofit.
Jeff has served on numerous criminal justice-related Boards. They include the Legal Action Center (New York, NY), Co-Chair, American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section Reentry & Collateral Consequences Committee, (Washington, DC), American Bar Association Lawyers Assistance Programs Advisory Commission (Chicago, IL) , Co-Chair, Mayor’s Advisory Council on Reentry Affairs (Bridgeport, CT), Family ReEntry (Bridgeport, CT), Community Partners in Action (formerly the Connecticut Prison Association, Hartford, CT), and Healing Communities Network (New York, NY). He has also served on the Advisory Boards of Creative Projects Group (Los Angeles, CA) and Reentry Survivors (Bridgeport, CT).
Recognition and more recognition
Jeff was twice selected a Nantucket Project Scholar (2012, 2014) and was recognized by JustLeadershipUSA as one of 15 Inaugural National Leaders in Criminal Justice (2015). He was selected a Keepers of the Commons Fellow (2017) and a Keepers of the Commons Senior Fellow (2018). Jeff has been the recipient of the Elizabeth Bush Award for Volunteerism (2011), received the Bridgeport Reentry Collaborative Advocate of the Year Award (2013, 2014, 2015), and was selected the Bridgeport Reentry Collaborative Professional of the Year (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019). He has also been recognized by the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence (2017) and by the Connecticut NAACP (2017), and was selected a 2019 Collegeville Institute Writing Fellow.
A Professional Member of the National Speakers Association, Jeff is an in-demand keynote speaker, panelist, moderator, and guest preacher. Speaking venues include Main Stage Presenter at The Nantucket Project (Nantucket, MA), American Bar Association Criminal Justice Conference (Washington, DC), Association of Certified Fraud Examiners Webinar (December 2022), the Greenwich Leadership Forum (Greenwich, CT), the Corrections Ministries and Chaplains Association (CMCA) Correctional Ministry Summit (Wheaton College, IL and Philadelphia, PA), Delaware Trust Conference (Wilmington, DE), Salons at Stowe — Harriet Beecher Stowe Center (Hartford, CT), Community Health Network of Connecticut Social Determinants of Health Summit (Wallingford, CT), The Neighborhood Project (Greenwich, CT), U.S. Small Business Administration Conference (Fairfield, CT), Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (NY, NY), Yale Divinity School (New Haven, CT).
Jeff has also spoken at many universities, colleges, and religious institutions across the country. For information or to book Jeff to speak, guest preach, or for a panel or other presentation, please see his e-speakers profile here.
Magazines, radio, television, podcasts, books
Jeff has authored, been the subject of, or been prominently mentioned in many national and regional publications. They include The New Yorker (Aug. 2021), Entrepreneur (Sept. 2021 & Apr. 2020), Bloomberg Law (Oct. 2021), Wells Street with CNBC’s Jane Wells (Oct. 2021), Reuters (May 2021), American Bar Association Criminal Justice Magazine (Spring 2021), Business Insider (July 2021), Forbes (July 2020), Philadelphia Inquirer (Oct. 2020), Vanity Fair (Aug. 2019), Greenwich Magazine (Mar. 2018), Law360, Inc., Medium, The Huffington Post, Absolute Return/HedgeFund Intelligence, Institutional Investor, CFO Dive, New York Magazine, Real Men Real Faith Magazine (cover story), Fairfield County Business Journal, Nonprofit Quarterly, Reentry Central, The Vision (the newspaper of the United Methodist Church NY Conference), Weston Magazine Group, Weston Forum, Hartford Courant, New Haven Register, New Haven Independent, Inner City News, Connecticut Post, Greenwich Sentinel, Greenwich Time, Greenwich Free Press, The Hour and others. Jeff authored a chapter in the book, Suicide and Its Impact on the Criminal Justice System (2021), served on the Editorial Board of the book The Justice Imperative: How Hyper-Incarceration has Hijacked the American Dream (2014), and was prominently mentioned/quoted in the books Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury (2021), Trusted White Collar Offenders: Global Case Studies of Crime Convenience (2021) and the Teal Book of Wisdom (2022).
He has been featured or interviewed on many radio shows, televisions segments and podcasts. They include the Rich Roll Podcast (# 644 November 2021, #440 May 2019), The Confessional with Nadia Bolz-Weber (May 2021), The Sydcast (October 2021), Newsy (October 2021), Business Talk with Jim Campbell (June 2021), Tha Yard Hangout (June 2021), the Colin McEnroe Show on WNPR (October 2019), The Same 24 Hours podcast with Meredith Atwood (March 2020), the Fraud Stories podcast (September 2020), the Taxgirl Podcast (July 2020), Landmark Recovery Radio (November 2020), Clara CFO podcast with Hanna Smolinski (January 2021), and Founders Focus podcast with Scott Case (April 2021), among others.
Jeff is also editor of the important, widely-read website and blog prisonist.org, for which he authors, edits, and curates content around national and international criminal justice advocacy/ministry issues. He also co-hosts the Criminal Justice Insider podcast, hosts the White Collar Week podcast, and leads a weekly online confidential White Collar Support Group (the first in the country). The group, which has had more than 650 participants, held its 350th weekly online meeting in March 2023.
Jeff Krantz is a member of the Ministry’s White Collar Support Group that meets every Monday evening on Zoom.
It will be on the short list of things your mind will immediately focus on once the federal prosecutors inform you that they intend to charge you. “How do I stay out of prison?” Deferred prosecution having been removed from the table; probation now becomes the golden ticket.
At this point, if they haven’t informed you already, your lawyer will update you on the federal government’s ever-present prosecution success rate of 99%. You are likely to plead out. Everyone knows it. The government knows, your lawyer knows. If you haven’t come to it yet, you will. Nearly no one fights. I didn’t fight.
My case was as likely winnable as any you would encounter. I was charged with one count felony conspiracy to sell counterfeit electronic components. The government acknowledged that the entirety of their case was based on the testimony of ONE individual, who himself had taken a plea and was claiming that I was his co-conspirator. After three years of an intensive investigation no other evidence was produced to support the government’s case. If I had chosen to go to trial their case would likely fall to pieces upon cross examination.
Once I made my decision to enter a plea agreement it was incumbent upon me to prep for my plea hearing and sentencing, and to explain to family and friends why there was no point in fighting. That by going to court, and even with the possibility of winning, the result would likely have a prospectively more damaging outcome than to plea. The continuation of a heated investigation by the government would decimate my still somewhat intact finances along with any prospect of saving our family business (a reasonable probability that drove most of my decisions).
All of this is by design. The prosecution seeks victories, regardless of whether it is for justifiable cause, political pressures, pure careerism, or a mix of all three. There is no other instance in life, in business, in relationships, or in any organizational entity that entails decision making, where the margin of error is nil. As I experienced it, in our US criminal justice system, regardless of fact, and or contingency, one party is always right, and it has the power to ensure that it always is.
Almost everyone pleads out. There is nothing else to be done.
Once you have reached a plea agreement with the prosecution you will know the sentencing guideline that you will be subject to. I was looking at a maximum of twenty-four months. The conditions surrounding my case made it unlikely that I would receive a sentence for the maximum. I was also informed by my lawyers that depending upon the judge, the stance of the prosecution and the perspective of the PO writing my PSR, that I stood a reasonable chance of receiving a non-custodial sentence. Probation.
As it happened, everything aligned and I was sentenced to three years’ probation, 100 hours of community service and a restitution and fine amounting to just over half a million dollars.
It was as good an outcome as I could have hoped for. I wish that it had been otherwise.
Craig Stanland is a member of the Ministry’s White Collar Support Group that meets every Monday evening on Zoom.
“Out of massive suffering emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” – Khalil Gibran
When I was arrested, my life was over.
When I pleaded guilty, my life was over.
When I was barred from my career, my life was over.
When the gavel came down, punctuating my prison sentence, my life was over.
When my ex-wife told me she was leaving me inside the prison visiting room, my life was over.
So many moments when I believed my life was over. I believed it with the same conviction when I say my eyes are brown.
The moments were sad, terrifying, filled with shame, and certainly life-altering, but as the author Cheri Huber wrote,
“Nothing has ever happened to us that we haven’t survived.”
Each one of those moments, with their sadness, fear, and shame, knocked me on my ass, but as Mickey told Rocky,
“I didn’t hear no bell!” Life will knock us down; it’s an inevitable component of our shared human experience.
Sometimes, the knocks are minor, and sometimes, they’re life-altering, so much so that life becomes neatly divided into before the knock and after the knock.
The life-altering knocks can define our lives, but this is critical; how they define our lives is our choice.
It’s easy to allow “what” knocked us down to define our lives.
When we allow what happened to define our lives, we relinquish agency to the event; we remain in the burnt ashes of what was, wishing and demanding the impossible, that the past is anything other than it is.
Our lives become frozen in time, and we hold onto our fear, anger, shame, and sadness, watching helplessly as they dominate our lives and evolve into victimhood, bitterness, and regret.
The “what” defines us and our lives.
Or we make one of the most challenging, terrifying, and empowering choices we’ll ever make.
We choose to define our lives not by what happened but by how we respond.
What do we choose to do while on the ground with our faces in the dirt?
How do we pick ourselves up?
And perhaps most importantly, how do we take the first step out of what was and into the unknown of what could be?
The first step on my journey was practicing acceptance; no amount of wishing or demanding will alter the past.
When we accept the past, we cultivate the room required to create a new future. We’re no longer prisoners of the past, living diminishing lives under the constrictive nature of the past.
Acceptance is the gateway to personal freedom and expansiveness.
With our newfound freedom and expansiveness, we find the room to dig and explore, seeking the lesson and the gift inside our adversity.
We use these moments to better understand ourselves, what truly matters to us, and what we hope to create.
We cultivate the willingness to receive the gift of perspective that awaits us when we make it through the other side of adversity.
From here, we can truly change the trajectory of our lives by giving meaning to the suffering and serving something more significant than ourselves.
We do this by alchemizing what we’ve learned and sharing it with the world so it can reach someone, somewhere, who feels how we once felt.
Lost, alone, afraid, uncertain, feeling broken, uncomfortable in their own skin, desperately wanting to be anywhere other than where they are, but with no idea how to take their first step.
When we connect deeply with ourselves through acceptance and self-inquiry, we create a new future for ourselves.
When we share how we created our new future with others, we give them the opportunity to create a new future for themselves.
Our greatest adversities do not have to be the end; they can, in fact, be our greatest teachers and our greatest beginnings.
It’s our choice.
Craig Stanland is a Reinvention Architect & Mindset Coach, TEDx & Keynote Speaker, and the Best-Selling Author of “Blank Canvas, How I Reinvented My Life After Prison.” He specializes in working with high-achievers who’ve chased success, money, and status in their 1st half, only to find a success-sized hole in their lives. He helps them unleash their full potential, break free from autopilot, draft a new life blueprint, and connect with their Life’s Mission so they can live extraordinary lives with purpose, meaning, and fulfillment.
Tim Herman is a member of the Ministry’s White Collar Support Group that meets every Monday evening on Zoom.
I spent four years at a federal prison camp in Tucson AZ.
On July 24, 2023, I signed a Release Plan which listed my “Referral Date” as August 24, 2023. This is the date my Case Manager gave the Chicago Region Reentry Management Office (RRM) as my release to the halfway house in Peoria IL. However, the Chicago RRM office claimed that the Peoria halfway house was full, and the next open bed space was November 29, 2023. I spent an extra 95 days in prison and I arrived at the Peoria, IL halfway house on November 29, 2023.
This halfway house is small – 25 beds. It used to be a nursing home, so it’s well-suited for its current purpose. My room is like a cheap college room complete with furniture you might find at Motel 6. I have two roommates, and we sleep in three separate full-size beds. Our room is approximately 400 SF and has a bathroom with a tub/shower. Every “resident” is allowed to have a TV not larger than 32” and we may purchase our own bedding (but not a pillow). Bedding is provided to indigent residents.
Our halfway house has a kitchen complete with a microwave, two refrigerators, two freezers, and plenty of cabinet space and storage. Breakfast and dinner are catered daily, and there is plenty of milk, orange juice, and coffee. Lunch is provided with cold-cuts, bread, and cheese. There are plenty of snacks available; all food and snacks are free, but soft drinks are available from a vending machine. Residents may buy their own canned foods (soups, Dinty Moore, etc). Restaurant food may also be delivered – but food from home is not allowed.
The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) does not own/operate federal halfway houses; the service is contracted to a variety of social service and nonprofit agencies like The Salvation Army, and to private companies. The Peoria halfway house is operated by Carle Clinic, a large regional healthcare provider.
I have been assigned a Case Manager, who is a Carle employee and who is responsible for administering the program consistent with BOP policy. The Case Managers report to a Facility Manager, who in turn reports to the Chicago RRM manager (BOP). Positive interaction and compliance with halfway house Case Managers and staff is important as this is the initial indication of a successful transition back to society. The fact that the halfway house staff here are not BOP employees is a very important distinction as they have not been institutionalized by years of working in the prison business. The staff here are “normal people” who genuinely seem to care about our well-being.
Halfway house residents do not have “custody levels” as one does in prison. For example, prison camps are minimum security, and do not house sex offenders or those with a violent crime conviction, but this halfway house population includes people with all sorts of criminal convictions. Nevertheless, all the residents here seem to get along well.
We are encouraged to find employment quickly. Recreation time away from the halfway house increases when we are employed. Weekend passes may be granted two to four weeks after arrival.
I will be released to home confinement on January 9, 2024, and I will remain under the management of the halfway house for the rest of my sentence which ends July 8, 2024. So far, my forty-one days at the Peoria halfway house has been a noticeable change from the Tucson prison camp. Spending time with my wife and family has been the highlight of being here, and having full use of my cellphone and laptop makes me feel productive and connected. It’s not home – but it’s halfway home.
White Collar Week Tuesday Speaker Series: Miriam Baer, Author of the Book, “Myths and Misunderstandings in White Collar Crime”, on Zoom, Dec. 12, 2023, 7 pm ET, 4 pm PT.
We are honored to have Miriam Baer as the December speaker in our White Collar Support Group Tuesday Speaker Series. Open to all!
Myths and Misunderstandings in White Collar Crime uses real world examples to explore the pathologies that hamper our ability to understand and redress white-collar crime. The book argues that several misinterpretations about white-collar crime continue to impede its enforcement, including: its failure to be classified according to degrees of severity in many jurisdictions; its failure to statutorily parse groups of defendants into major and minor players; and the failure of statutes to effectively define crimes, leading to the prosecution of ‘unwritten’ crimes. Miriam Baer offers a step-by-step framework, informed by theories of institutional design and behavioral psychology, for redressing these misunderstandings through ‘code design,’ or paying greater attention to how we write, frame, and lay out our federal criminal code, as a roadmap to more coherent and useful laws. A clearer, subdivided criminal code paves the way for a discussion of white-collar crime unmarred by myths and misunderstandings.
Miriam Baer is the Vice Dean and a Centennial Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School. During the 2021-22 academic year, she was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, where she worked on her forthcoming book, Myths and Misunderstandings of White-Collar Crime (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).
Dean Baer writes and teaches at the intersection of business and criminal law. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute, where she served as an Adviser on the ALI’s Principles of the Law of Compliance, Enforcement and Risk Management. Before academia, Dean Baer served as an assistant general counsel for compliance with Verizon and was also an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Baer is often quoted by major media outlets on issues of federal and white-collar crime. She has published widely, including in the Columbia Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Texas Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal Forum. She is also a co-editor of a leading white-collar crime casebook and has had her work featured and cited by several federal appellate courts.
In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family and her mini-labradoodle, Lucy.
We held a lunch and learning session with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the U.S. Pardon Attorney to raise awareness about the impact of restitution, share how restitution for many is a “life sentence,” and advocate for commutation of restitution. After our session with the NACDL, the NACDL contacted attorney David B. Smith, Esq. (a recent White Collar Week speaker) based on our recommendations.
David Smith and Jim Felman drafted the Fairness in Restitution Act. The NACDL Board approved the FIR Act. Two weeks ago, we received the final version (now available for review). Our supporters are currently the NACDL, The Federal Defenders, and Progressive Prison Ministries.
I am the legislative committee chairwoman of the campaign and have worked extensively with David Smith and the NACDL. Elise Roper is the Remission Now chairwoman. Cassandra Cean-Owens and Roxanne Jackson are invaluable members of the legislative committee.
We are all members of the Remission Now Campaign, and we are serving a “life sentence” due to oppressive and unfair restitution requirements.”
Bios:
Tanya R. Pierce, MBA: is a co-Founder of the RemissionNow campaign and was appointed by Dr. Topeka K. Sam, Founder of The Ladies of Hope Ministries (LOHM), to lead the strategic and legislative planning. Tanya is the Founder of Life Unbolted, which supports people impacted by the federal carceral system. She created the Young Adult Initiative (YAI), a peer-led training, mentoring, coaching, and accountability cohort-style training for federally impacted individuals aged 18-24. The program collaborates with the U.S. District Court – Eastern District of New York (EDNY) Special Options Services (SOS) Program. In 2022, she received the Department of Justice (DOJ) Token for participating as a credible messenger in the U.S. Attorney Office EDNY Inaugural Reentry Simulations and Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) contracted Residential Reentry Center (RRC) Forum. She was a contributing Stakeholder of the Coordination to Reduce Barriers to Reentry: Lessons Learned from COVID-19 and Beyond: Report to Congress from the Reentry Coordination Council: April 2022.
Tanya has over 20 years of experience in real estate development. She holds a certificate in paralegal studies from CUNY Queens College, a certificate in JTC: Python Coding 3.9 from Columbia Business School. She is a NY Certified Peer Specialist. Tanya is a vocal federal criminal justice reformist.
Roxane Jackson: Roxanne is a dynamic and accomplished professional with a vibrant, engaging personality. She received her formative education in the Chicago Public Schools. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from National Louis University in Evanston, Illinois, and obtained her law degree from The John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois. Ms. Jackson has amassed over (30) years of senior management and human resources experience with numerous not-for-profits and Fortune 500 companies, such as FOX, L’Oreal USA, Mars Inc., and Omar Medical Supplies.
Her engaging demeanor gives her the ability to captivate, teach, and entertain audiences with her infectious enthusiasm, unique delivery, and thought-provoking content. Roxanne is currently the Midwest Regional Director of a national organization. Roxanne is building coalitions in the Midwest to address legislative changes needed to provide true second chances to those impacted by the criminal justice system.
Elise Dixon-Roper: a co-founder of the RemissionNow campaign, was a managing partner in a small minority law firm in Chicago when she was indicted in 2012 for mail fraud. Prior to her sentencing, Elise had practiced law for 20 years. In 2015, Elise was sentenced to 15 months, serving 9 months in Lexington, KY. In 2021, Elise reached out to Dr. Topeka K. Sam, Founder of the Ladies of Hope Ministries (LOHM) to see how she could help her and several of her friends with restitution. The Fairness in Restitution (FIR Act) is a result of this group’s perseverance in trying to help the thousands of people who are stuck in a life sentence due to restitution. Elise is currently an Operations Manager for a consulting/insurance firm in Chicago. Her main goal now is to obtain remission and to help pass the FIR Act.
Cassandra Cean-Owens: a co-founder of the RemissionNow Campaign and former litigation, transactional, and managing attorney was sentenced to 87 months in federal prison, resulting in her disbarment by the New York State Bar. Her release to home detention in May 2020 amidst the COVID pandemic ignited her passion for criminal justice reform. Cassandra, now under federal supervision, is deeply committed to contributing positively to society. During her time at Danbury Federal Prison Camp, she instructed legal research and writing classes, founded the prison’s law library, and crafted the curriculum for the United States Department of Labor Legal Secretary Apprenticeship Program. Cassandra’s multifaceted life includes serving as a licensed practical nurse on weekends, a Sunday School Bible Teacher for adults, and a former chaplain for the New York City Police Department. She co-designed Columbia Law School’s Paralegal Pathway Program and serves as its program Ambassador, reflecting her unwavering commitment to making a meaningful difference in the world. Cassandra resides in New York with her husband Isaih R. Owens, Esq., and nine-year-old daughter.
Background Restitution is intended to be a compensatory, not punitive, component of a defendant’s sentence after a conviction. Too often, however, the restitution imposed is unfairly onerous, disproportionate to the harm actually caused by the person, and unsupported by evidence. Even after a person has served their prison sentence, many restitution orders make it difficult for a person to start their life again, to care for their family and dependents, and even to make the required restitution. Many people who have served short sentences for crimes are burdened years and even decades later by restitution requirements. Restitution can become a “life sentence.”
Summary The FIR Act would improve federal restitution law by: Ensuring fairness, proportionality, and accuracy in the amount of restitution owed.
Require that the Government show actual loss sustained by a victim as a direct and proximate result of the defendant’s actions.
Eliminate joint and several liability and ensure that defendants are only responsible for compensating harms they themselves caused.
Hold an evidentiary hearing for proving or disproving the amounts included in a restitution order. Preventing restitution obligations from becoming overly onerous or lengthy.
Change the statutory period of liability to pay a fine from 20 years to 10 years and preventing extensions, which current law does not allow for but were sometimes permitted by courts.
Allow courts to consider the economic circumstances of a defendant so that defendants are not burdened with unfair and unrealistic burdens.
Prevent the seizing or garnishing of wages, benefits, or certain other amounts if it would leave the defendant assets that would qualify them for the appointment of counsel under federal guidelines.
Allow defendants to petition for a change in their restitution order if their economic circumstances change.
Allow defendants to keep small amounts of money made outside of wages and benefits, such as small gifts or inheritances. Helping victims recover while also helping defendants avoid burdensome debts.
Require that any amounts collected by the Government first go to satisfaction of a restitution order, in cases where both restitution and forfeiture are required.
Allow settlements of outstanding restitution obligations which would guarantee an amount of restitution for victims while removing a burden from the defendant.
Exempt any reduction in restitution amount owed from being counted as income for income tax purposes.
“Join us in this week’s episode as we discuss what he has learned along the way about relationships, work ethic, service, God, addiction, prison, and sobriety. This is a deep dive into how to love, tell your truth, and live a meaningful spiritual life in service to others.”
“Over 20 million people are suffering right now from substance abuse, often in silence. This secrecy around addiction creates shame which then increases the addiction, which then increases the shame.
This vicious cycle can only be broken if we first break the stigma of addiction and the silence and shame that perpetuates it. This week’s guest on the Cracking Open podcast is Jeff Grant, and he’s here to do just that.
After a basketball injury, Jeff was prescribed opioids for the pain and thus began his slippery slope into substance dependency. His growing addiction led Jeff down a path filled with secrecy and lies that ultimately caused the loss of his law firm, a suicide attempt, a felony fraud conviction, and a federal prison sentence.
This cracking open moment radically awakened Jeff’s life and soul. After being released from prison, Jeff earned his Master of Divinity, served at an inner-city church in Bridgeport, Connecticut as Associate Minister and Director of Prison Ministries, and then co-founded Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. – the world’s first ministry dedicated to serving people navigating the white-collar criminal justice system.
Jeff’s law license has since been reinstated, and he once again founded a private law practice in New York City where he is committed to using his legal expertise and life experience to benefit others. He also recently celebrated his 21st year of sobriety.
Join us in this week’s episode as we discuss what he has learned along the way about relationships, work ethic, service, God, addiction, prison, and sobriety. This is a deep dive into how to love, tell your truth, and live a meaningful spiritual life in service to others.”
We were honored to have Doug Berman as the October speaker in our White Collar Support Group Tuesday Speaker Series.
Among other important topics, Prof. Berman discussed the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s recent sentencing guidelines revisions for certain first time offenses including a two-point reduction, noncustodial sentences and retroactivity. And there was an extensive Q&A!
Professor Douglas A. Berman is Newton D. Baker-Baker & Hostetler Chair in Law and Executive Director of the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, housed in the Moritz College of Law., Ohio State University. Berman’s principal teaching and research focus is in the area of criminal law and criminal sentencing, though he also has teaching and practice experience in the fields of legislation and intellectual property. He has taught Criminal Law, Criminal Punishment and Sentencing, Criminal Procedure – Investigation, Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform Seminar, Federal and State Clemency Decision-making, The Death Penalty, Legislation, Introduction to Intellectual Property, Second Amendment Seminar, and the Legislation Clinic.
Professor Berman attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School. In law school, he was an editor and developments office chair of the Harvard Law Review and also served as a teaching assistant for a Harvard University philosophy course. After graduation from law school in 1993, Professor Berman served as a law clerk for Judge Jon O. Newman and then for Judge Guido Calabresi, both on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. After clerking, Professor Berman was a litigation associate at the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, and Garrison in New York City.
Professor Berman is the co-author of two casebooks. Sentencing Law and Policy: Cases, Statutes and Guidelines, published by Aspen Publishers, is now in its fifth edition. Marijuana Law and Policy was released by Carolina Academic Press in 2020. In addition to authoring numerous publications on topics ranging from capital punishment to the federal sentencing guidelines, Professor Berman has served as an editor of the Federal Sentencing Reporter for more than twenty five years, and also serves as co-managing editor of the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law.
Professor Berman is the sole creator and author of the widely-read and widely-cited blog, Sentencing Law and Policy (https://sentencing.typepad.com/). The blog often receives nearly 100,000 page views per month (and had over 20,000 hits the day of the Supreme Court’s major sentencing decision in United States v. Booker). Professor Berman’s work on the Sentencing Law and Policy blog, which he describes as a form of “scholarship in action,” has been profiled or discussed at length in articles appearing in the Wall Street Journal, Legal Affairs magazine, Lawyers Weekly USA, Legal Times, Columbus Monthly, and in numerous other print and online publications…
