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Caveat Emptor: Letter to My Prison Consultant Who Delivered Nothing He Promised

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In light of recent prosecutions against some unscrupulous prison consultants, I researched my files and found this letter I sent to the prison consultant that I had hired when I was at my most scared and vulnerable. I never heard from him again and never received the return of the money I had paid him for delivering nothing he promised. Since, we have found there are some prison consultants (very few) that can deliver some value, but it is definitely caveat emptor.

This is one reason as a ministry we started the first confidential online no-cost White Collar/Nonviolent Support Group; meeting #159 is this Monday 7 pm ET, 4 pm PT. If you, a friend, family member, colleague or client are in need, or have been ripped off by an unscrupulous prison consultant, please go to our contact page or write us at: Rev. Jeff Grant, Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc., PO Box 1, Woodbury, CT 06798. – Jeff 

August 4, 2007

David Novak, Prison Consultant

Salt Lake City, Utah 84102

Re:       Refund of Consulting Fee

Dear David:

As you should know, I have recently arrived home after my incarceration of 13 ½ months at Allenwood Low Security Correctional Institution in White Deer, Pennsylvania, and then approximately five weeks in a halfway house in Hartford, Connecticut.

Approximately 18 months ago I learned that I had been designated to report to a “low security” institution and not a “camp” as my lawyer advised me would likely be the case.  Upon their advice, I then retained you as my prison consultant /expediter to (1) attempt to change my designation to a camp, and, if you were unable to do so in the few weeks before I had to report, to (2) attempt to have me transferred to a camp soon after my arrival at the low security institution.  You told me that you were capable of achieving both of these goals and that you had accomplished same many times in the past on behalf of other similarly situated clients.  Most importantly, you represented that you had contacts inside the Bureau of Prisons that respected your judgment and would likely change my designation based upon it.  You assured me that you could, would and promised to work quickly, efficiently and effectively on my behalf, and that you would be in constant and continual communication with me at all times, both before and after I reported to prison.  Based upon these representations, and seemingly with little other choice, I paid you your requested retainer in full.

From that moment forward, you delivered to me no value whatsoever.

  1. From the outset, you failed to tell me that Bureau of Prisons had recently closed down its regional designation offices, rendering your alleged contacts useless, and had centralized its designation offices to Grand Prarie, Texas.  Had I known that your contacts were no longer in positions to change my designation, I would never have retained you.
  2. As far as I can tell, you made no other attempts to have my designation changed before I reported (how could you, you had no contacts left).   I never received any accounting from you of any attempts on your part to have my designation changed from a low to a camp (i.e. telephone calls made on my behalf, contacts made, information packets transmitted, etc.).
  3. In fact, you were clandestine and circumspect when I asked you how things were going.   You told me that that this was due to the nature of the representation as if you were a spy. I had no choice but to believe you.
  4. Once your “attempt” to have my designation failed and I reported to the low security institution, I received no guidance from you as to how to handle matters of the next goal of an attempt to transfer me to a camp as soon as possible.  You did manage to let me know however that you were going on a month-long vacation which coincided exactly with my report to prison, and would be unavailable to work on my behalf during that time.  Of course, you withheld this information when I retained you less than four weeks before.
  5. I had to learn on my own during that month that I had a low enough security level to have been designated to a camp (my level was 0) but there was no room in the camps on the day on was designated.  So I was designated to a low security institution with a “management variable” which allowed me to be there despite my level.  I learned that the management variable lasts one year.  You knew this, or should have known this, at the time of your retention and should have advised me that it would be impossible for me to be transferred from the low to a camp before the expiration of the year period.  Yet, you failed to tell me this before I retained you and instead accepted my retainer payment under false premises.
  6. Accordingly, there was no reason whatsoever for me to have retained you.  You had no contacts with which you could have achieved goal one, and due to my management variable, goal two was impossible. You withheld both facts from me at the time of your retention.
  7. I never heard from you once during my entire incarceration other than one brief note, in response to one of my letters to you, telling me to “keep up the good fight”.  You never answered your cell phone the many times I tried to reach you, although you promised when I retained you that I’d “always” be able to call you on your cell phone and even though you know how hard it is for inmates to use the telephone. 

I was vulnerable and you took advantage of me.  You held yourself out as an expert and skilled professional in the field with special knowledge and contacts.  I was in no position to protect myself.  I was forced by my circumstances to trust you. I was frightened and would have agreed to almost any anything just for the hope of re-designation to a camp.  You knew this; this is your lifeblood.  You lied in every instance.  You left me out of time, out of money, defenseless with no other options.  Like a true confidence man, you created false hope and then used it to your advantage.

I shudder to think how many other of your clients were treated this way (although it shouldn’t be too difficult to find them and find out).  The small sample I polled at Allenwood all had similar experiences to mine.  But none, or at least not many of them I assume, practiced law for over twenty years, as I have, and know how to protect their interests upon their release. 

I want my money returned immediately so that I do not have to take this matter further and resort to litigation and regulatory intervention.  I trust when you consider this you will finally do the right thing.

I expect your certified check within ten days to close this matter.

Very truly yours, 

Jeff Grant

P.S. David Novak was later wanted for murder. The widow won a multi-million dollar civil judgment against him. Watch the NBC Dateline story here.

Link to our Contact page here.

Link to Jeff Grant’s bio here.  

Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc., P.O. Box 1, Woodbury, CT 06798

Article: Show Up Drunk: Indictments Spotlight Prison Rehab Scams, by Dave Collins, AP

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Photo: Jack Donson

Reprinted from Various Sources, by Dave Collins, Associated Press, March 11, 2019

It’s a tip that has been passed onto convicts for years: On your way to federal prison, say you have a substance abuse problem, and you could qualify for a treatment program that knocks up to a year off your sentence.

Federal prosecutors have long suspected abuses in the program, which has enrolled a deep list of high-profile convicts. Recently, a grand jury in Connecticut indicted three people accused of coaching ineligible convicts on how to get into the Residential Drug Abuse Program, or RDAP, by telling them to show up to prison intoxicated and fake withdrawal symptoms. The charges are among the first filed against prison consultants involving the program.

The case has put a spotlight on the unregulated world of prison consulting, in which some ex-convicts and former prison employees charge thousands of dollars for their inside knowledge to help people prepare for life behind bars. Some consultants say there has been wrongdoing in the industry for decades, including encouraging clients to scam their way into the rehab program.

The small industry now is “totally the Wild West,” said Jack Donson, president of New York-based My Federal Prison Consultant and a retired federal Bureau of Prisons employee.

“I hope it brings light to things,” he said, referring to the Connecticut case. “I hope it gives people … pause to not cross that line to illegality and unethical conduct.”

Completing the nine-month, 500-hour treatment program for nonviolent offenders is one of only a few ways inmates can get their sentences reduced. About 15,600 inmates — nearly 10 percent of the current federal prison population — participated in the program last year, and thousands more are on waiting lists. To get in, convicts must present evidence they had substance abuse or addiction problems during the year prior to their arrest. Upon completion, their sentences can be reduced and they can spend the last six months of their sentences in a halfway house.

Christopher Mattei, a former federal prosecutor in Connecticut, said the U.S. attorney’s office increasingly saw white-collar convicts make use of the program.

“It undermines the public’s confidence that all people when they go before a court for sentencing will be treated fairly. People who know how to game the system know how to get the benefits, whereas people who are struggling with addiction don’t know all the angles to play,” Mattei said.

Mattei helped send Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim to prison for nearly seven years for corruption. Ganim took part in the drug treatment program, got released early in 2010 and made a stunning comeback by winning back the mayor’s seat in the 2015 election.

That Ganim even had a substance abuse problem surprised both Mattei and the federal judge who sentenced him, since there had been no indication of such a problem. After his release, Ganim himself worked as a prison consultant and touted his knowledge of the drug program. He did not return messages from the AP seeking comment.

Questions have been raised about other prominent convicts’ admittance to the program.

Former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, sentenced to 30 months for tax evasion, completed the program, but the four-month early release he received was revoked in 2008 after prosecutors raised questions about whether he really had an alcohol problem.

Former Enron Treasurer Ben Glisan Jr. was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty in 2003 in the Enron fraud scandal, but he shaved 18 months off the sentence through good behavior and the drug treatment program.

While testifying at the fraud and conspiracy trial in 2006, Glisan appeared to joke about the program on the witness stand while being questioned by Daniel Petrocelli, the lawyer for former Enron Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling, the AP reported at the time. Glisan said his pre-prison drinking “problem” was consuming two glasses of wine upon returning home and sometimes a bottle when out with colleagues.

“You said one or two drinks. If you have a drinking problem, then I’m in serious trouble,” Petrocelli joked.

“You’ll get a year off,” Glisan replied with a laugh.

Bureau of Prisons officials said they cannot comment on specific inmates who participated in the program or on legal proceedings, including indictments.

“However, we can share that the BOP is committed to the integrity of the Residential Drug Abuse Program,” the agency said in a statement.

The criminal indictments in Connecticut are believed to be among the first criminal charges filed against prison consultants in connection with the treatment program.

Arrested were Michigan residents Tony Pham, 49, and Samuel Copenhaver, 47, both of Grand Rapids; and Constance Moerland, 33, of Hudsonville. The three were managing partners in RDAP Law Consultants, authorities said.

Prosecutors said the three told clients over the past six years to falsely inform Bureau of Prisons officials that they had drug and alcohol problems, taught them how to fake withdrawal symptoms and how to fraudulently obtain medication to treat withdrawal symptoms, so they could show prescriptions to qualify for the program. The partners also told their clients to begin drinking alcohol daily before going to prison and to show up drunk, the indictments said.

Messages were left at phone listings for Pham and Moerland. Copenhaver did not address the allegations in emails with the AP, saying he was too busy to comment. Lawyers for Copenhaver and Moerland declined to comment. A message was left for Pham’s public defender.

“The fraudsters not only undermined the authority of the judicial system to administer fair and impactful sentences, but they diverted vital substance abuse treatment from inmates who really needed it,” said Kristina O’Connell, an Internal Revenue Service agent in charge of New England investigations.

Last year in New York City, a lawyer and three other people were charged with defrauding the government and making false statements. They allegedly submitted bogus information to prison officials, claiming that a convicted drug dealer had a history of addiction, in an effort to get the client into the drug treatment program so he could be released early. The case remains pending.

Other consultants coach people on how to lie to get into the program, according to Donson, who said some also claim they can get convicts sent to prisons that have the RDAP program when only federal prison officials have that authority. He said he sees potential for fraud also as consultants rush to offer help related to a new law that allows federal prisoners sentenced for crack cocaine offenses before late 2010 the opportunity to petition for a lighter penalty.

Donson and other consultants say more monitoring of the industry and prosecutions would help deter misconduct.

“It’s an unregulated industry, so something like this hopefully brings some attention to it,” said Dan Wise, an ex-con who completed the RDAP program and now runs a prison consultant business based in Spokane, Washington.