Federal Prison and Federal Prison Camp Guidebook

By Teddy T. Atkinson

Have you been probed, investigated, or already indicted by the feds? If you answered yes to that question – here's some free advice! Take advantage of this moment in your life and help yourself by reading this powerfully compiled federal prison and federal prison camp guidebook.

Don't be scared – get prepared!!! Do you want to violently die on the inside of a federal institution? Of course your answer to the question is no! If you unfortunately have to go learn everything you need to know.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9781648015519

Book preview

Exclusively for Self-Surrender, First-Time Offenders, White-Collar Offenders, and the Family Members Who Support Them

Dear self-surrender, first-time offenders, white-collar offenders, and the family members who support them,

This has to be one of the most grueling and traumatizing moments of your adult lives. I know exactly what you and your family members are experiencing because I was you once upon an indictment many years ago. The minute that I was officially informed that I was being probed, investigated, and indicted, my world came to a stop. Then I was arrested, arraigned, bailed out, and released back into the world that my family and friends resided in; but now, everything seemed different to me. There are no exact words that can describe the feelings of being hit with a federal indictment.

As time would have it, I decided to fight the charges that were being hurled at me. I was then prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to a mandatory minimum sentence of twenty years to life. That was about the time my world came to a crashing halt, and every whirlwind that is possible was flown my way. I have been on that so-called emotional roller-coaster ride, but not at one time did I let my family, friends, or the feds know how I felt. First of all, my family already knew me. My friends all turned on me, and the feds didn’t break me, and I survived.

This federal prison and federal prison camp guidebook is easy to read, and it will ultimately clarify that the Hollywood depiction of being in prison is overdramatized. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about prison because it is real and is a very violent and dangerous place, but if you read and apply this guidebook as a navigational tool, you’ll survive too. All of the minutes’ hours, months, and years of doing time all become clear at the end when you realize that it has to be done one day at a time. Information is the key to entering and exiting a Federal Bureau of Prisons institution safely. The following pages of this federal prison and federal prison camp guidebook is powerfully packed with clear details of how and what a self-surrender, first-time offender, or a white-collar offender’s experience in the BOP will be like.

All of the days, weeks, months, and possible years of being confined on the inside like a caged animal, it has come to a point where I have realized that a man or woman can only depart from federal lockup two ways: better or worse!

I pray that I am in a much better frame of mind than before I was kidnapped by the feds and thrown into their dungeons—also called the belly of the beast. One of the greatest things about being a conscious human being is that we can make choices to enhance our current conditions in our lives!

If you are a self-surrender, first-time offender, or a white-collar offender and you are turning the pages of this federal prison and federal prison camp guidebook, that means that you are already making better choices in your life! Continue on.

Twenty-Five Questions and Answers

The following were posed and compiled by The Helping Every Last Prisoner (HELP) Group, LLC., and here are the lifesaving techniques that can be applied at every security level of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (aka the BOP). The majority of the questions are the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) for consultants and advisors.

Can a federally convicted self-surrender, first-time offender, or a white-collar offender ask their federal judge to go to a certain federal prison or to a specific federal prison camp? If so, can the choice be closer to their family members?

Consultants and advisors: The answer to both of these very important questions is a crystal clear no! Why? Because the US Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Prisons handles all federal prison and federal prison camp designations. Many years ago, your attorney could request a certain or particular prison or prison camp for a self-surrender, first-time offender, or a white-collar offender. Currently, all inmates and new offenders are placed in the feds by an inmate placement system called:

Designations and Sentence Computation Center

U.S. Armed Forces Reserve Complex

346 Marines Forces Drive

Grand Prairie, TX 75051

The first BOP placement for inmates in the feds is decided by the officials in Grand Prairie, Texas. It’s commonly called DSCC by the feds. The DSCC is a fairly new component of the BOP. They decide if you will be designated to a high-, medium-, low-, or minimum-security federal prison or federal prison camp. Other factors to be considered are available prison bed space at the institution that fits your’’ security level. A self-surrender, first-time offender, and a white-collar offender’s last legal residence will also help to determine which region of the BOP you will be designated in. The DSCC tries to keep all inmates and offenders within a five-hundred-mile radius of the last legal residence that was given to the United States Probation Officer during the Pre-Sentence Report (aka your PSR) or the presentencing investigation (aka Your PSI") interview. This guidebook will educate the reader about the PSR and the PSI documents of an inmate and offender as the pages are being turned.

If an inmate or an offender is designated to a federal prison or to a federal prison camp outside of their five-hundred-mile radius of their last legal residence, it must be for a specific reason. There are a number of reasons and factors that can have an inmate or an offender farther away from their family members, like the following reasons listed:

Physically fighting with the BOP staff members

Physically fighting with the other inmates and offenders engaging with a prison gang or a street gang

Organized crime membership or association

Possession of illegal drugs or giving the BOP "hot urine test results(the BOP also calls their test the piss test" for drug screening)

Possession of a cell phone or any type of an electronic device

Or violating any of the bop rules and regulations

Here is an example of an attorney and his/her client scenario in front of a United States district judge before the client is sent to the BOP:

An inmate or offender wants his/her attorney to ask the federal judge to assist the process of going to a certain minimum-security federal prison camp. The federal judge informs the attorney that he/she does not have any control over that area but can possibly make a recommendation on the record of the court. The federal judge will further inform the attorney that the DSCC will have the final determination if the client is a high-, medium-, low-, or minimum-security status inmate. Long gone are the days of being able to ask to go to the much-talked-about Club Fed, where the shrimps are big and the tennis courts and swimming pools are bigger!

Breaking news: Club Fed is dead, and you missed the funeral—sorry. So if the client has been classified as a low-security status inmate by the DSCC, going to a minimum-security federal prison camp initially is not going to happen. If the client’s custody classification status is lowered by the BOP after serving a certain amount of the sentence, he/she can become eligible for a BOP transfer from a low-security federal institution to a minimum-security federal institution. Federal judges are not connected to the DSCC process in no shape, form, or fashion.

Check this one out! If a newly convicted self-surrender, first-time offender, or a white-collar offender lives directly in the same area of a federal institution, wouldn’t it make sense to designate them there? Yes! It would be cost-efficient and smart, but the DSCC does not work that way when it comes to designating federal inmates and offenders. The federal institution’s security level may be a minimum-security federal prison camp, and the inmate or offenders security level is a high-security level. Who is responsible if there is an inmate escape?

All Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate custody levels, inmate classifications, inmate designations, transfers, and releases are made without any favoritism, economic clout, or political connections. Every male and female federal inmate and offender should know that the BOP controls a massive inmate population, which includes some of the most sadistic-thinking criminals locked down. If the mind or the thinking ability of a criminal does not bother you, it bothers the feds. The DSCC’s main priority is safety for its BOP staff members and the continued tight security of its institutions and its prison complexes.

By the way, what happens if an inmate or offender gets designated by the DSCC to a federal prison or to a federal prison camp that is over one thousand miles away from their residence? This is the correct way to handle a situation like that: In order to be transferred back into the region of the United States that the inmate or offender comes from, here are four tasks that must be done. Follow these steps and you will succeed with your request.

1. First, the inmate or offender must have a full eighteen months of clear institution conduct.

2. The inmate or offender must then obtain a cop-out, which is an Inmate Request To Staff form. The form is a BP-S148.055, and it can be located in the law library at all BOP institutions.

3. Fill out the cop-out and briefly state your question or concern and the solution you are requesting.

4. Locate your correctional counselor in your housing unit and submit the cop-out to the correctional counselor. The correctional counselor will then take the matters over from that point. The request of being placed back into the five-hundred-mile radius will be forwarded to the DSCC officials in Grand Prairie, Texas, who will decide if you are eligible. The DSCC officials will notify the unit team staff members about the inmate transfer request on whether it was granted or denied by the DSCC.

Not all of the eighteen-month-clear-conduct inmates and offenders receive the same results from DSCC officials. Remember, it’s a case-by-case-basis situation. If you see one inmate or offender that is appearing to be treated in a favorable way by the BOP staff members, mind your business. Everything is not what it seems in the BOP, so be aware of that!

When it comes to inmates or offenders having a jolly interaction with a BOP staff member, it may be a quid pro quo arrangement going on right before your eyes, but a new offender might miss the signs of it. The meaning of quid pro quo derives from the Latin language, and it means getting something for something or an equal exchange or substitution. Never concern yourself with another inmate’s business because it’s wrong!

When an offender is granted a self-surrender process by the United States District court judge, What if anything should the offender bring or take to the federal prison or to the federal prison camp?

Consultants and advisors: Excellent question! When an offender is granted a self-surrender process by the US District court judge, count it as a blessing. That is one of the easiest ways for a smoother transition from going from your house to the big house in the feds. All offenders are not afforded the legal luxury of reporting to the feds on their own free will. A self-surrender process allows an offender to get mentally, physically, financially, and spiritually in order, plus say their goodbyes to their family and friends.

An offender can bring very little or basically next to nothing with them to the self-surrender process. Once an offender is sentenced, the court will inform the offender through a letter of federal prison designation from the Federal Bureau of Prisons that is forwarded to your attorney. The federal prison designation letter will state the name of the federal institution, address, city, state, telephone number, and the date and time that the offender is ordered to self-surrender to the BOP officials.

We strongly suggest that all self-surrender, first-time offenders, and white-collar offenders make a telephone call directly to the federal institution that is listed on the letter. There are too many incidents to name about uninformed offenders, who have self-surrendered to a federal institution with their personal effects only to have them discarded, lost, or mailed back home by the BOP staff members at that joint. Here is what we recommend: simply call ahead of your reporting date.

This is a golden list of prohibited items that a self-surrenderer should not bring or take with them to a federal prison or to a federal prison camp on their self-surrender processing date. Prohibited items that "will not" and cannot be accepted in the BOP:

Social media devices

Cell phones

Any electronic devices or instruments

House keys, car keys, storage keys, or any keys for that matter

Billfolds, wallets, pocketbooks, clutches, etc.

Address books or any written information on paper

Tobacco or tobacco products or any matches or lighters

Jewelry, expensive watches, chains, bracelets, or precious stones

Male or female wigs, toupees, hair extensions, or any fake hair

Illegal drugs, prescription drugs, or any over the counter drugs—with no exceptions

Just so that it is crystal clear to all offenders, no cooked food or uncooked is allowed into an institution during this processing time. As much as some offenders would love to bring a slice of grandma’s fresh-baked American apple pie with them, the feds are not having it!

Many years ago, an offender self-surrendered to the federal prison camp in New York with his pet rabbit in its cage. The BOP staff members were shocked but not amused. The self-surrenderer was questioned as to why he had a pet rabbit with him at a federal prison camp. His response to the feds was comical. The offender said that no one in his family could provide the love and care that the rabbit was accustomed to, so he figured it would be best to bring it with him. The rabbit was confiscated.

If you are legally married to your wife, husband, or significant other, a wedding band is allowed. As long as there are not any precious rocks or diamonds attached to the ring, there will not be a problem when you arrive on your reporting date. If you are required to wear eyeglasses, they will be allowed along with the eyeglass carrying case, but make sure that the frames of the eyeglasses do not have any precious stones attached to them either. No self-surrenderer will be allowed to wear any of their personal clothing on the inside of the federal prison or at a federal prison camp.

We advise all offenders and their family members to prepare for the reporting date ahead of the actual date and time. We suggest that the self-surrender offender report to the designated institution with an amount of US currency in between the ranges of one hundred to 360.00 dollars. This amount of money will permit the offender to shop and purchase the necessary items from the institution commissary (aka the store, supermarket, canteen, con-mart, which is nothing like Walmart). The simple fact of living on the inside of the BOP is very expensive, so here is a breakdown on what to expect and how to find some normalcy during your incarceration period.

Okay, now back to the amounts of one hundred and 360 dollars and why you should go to the feds with that amount. Well, first of all, there are not two federal prisons or federal prison camps that are the same. They all do things differently. One may offer this, and one may offer that, but one thing that they all offer is commissary shopping, and it takes money to shop. All self-surrender offenders are allowed to shop at the commissary once a week. The most important aspect of feeling alive in the feds for a self-surrender is being able to talk to their family members on the phone, but if you do not have any money in your Inmate Trust Fund account, no phone calls can be made. So that’s why money is a basic must-have in a federal prison or at a federal prison camp.

Normally, most self-surrender, first-time offenders, and white-collar offenders ask this question: What’s the reason for bringing the amount of one hundred to 360 dollars with them to the feds on their federal reporting date? Well, the answer to that question is quite simple. It goes like this: the Federal Bureau of Prisons sets up a financial system for each and every offender called an inmate commissary trust fund account. Inside of that trust fund account is where the offender’s money will be held, and the money has what is called a spending limit attached to it. The maximum amount of money that can be spent out of that account at the commissary (aka canteen, supermarket, store, con-mart) currently is 360 dollars per month (thirty days). Once an offender arrives at the institution, the one hundred or 360 dollars will help the offenders purchase the commissary items they will need to survive from day to day on the inside of the