We are honored to have Doug Berman as the October speaker in our White Collar Support Group Tuesday Speaker Series. Open to all!

Link to register: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUlduusqjgrG9OojwuFnQiOzEz6IqdcaRd1

Information about our White Collar Support Group: http://prisonist.org

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...

To reach Prof. Doug Berman: berman.43@osu.edu

We meet every Monday. Featured in the New Yorker.

We are a community of individuals, families and groups with white collar justice issues who have a desire to take responsibility for our actions and the wreckage we caused, make amends, and move forward in new way of life centered on hope, care, compassion, tolerance and empathy. Our experience shows us that many of us are suffering in silence with shame, remorse, and deep regret. Many of us have been stigmatized by our own families, friends and communities, and the business community. Our goal is to learn and evolve into a new spiritual way of life and to reach out in service to others. 

Over 750 Fellow Travelers have participated in our support group meetings from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming - and Canada, South America, Israel. Mexico, Europe, Scandinavia, and the Caribbean. All have agreed this has been a valuable, important experience in which everyone feels less alone, and gratified in the opportunity to talk about things in a safe space only we could understand.

WCSG members have access to our private on-line community which features peer and mentoring support, our white collar job and career board, news and events relevant to our community, advocacy initiatives and partnerships with other nonprofits, and a wide array of other resources. We sponsor a monthly newsletter, a Tuesday Night Speaker Series (open to family and friends), social media channels, and our website hosts our widely-read blog with over ten years of important content. All freely offered on a volunteer basis by group members at no cost to our members and their families!

Thank you for referring justice-impacted people and families: info@prisonist.org. 

For press/media inquiries: press@grantlaw.com. 

IMPORTANT!: If you are currently on supervised release, probation or parole, it is important that you first discuss this with your P.O. To assist in this regard, information about our ministry is available on prisonist.org.

For details, invitation or to make referrals...

Also, White Collar Week Podcast: An Evening with Our White Collar Support Group. 16 support group members share their stories. Link here.

We were honored to have Glenn E. Martin as the September speaker in our White Collar Support Group Tuesday Speaker Series.

Information about our White Collar Support Group: http://prisonist.org

For over two decades, Glenn E. Martin successfully founded and directed a handful of national organizations in the non-profit sector. Glenn has occupied the role of “visionary”, while developing a strong track record in the more pragmatic aspects of building and running successful organizations, including fundraising, operations, administration, and communications.

Before launching both GEMrealestate and GEMtrainers, a multi-state real estate investment company and a successful non-profit consultancy, respectively, Glenn founded and served as President of JustLeadershipUSA, an organization he built as a tribute to his son Joshua, dedicated to cutting the U.S. correctional population in half by 2030. For over 20 years, since leaving prison, he’s been a part of the vanguard of successful reform advocates in America. Glenn has a quote that he coined in prison in 2000 that guides the work of GEMtrainers:

“People closest to the problem are closest to the solution but furthest from POWER and RESOURCES.”

Since launching GEMtrainers, Glenn has served as a confidential, trusted advisor and strategic thought partner to leaders driving social justice change. From fundraising, organizational development, and crisis management to the development and implementation of multi-year strategic plans, Glenn brings almost 25 years of leadership and operational experience to the table.

His leadership has been recognized with multiple honors, including the 2016 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, the 2017 Brooke Astor Award, and the 2014 Echoing Green Fellowship. He is also a Founding Member of the Council on Criminal Justice. Prior to founding JustLeadershipUSA, Glenn was the Vice President of The Fortune Society, where he founded and led the David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy. He also served as the Co-Director of the National HIRE Network at the Legal Action Center, and co-founded the Education from the Inside Out Coalition. He’s also the founder and visionary behind the #CLOSErikers campaign in NYC.

Glenn has served as a public speaker and has been a media guest appearing on national news outlets such as NPR, MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, Al Jazeera and CSPAN. You can follow him at @glennEmartin on Twitter.

To reach Glenn E. Martin: gemtrainers.com

Watch the Video:

Please check out my interview on Beyond The Balance Sheet with hosts, Diana Clark & Arden O'Connor of the O’Connor Professional Group - Behavioral Health Navigation. The podcast discusses the important mix of legal and psychological training advisors need to serve their clients best

“Jeff Grant possesses an intriguing narrative that he candidly recounts. His journey began with opioid addiction and culminated in him borrowing funds from clients’ accounts, leading to his incarceration. Jeff underwent a transformative experience, earning his Master of Divinity degree and successfully reinstating his law license. He now serves as the visionary behind Progressive Prison Ministries and GrantLaw, which is dedicated to aiding individuals convicted of white-collar offenses by providing them with moral support and defense. This episode will be one of your favorites.”

Listen on your favorite podcast platform. Link here...

Bill Livolsi is a member of our White Collar Support Group that meets on Zoom on Monday evenings

For an individual facing prosecution for a first time, white collar/non-violent offense, the First Step Act introduces a significant provision called “Time Credits“, granting individuals in federal prisons the opportunity to reduce their incarceration period. This reduction is achieved by actively engaging in “Evidence-Based Recidivism Reduction programming” (EBRR programs) and participating in BOP sanctioned “Productive Activities.”

By participating in these Productive Activities and EBRR programs, incarcerated individuals can earn Time Credits that have the power to shorten their overall prison sentence. Rather than remaining in a BOP facility, participants who accumulate these credits gain the opportunity to transition to home confinement or a Residential Reentry Center (RRC, aka Half-Way House) sooner, and on to Supervised Release sooner, than before the FSA was enacted.

The potential for sentence reduction can be substantial. According to the law, participants can earn up to 15 days in Time Credits for every 30 days of active involvement in the designated programs and activities. This is very good news for an individual facing prosecution for a first time, white collar/non-violent offense who could see their total sentence cut by up to 365 days, which is the maximum allowed under the Act.

Read Bill's full article here...

Andrew J. Chapin is a technology entrepreneur specializing in product discovery, a writer, and a member of our White Collar Support group that meets on Zoom on Monday evenings. He can be reached at andrewjchapin.com.

_________________________

After you’ve been involved in a legal case, your Google search results may be overwhelming to the point where you wonder if your online reputation will ever recover. 

You may have had conversations with search specialists who promise the moon in exchange for an exorbitant fee, or spent serious time watching supposedly-instructional YouTube videos. And on the other side of either of those things, you’re probably still left without solutions.

When I found myself in this position following my arrest in 2020, I leaned on my experience having worked with search engines to drive e-commerce product discovery throughout my career. I knew the good news: there is a lot that you can do to repair and restore your personal search engine results page. And most of these things can be done at no or low cost...

Read Andrew's blog post here...

Craig Stanland is a member of our White Collar Support Group that meets on Zoom on Monday evenings

"There’s a sadness in the air. It’s not just mine; it belongs to all of us. None of us complains.

What’s the point? We’re all in the same boat, all wishing we weren’t. We keep our wishes to ourselves, doing our best to maintain our routines, all the while struggling with what we should be doing, not what our reality is. There’s no reason to say it because we’re all thinking the same exact thing.

We all wish we were home with our families doing whatever each of us does on Christmas Day. There is a collective, unspoken desire that Christmas disappears just for the time we are in prison. We’d like to skip the day or at least be unaware of it..."

Read Craig's blog post here...

Our friend and White Collar Week podcast guest Christopher Poulos, Executive Director of Center for Justice and Human Dignity , has organized this important conference. It is especially on-point for Fellow Travelers and all members of the white collar justice community. We will be sending a contingent and hope to see you there!

"Join us on October 16-17, 2023 at Rewriting the Sentence II Summit on Alternatives to Incarceration in Washington, D.C. to explore the future of effective innovations in the criminal legal system.

Featured speakers include United States Sentencing Commission Chairman Judge Carlton Reeves, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters, and Dr. Alisha Moreland-Capuia, Founder and Director of the Institute for Trauma-Informed Systems Change at McLean/Harvard."

More information and registration info at cjhd.org/summit

Please join us for the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Fall Institute on Friday, November 3, 2023 at the Madison Hotel, 1177 15th Street, Washington, DC. At last year's conference, we sponsored a panel of Fellow Travelers and then 15 of us went out to Carmine's Italian Restaurant for an evening of camaraderie, stories, laughter - and great food! Let's do it again!

I am honored to serve as Co-Chair of the ABA Criminal Justice Section Reentry & Collateral Consequences Committee. – Jeff

Reserve your tickets now: https://web.cvent.com/event/0cc4ea33-bd11-4c71-98a8-66967d69bd2e/summary

Watch the Video from our 2022 panel:

Join us for Legal Action Center’s Arthur Liman Public Interest Awards Benefit on Tuesday, November 7, 2023 at Tribeca Rooftop. Legal Action Center

I am honored to serve on the Board of Directors of the Legal Action Center – Jeff

Reserve your tickets now: https://secure.givelively.org/event/legal-action-center/50th-anniversary-arthur-liman-public-interest-awards-benefit

For over half a century, the Legal Action Center has been the only nonprofit law and policy organization in the United States whose sole mission is to fight discrimination against people with arrest or conviction records, substance use disorders, HIV, and AIDS, and to advocate for sound public policies in those areas.

We hope you’ll join us as we build upon our many accomplishments over the past five decades, and work to expand our capacity to advocate for systemic change, set important legal precedents, and provide legal services, education, and training to help people across the country.

Arthur Liman Public Interest Awards Benefit:

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Tribeca Rooftop

10 Desbrosses Street, New York, NY

Cocktail-Style Dinner Reception | 6:00 pm ET

Awards Program | 7:00 pm ET

Business Attire

For more information about our 2023 Arthur Liman Public Interest Awards Benefit, or LAC’s important work, please contact Sang Kim, Deputy Director of Individual & Corporate Giving at skim@lac.org, (212) 243-1313 or email lacbenefit@wingo.nyc.

Watch the Video:

1.  White Collar Week Sept. ’23 Newsletter: https://conta.cc/45AQzfX



2.  WCSG Slack Chat Group: If you are directly justice-impacted, you are invited to join our Slack chat group for 24/7 support. To request link to join: info@prisonist.org.

3.  Career Information Slack Channel: We are dedicated to helping our members to find career opportunities and acquire soft-skills and other training to be successful. All new job listings are posted in real time in the Career Information channel of our WCSG Slack Chat Group. We encourage all members to post on Slack any information you might discover. 

4.  Early Release/ First Step Act/ CARES Act Slack Channel: We have a WCSG Slack Chat Group channel dedicated to sharing early release information. 

5. Fellow Travelers in Prison: If you would like to send letters and/or books from a major bookseller (e.g. Amazon, Barnes & Noble) to Fellow Travelers currently in prison, we now have a Slack Channel with updated contact information. 

6.  Family Support Group: Sponsored by Evolution Reentry, Hosted by Bill Livolsi, Online on Zoom, Thursdays, 7 pm ET, for info: info@prisonist.org

7.  Midweek 1/2 Hour Mini Meeting, Online on Zoom, Thursdays, 9:30 am ET, 6:30 am PT: Please join us for a 1/2 hour midweek check in. Open to friends and family members too!: https://zoom.us/j/397962564

8. Open to All! Free! American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section Fall Institute, Washington, DC, Nov. 3, 2023: https://web.cvent.com/event/0cc4ea33-bd11-4c71-98a8-66967d69bd2e/summary

9. Podcast: Jeff Grant on the Financial Clarity Podcast with Hannah Smolinski, August 1, 2023: https://sites.libsyn.com/481203/from-law-practice-to-prison-and-back-again

10.Podcast: Bill Livolsi on the Nightmare Success Podcast with Brent Cassity: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nightmare-success-in-and-out-guest-bill-livolsi/id1588287560?i=1000621006702

11. YouTube Video: White Collar Week Tuesday Speaker Series - Sam Patten, "Russiagate" Defendant, Political Advisor & Author July 18, 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar-e0YIiJd0&t=3451s

12. YouTube Video: White Collar Week Tuesday Speaker Series - Elizabeth Kelley, Criminal Defense Attorney for People with Mental Health Disabilities, Jan. 10, 2023, 2023: https://youtu.be/s6FL5CjyEkI?si=VNnn7psaxguO9tYI

13. YouTube Video: We Presented at the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section Fall Conference,  Washington, DC, Nov. 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGFKuSAHBY8&t=330s

14.YouTube Video: White Collar Week Tuesday Speaker Series: Jim Campbell, Author of "Madoff Talks" The book that Inspired the Netflix Documentary "Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street": Feb. 21, 2023: https://youtu.be/FQvajoxLZ-M?si=6ew7EuszG93vGoM0

15.YouTube Video: White Collar Week Tuesday Speaker Series: Scott Semple, Former Connecticut Commissioner of Correction:

Mar. 21, 2023: https://youtu.be/ymyLPryc3T8?si=jWfIDyq4e5cExitp

16. YouTube Video: White Collar Week Tuesday Speaker Series - David B. Smith, Esq., Federal Restitution & Forfeiture Collection Expert, June 20, 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfZweg0EL6s

17. Entrepreneur: I Went to Prison for SBA Loan Fraud – 7 Things to Know When Taking Disaster Relief Money: by Fellow Traveler Jeff Grant: https://www.grantlaw.com/hurricane-ian-fraud-alert-entrepreneur-article-redux-i-went-to-prison-for-sba-loan-fraud-7-things-to-know-when-taking-covid-19-relief-money-by-jeff-grant-j-d-m-div/

18. Entrepreneur: 9 Things to Know when Hiring a White Collar Criminal Defense Attorney, by Fellow Traveler Jeff Grant: https://www.grantlaw.com/entrepreneur-9-things-to-know-when-hiring-a-white-collar-criminal-defense-lawyer-by-jeff-grant-esq/

19. Donations: Thank you for your generosity in supporting Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. and our White Collar Support Group. Please make your check payable to "Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc.," a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and send to our mailing address: 516 S. Dixie Hwy., Box 222, West Palm Beach, Florida 33401. Or, please make your online donation here: http://bit.ly/donate35T9kMZ. All donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Please make your check payable to "Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc.," a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and send to our mailing address: 516 S. Dixie Hwy, Box 222, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. All donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. Thank you for your support! 

Or, please make your online donation here:

Rev. Jeff Grant, J.D., M.Div. (he, him, his) 

Co-founder, Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc.

Greenwich CT & Nationwide

Mailing: 516 S. Dixie Hwy, Box 222, West Palm Beach, FL 33401

Website: prisonist.org

Email: info@prisonist.org

Office: 212-859-3512

Donations (501c3): http://bit.ly/donate35T9kMZ

Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/jeff-grant-woodbury-ct/731344

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/revjeffgrant

not a prison coach, not a prison consultant

Media Relations: press@grantlaw.com

Newsletter Contains Attorney Advertising.

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

© Copyright 2023, Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc., All rights reserved.