About jackatie

I've been helping people incarcerated in Feeral Prison for the past 30 years. I retired from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) in 2011, after a 23 year career in case management related capacities. I was fortunate enough to work in the trenches of the system directly with diverse populations including Minimum, Low, Medium, High, Administrative and Witness Security cases. I held assignments in the Philadelphia Regional Office and the New York City Community Corrections Office. I participated in national policy writing workgroups and audited facilities throughout the Northeast United States as institution resources staff with the D.C. Central Office Program Review Division. I received dozens of awards during my tenure, three of which involved national recognition. Prior to my Federal Service, I worked in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a Probation/Parole Officer and served our country for 8 years as a Military Policeman in the Army. Upon my retirement, I founded My Federal Prison Consultant, LLC and provide consulting services to law firms and offenders throughout the United States. I am passionate about Federal prison Reform and serve on the Corrections Committees for the American Bar Association and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. I have testified on Capital Hill on prison reform and I am the sub-chair of an ABA Committee on federal correctional issues. I am the Director of Programs and Case management Services for the non-profit organization FedCURE, and Executive Director of Out4Good developing the “Correcting Corrections in America” initiative. I teach Criminal Justice at Marywood University as a Lecturer. My latest venture is a Collaboration with Walt Pavlo under the "Prisonology" Brand. We are excited to have assembled a collation of people who have served time along side people who have worked in the trenches of the system. We have trained Federal Defenders, CJA Panel and even Federal Judges throughout the country on federal prison issues. I have been quoted in Forbes.com , Bloomberg News and CNBC and have appeared on television and radio. I hold a BA in Sociology/Anthropology and a Master of Science degree in Criminal Justice. You can be assured that no one has a better pulse on the policy, culture and nuances of the Federal Prison System.

DEJA SHU and MINI-RANT

It’s disheartening to see studies by the DOJ-IG and GAO that find the same things repeatedly with little impact on the issue studied. What’s worse is that their lack of working in the trenches of the BOP hurts the identification of what I refer to as the “low hanging fruit” of reforms that could be [...]

By |2024-02-07T08:47:11-04:00February 7th, 2024|Uncategorized|Comments Off on DEJA SHU and MINI-RANT

Reflections on First Step Act Feedback submitted in 2019 – Still valid today! Go figure……….

June 14, 2019        To: IRC/FBOP/NIJ    I am writing today with feedback as a citizen, stakeholder (FedCURE) and retired BOP employee with over 30 years of experience working directly with people incarcerated in the federal prison system. I respectfully request this feedback be considered and put on the record. My perspective is unique because [...]

By |2023-03-18T09:23:48-04:00March 18th, 2023|Uncategorized|Comments Off on Reflections on First Step Act Feedback submitted in 2019 – Still valid today! Go figure……….

Monthly First Step Act Update (The Chaos Continues) 3/6/23

It did not take long for the BOP to issue a change notice to Program Statement 5410.01, FSA of 2018-Time Credits: For Implementation of 18 USC 3632 (d)(4). This change allows credits for people with detainers which was inevitable because of the litigation around the country because of the BOP’s creation of a restriction that [...]

By |2023-03-06T10:25:14-04:00March 6th, 2023|Uncategorized|Comments Off on Monthly First Step Act Update (The Chaos Continues) 3/6/23

ALL GOOD THINGS COMES TO AN END

  The big news this week was the announcement to the end of the national emergency for Covid-19 declared by President Biden over thirty-five months ago. The timing was interesting as it comes just over a month after the BOP updated their CARES ACT Home Detention criteria. While there was not much new in the [...]

By |2023-02-02T13:44:26-04:00February 2nd, 2023|Criminal Justice and Prison Reform, First Step Act|Comments Off on ALL GOOD THINGS COMES TO AN END

The Definition of Insanity!

  As chaos and criminality plague the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the highest levels of management, only a politician could come up with the idea of building the fourth federal prison in a remote area in eastern Kentucky. Let us not forget that the federal prison population has decreased by over 60, 000 people [...]

By |2022-12-29T09:08:39-04:00December 29th, 2022|Criminal Justice and Prison Reform, First Step Act|Comments Off on The Definition of Insanity!

Legislative Dysfunction at its Finest (Omnibus Bill)- Where’s the Equal Act parity?

VENTING.......... Aside from the typos and misinformation, this Omnibus is really a joke from a prison perspective! The Below information is a cut and pasted from Senate.gov and very unprofessional.  First issue I see,  “OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL The agreement includes $139,000.000 for the Office of Inspector General (OIG) and includes $4,000,000 for OIG to [...]

By |2022-12-20T19:24:41-04:00December 20th, 2022|Uncategorized|Comments Off on Legislative Dysfunction at its Finest (Omnibus Bill)- Where’s the Equal Act parity?

Two blogs is better than one -First Step Act Credits and a Bulger analysis

I've been working directly with federal prisoners for thirty-five years, twenty-three with the Federal Bureau of Prisons in classification and programs. It's hard to astound me on prison issues but reading the DOJ-IG Report on the Whitey Bulger Murder was the most non-adherence to policy and I honestly feel the BOP was complicit in the [...]

By |2022-12-08T19:38:17-04:00December 8th, 2022|Uncategorized|Comments Off on Two blogs is better than one -First Step Act Credits and a Bulger analysis

A FEW EASY STEPS TO REFORM THE BOP OVERNIGHT

While the title of this article sounds unrealistic, most of it is simply unchallengeable. I have often remarked how the BOP is a quasi-militaristic organization susceptible to rather quick change via the chain of command. While the formal guidance to broaden existing policy application is needed via changes notices, operations memoranda and policy updates, the [...]

By |2022-11-01T11:07:27-04:00November 1st, 2022|Criminal Justice and Prison Reform, First Step Act|Comments Off on A FEW EASY STEPS TO REFORM THE BOP OVERNIGHT

A Brief Micro-FTC Issue

DISCLAIMER: Do not waste your time reading this unless you're up to the minute on the federal time credits issue.   In September, the IG released a report on BOP policy which emphasized one of my many rants over the past several years regarding the agency’s ineptitude to update policy and issue formal “Change Notices” [...]

By |2022-10-26T12:26:08-04:00October 26th, 2022|Criminal Justice and Prison Reform, First Step Act|Comments Off on A Brief Micro-FTC Issue

FIRST STEP ACT- FTC CONFUSION INSIDE THE FENCES

  The quiet on the Federal Time Credits (FTC) front ended just over a week ago when newly appointed Director Peters appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee. During her appearance she indicated the computer system integration to calculate FTC was finally implemented. This statement was a surprise for even the staff I spoke to inside [...]

By |2022-10-14T14:52:45-04:00October 14th, 2022|Criminal Justice and Prison Reform, First Step Act, Uncategorized|Comments Off on FIRST STEP ACT- FTC CONFUSION INSIDE THE FENCES
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