Playing the BOP for “Dopes” – Update for March 19, 2019 | Legal Information Services Associates LLC

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THREE CONSULTANTS INDICTED FOR ADVISING CLIENTS TO SCAM RDAP

Nothing new here: cheating to get into the Bureau of Prison’s Residential Drug Abuse Program and qualifying for 12 months off one’s federal prison sentence is as old as… well, as old as the RDAP program itself.

It used to be easy. I knew a guy who had friends pose as substance abuse counselors in letters to the BOP in order to get him in to RDAP, back a decade ago.

A year ago, Queens, New York, lawyer Scott “Mighty Whitey” Brettschneider was charged federally with ginning up fake letters to get a client into RDAP (and later, with more serious offenses). Now, three Michigan residents from an outfit called RDAP Consultants have been accused of telling clients over the past six years to falsely inform BOP officials that they had drug and alcohol problems, of showing them how to fake withdrawal symptoms, and of teaching them how to fraudulently obtain medication to treat withdrawal symptoms in order to show prescriptions to qualify for the program. The defendants allegedly advised clients to begin drinking alcohol daily before going to prison and to show up drunk.

The indictments were handed up at the end of January, but the story only broke last week.

The case has put a spotlight on the 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.

“It’s an unregulated industry, so something like this hopefully brings some attention to it,” said Dan Wise, a former inmate who completed the RDAP program and now runs Federal Prison Time Consulting in Spokane, Washington.

The small industry now is “totally the Wild West,” Jack Donson, a retired BOP employee and president of My Federal Prison Consultants told AP.

Ohio State University law professor Doug Berman argued last week in his Sentencing Law and Policy blog that the indictments are a symptom of a larger problem:

“Federal prisoners have historically had precious few means to seek to earn reductions in their sentences. Thankfully, the First Step Act is a significant step toward treating this disease, as it provides an elaborate set of mechanisms for allow some prisoners to earn reductions through other rehabilitative efforts. But, critically, the First Step Act has a number of problematic exclusions and restrictions on which prisoners can earn reductions AND there is reason to worry that poor implementation of the First Step could lead to privileged prisoners again being better able to access programming and reduction that should be made properly available to as many prisoners as possible.”

“Poor implementation” may be right. When the White House released budget priorities for 2020 last week, only $14 million was explicitly listed to finance First Step’s programs. It’s unclear if additional funding could come from savings that could result from the early release of eligible prisoners under the measure or from reducing expenses elsewhere within the Dept. of Justice, as some advocates for the programs hope. The White House did not respond to questions.