I'm a federal prison consultant. Here's how I went from being in prison to helping clients get ready to go behind bars.

• Sam Mangel, a former convict, now works as a federal prison consultant.
• He uses his personal experience to help defendants navigate the system and reduce their sentences.
• After spending time in custody, Mangel learned that knowledge is power in prison.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sam Mangel, a federal prison consultant with his own firm. Mangel went into the field after pleading guilty to wire fraud in an insurance fraud scheme and being sentenced to time in prison.

In 2016, I had been retired from my work in insurance for four years. I got a knock on the door of my house in Florida at 7 o'clock in the morning, and it was 17 men and women wearing blue FBI windbreakers and holding guns. I thought for sure they were there asking directions for a neighbor or something. Once I identified myself, they handcuffed me and put me in the back of the car. I had no idea what was happening. I hadn't been in any business during that time period. An FBI agent told me in the car that I was being charged out of Philadelphia with wire fraud and insurance fraud.

I retained an attorney and spent half a million dollars for a big firm. I handed over my check, and I remember him giving me seven phone numbers he could be reached at 24/7. I called him on Monday, and I didn't hear back from him until Thursday. That's when I realized that to a criminal defense attorney, you're just a number. It's a very transactional business.

Six months later, my attorney told me I had to take a plea, but he said he could negotiate for one year non-custodial. I went in for the pre-sentencing interview, and it was contentious. I didn't understand the nuances of it. When it came time for sentencing, the judge looked down at me and said, "Mr. Mangel, you clearly have no remorse." He deviated upward from sentencing recommendations, gave me 60 months, and remanded me to custody.

The only thing that went through my mind was that on a 60-month sentence under the federal statute at the time, I have to serve 85% of that. So, I was going to be away from my family for four years and a few months.

Once I was in custody, I made a sarcastic joke about how I drink like a fish. Because I made that statement to a staffer, out of pure dumb luck, I got into RDAP, which is the 9-month drug and alcohol program. That immediately took 12 months off my sentence. That's how I learned that in prison, knowledge is king. Knowledge is power.

About a year later, I got my initial release, and I ended up with 12 months in a halfway house and home confinement. Then COVID came, and with the CARES Act, Congress was looking to release eligible inmates. Previously, I had helped out a warden with some questions about his bicycle, and he promised me a favor. I called it in, and he made me the test case for the CARES Act. He told me I was the first person in the southeast region to be released under the CARES Act.

I got out in March of 2020 and then got off supervised release early. I convinced a judge in Florida that I was non-risk and compliant, so instead of serving 36 months of supervised release, it was dropped down to about 23 months.

I got into this business because when I was in custody, I met other white-collar offenders who had much lower sentences for worse charges than mine. They worked with consultants.

I thought, "I can do that. I understand the system and the mentality of people dealing with it."

I think being available to a defendant and their family is the most important thing and part of being a consultant. Yes, I can help somebody get designated to the right place or into the right programs. Ultimately, especially before surrender, it's about bringing down the temperature. There's nothing scarier than dealing with the 800-pound gorilla that is the government, an unresponsive attorney, and the unknown. Prison is a black hole, and attorneys don't know about prison because it's not their job to know about it. They've never been there.

I ask myself how can I help clients in a non-legal manner get the best outcome at sentencing? In my case, I was my own worst enemy because I had no humility. How do I help people prepare for that pre-sentence interview? How do we use the number of months the judge reads out as a starting point? I try to get clients out of prison as quickly as possible and back to their families.

I explain to people, mainly spouses, "You'll be OK. You'll make it through it." I'm a firm believer in working with clients and their families on a personal level and actually being available seven days a week. Because your fear doesn't stop on a Friday afternoon when you can't reach your attorney on the weekend.

I'm available for loved ones when you're in prison. Because I got to tell you, you're in prison, you're going to get three meals a day, you're going to get your clothes cleaned, you're going to have a place to sleep. You are not going to be under stress. It's the loved ones you leave behind that have the most stress. My clients want a confidant, they want a therapist, they want somebody that is available to them, and mainly their family when they're not home, to bring down the stress. That's what I do.