Böcker av Scott Jr. Brooks

The New Fish Companion Series: Book I. Each installment provides information to help the newly convicted adjust to federal prison. This edition focuses solely on what occurs post-conviction through the first, three-months in custody. Take any writing course, and the first thing they tell you is to write about what you know. That adage made this series inevitable. After spending twenty-three years in custody, I know more than most people selling their expertise to the recently convicted. Today, the top people in prison consulting, seem to be ex-politicians or people who once worked for the FBOP. These ex-Justice Department workers and such may be familiar with life in a pen. They may even be able offer advice about life inside, but there is only one way to know what doing time is like.If you face a stretch inside, seek insight from someone who has been there. Many retired wardens have gotten into this business, which seems comical to me. No warden knows what if feels like to be alone in one of the most hostile places on Earth. They've never had to fight the claustrophobia caused a months-long lockdown in a small cell. Chances are you probably don't think of yourself as a criminal. Maybe you made a simple mistake, and now, you're left in a scary situation. You may be educated, maybe even a professional, and while normally functioning at a high level in society, this predicament requires social skills you desperately lack. Maybe you have doubts you're tough enough to face it. If so, don't worry. I faced a learning curve too. I got arrested during my final semester in college. To survive in there, as a twenty-three-year-old, white kid, with little street experience. I had to figure out the unwritten rules fast. I was lucky to meet a few cons in county who had done previous federal bits. These "old heads", in prison slang, taught me critical etiquette to avoid trouble. Through them, I learned to cast a small shadow, stay out of the way, and do my own time.I managed to get through twenty-three years with only one incident report. I was able to walk away from most confrontations and only got into a handful of fistfights. My worst experience involved an eighty-man brawl where my friends and I were outnumbered three to one. The incident left me injured, but I didn't need hospitalization and recovered completely in about a month. This series culls its information from some of the advice I give clients in my private consulting business. I wrote these books as reference guides to those who have purchased my services, as well as to provide information to the many cons who aren't able to hire my company. I also hope my writing reassures worried family members by answering their questions, easing their anxiety, and providing an example of how, with the right attitude, incarceration, can be turned into a transformational experience. I created a comprehensive system addressing every question first-time offenders need answered, including many they wouldn't even know to ask. You see, every "old head" con is a prison consultant. New fish climb off the weekly buses looking dazed, scared, and confused. Any old timer with a little compassion in his heart usually picks one of these lost souls to show the ropes. I spent many years practicing this profession even before I got out and started my company.The First 90 Days will be the most stressful time, with the most stuff going on for first-time offenders. I'll cover the post-conviction process, including the Pre-Sentence Investigation with a federal probation officer. After that, I'll explain what to expect during those first weeks. I'll help you avoid common mistakes new fish make and show you how to get as comfortable as the experience allows in as short an amount of time as possible. Above all, I'll teach you how to cast a small shadow and not step on toes unintentionally.

Federal Prison Etiquette teaches white collar criminals and other first-time offenders how to stay safe and avoid unintended mistakes that could lead to friction in federal prison. It explains the lingo and details all the unwritten rules that govern life in a correctional institution. Most importantly, it shows how to properly interact with cellies, fellow inmates, different races, cars, and gangs, as well as the correct way to approach staff. This book covers the second part in From Cell 2 Soul's Five Step Strategy for preparing our clients and their families for a sentence in federal prison. It is Volume II in our New Fish Companion Series.

My first book, A Soul Call from Prison: How Yoga and Taoism Cured My Crises with Cocaine and Christianity, covered how I survived 23 years in federal prison using various forms of meditation to cope with the experience. There, I quoted passages from an obscure book that provided me with many answers I had been seeking. This scripture revealed God in a way I could understand. The words were like a ringing bell rousing me from a deep sleep. It confronted and conquered, the contradictions and paradoxes, I encountered with religion as a child. It provided insight into my suffering, showed me how to start a spiritual quest, and gave practical advice for feeling better. Most importantly, it inspired me. It did then, and it continues to every time I pick it up. The Kolbrin might be the best scripture you've never read. For those receiving their first exposure to the Kolbrin, I feel a father's joy in watching his children unwrap gifts. The world deserves to know about this book, and I hope my small effort will shed light on it. I modeled 365 Meditations after the Daily Bread magazine format, which features Bible verses and accompanying lessons, along with instructions, stories, inspiration, and commentaries. The Daily Bread is designed to help the reader start each morning with a spiritual mindset. Reading a section fortifies you to face the day's hardships. Likewise, this book has been divided into short sections. Each one takes a passage from the Kolbrin and reflects upon it. The book covers meditation, its importance and how to implement it. This book is for the newcomer or backslider to spiritual life. It gives daily insights for one to draw closer to a spiritual awakening. This book will show you how to get started, offer a helping hand when you feel down, and motivate you when you feel lazy. You can read it all at once, in chunks, or place it in the bathroom and read when you are guaranteed a few minutes' privacy.

What does it take to survive 322 months in federal prison? I had to bend over, grab my ankles, close my eyes, and breathe through the pain. That's right!....I practiced yoga. Part humorous memoir, part spiritual self help book, this work highlights the mistakes I made which led to half a life spent behind the razor wire. It also shows how yoga and meditation helped me survive the experience with my sanity in tact and allowed me now to look back on the experience with almost as much gratitude as regret. This is Volume I in the Soul Call Series: a line of books designed to help people overcome difficult situations and learn to live meaningful lives no matter their circumstances or surroundings. I wrote each with the inmate in mind, but these books will help anyone live a more meaningful life, no matter which side of the gun towers they find themselves.

This book focuses on the personal relationship between a convict and his mind, body, and spirit. It teaches inmates how to cope with the stress incarceration places on the individual. Following the advice in my other books, the newly convicted should be able to minimize the threat from other inmates and never make unintentional mistakes that could ignite violence, but this book explains how to decrease the threat from the time itself: the idle hours, the loneliness, the separation from loved ones, the guilt, the regret, and feeling like your life is being wasted. To be clear, I'm not a therapist, MD, or a guru with a glowing halo. This book, as well as the others in this series, are not intended as medical or legal advice Although, I can't offer counseling or provide treatment, I can relate to the experience you face. The techniques and exercises in these three volumes helped me survive twenty-three years in federal prison with my sanity intact. Doing Time the Right Way has a Three-Part Strategy. Volume I focuses on mental health and provides unique advice so you won't make the same mistakes many inmates do concerning idle time, dark thoughts and handling long-distance relationships. A bored mind tends to go negative. An unmotivated mind tends to lose self-worth. Volume II covers an element essential to any proactive routine: exercise. Drawing from my experience as an American Council on Exercise (ACE) certified personal trainer, two decades teaching yoga, and training Keichu Goju Karate for over thirty years, I created exercise routines which take into consideration the limits imposed on prisoners concerning scarce equipment, limited space, and non-sensical rules pertaining to exercise. Physical activity provides benefits in equal measures to the mind and body. This volume gets a little deeper. Most prisoners enter custody dealing with heavy negative emotions. They feel anger, self-hatred, guilt, and tremendous anxiety. Unfortunately, most bottle it up, but they still feel them. They simply choose to suffer in silence. But some, the introspective ones at least, question their lives, where they ended up, and how bad things turned out. These crave a new start. Volume III takes a look at what I used to overcome the guilt I felt for the things I had done. It describes my discoveries regarding how to live a meaningful life in prison. Using these ideas and techniques, I was able to release the self-loathing I clung to as a young convict. With them, I transformed my prison experience into something I now look back on with almost as much gratitude as regret. I understand firsthand how helpless an inmate feels. I also know there are ways to empower a life while in custody, ways to find purpose in that cold place. The concepts discussed here would benefit anyone who applied them, regardless of whether they've ever seen the inside of a federal facility or not. Unfortunately, with spirituality, most people have little interest in it when their lives are going well. It usually takes something like a bad diagnosis, an unfaithful spouse, or a judge banging his hammer before a person decides to look inside. Prisoners meet that requirement in a big way. For many, serving time will be the worst experience they ever face. People in desperate situatio