first let me apologize for all of the following questions, but i'm new at this and am trying to find out as much info for myself and my boyfriend as possible.

first does anyone know how hard it is to get the federal prison requested? my boyfriend is currently in the spokane county jail, awaiting sentencing which is in november, but wants more than anything to return home to florida. he's requesting coleman. his residence is florida and all his family is here, does that make a difference?

he's getting 16 years, 13 with the 85% and time served. how can this large number continue to decrease? any programs he can get involved in? what is this gain time i've heard about? anything else? how does the parole system work?

does anyone know if coleman allows contact visits? or what coleman is like at all?

i would love anyones help, advice, anything you could offer. thank you so much!

I don't know the answers to your questions, but I am sure someone will. Welcome to PTO!

Welcome to PTO! You may want to post under the Federal forum if he's being sentenced to federal as more people there will know the answers to your questions.... I'm glad you found us...

Deb

thank you. i'm glad i found you guys too. being in this situation is hard enough, but doing it alone has been harder. i'm glad i've found this site for the support and answers and all of the above...

As a former inmate, one of the hardest things to get in prison is a transfer. I've been down on state, not fed, so I cannot know if it would be easier or not. I would believe, however, that it may be a while before he can get a transfer to his state. If he was arrested and tried in one state, then he owes that state his prison time. That is his "debt" to the society that tried and convicted him. That is not to say he cannot get a transfer sooner, but it would take a great effort of writing, or a good lawyer. If he is sentenced to 16 years, and is on the 85%, that is kinda like the grace the inmate could be given to get out sooner. Now since every state is different, don't quote me directly; you'll have to check out what your state does. In my state, we use months instead of years. For example, one might be sentenced to 24-36 months. That means the very least I would serve, under normal circumstances, is 24 months, or 2 years. That includes special programs, like if I enroll and participate in AA meetings, or get a job in the kitchen. When you first fall, you will begin at the 36 month range. That means if I do nothing, I must serve the max, which is 36 months. Most inmates will find jobs or get in programs that will give them gain time, which is time gained to your release date. For example, at one prison I worked in the kitchen as a potwasher and was getting 5 days a month gain time. That means if I work there 4 months, I would have accumulated 20 days. Those days are subtracted from the max, reduciing the time I have left to serve. Some jobs offer more days, some less. I hope I have helped.

thank you for all your info!!! it's kind of a wait and see thing. neither of us have ever been down this road and he get's tons of guys in there telling him stuff, and i get tons of advice out here, but we won't ever really know what he's going to be able to get or go through until he experiences it for himself. as of right now he has a pretty good chance of coming here to coleman. i don't know if it's different like you said with state and federal but he is able to request a facility and if the judge grants it hopefully the prison board will also. but anyways...like i said we just have to wait and see, it's in God's hands and it's going to happen just like He wants it to. the gain time information is good news. once he get's settled in a place i'm going to start doing a lot more researching on programs and rehabilitation that allows him to get time off. i refuse to believe there is only 2 or 3 standard programs out there and that's it. someway somehow my baby's coming home to me sooner!! i have to beleive that to get me through the day at least right...

thanks again for your reply!!

If he is in on federal charges, it is not easy to get tranferred at all, first of all he must serve at the prison he is sent to for at least 18 mos. I know of a couple of prisoners who have been trying to transfer for 4-6 years and have not had that happen yet