Although the typical inmate does not insult your intelligence by insisting upon his innocence, or claim a miscarriage of justice occurred in his case, inmates seeking assistance in the law library seem to fall into three distinct categories:

• First, you have the inmate that thinks he received a sentence for a longer term than he deserved, either under applicable Sentencing Guidelines, or from the sentencing judge. As has been said many times on television, if you can't do the time, don't do the crime. What I learned in prison is that most Federal criminal defendants came into their case with no idea how severe the potential penalties were for the criminal activities that they were engaging in. I especially refer to the minimum mandatory sentences of five and ten years, which sentences the judges were required to impose, unless the defendant rendered Substantial Assistance in the arrest of another, or the recovery of assets by the government. You would think that street-smart people would have at least looked into their exposure whilst engaging in major crimes, but perhaps that is a clue as to how they became defendants; lack of attention to detail. Anyway, they complain about the severity of their sentences, had searched aimlessly, either with or without the assistance of a lawyer on the outside, for some grounds to revisit their harsh sentences, but, with extremely rare exceptions, they fail for lack of a justicable issue. As the other inmates would generally opine, they had nothing coming. 
  

• Second is the inmate who believes his attorney was either inept, or apathetic, with the result that he went to jail when he should have been acquitted by the jury. These are the most angry individuals, particularly when their now-former lawyer starts declining their collect telephone calls from prison, They feel that they paid a large attorneys' fee, and deserve the lawyer's attention ad infinitum . What they fail to realise is that their lawyer, having lost their case (most Federal cases result in either a plea or a guilty verdict), is now on to the next poor soul.  This guy may have a point; at times, lawyers take cases that they are not qualified to try, they sometimes fail to follow up on important facts or legal theories, or he may have missed something at trial. Generally, though the inmate is displaying a serious case of  client's remorse with out a factual basis for his complaint. A few rare cases are reversed on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel, but don't hold your breath on yours.
  

• Third, the individual who wants to seek post-conviction relief through a new proceeding in the Federal court system, claiming any one of a vast number of errors at trial. These petitions are often filed pro se without the benefit of counsel, usually using a jailhouse paralegal to help fill out the form. Problem is, when it is denied by the judge, you have waived any grounds not asserted in your petition, should you choose to revisit the procedure at a later date. Unfortunately for the inmates, they are universally denied. Though jailhouse rumours, the equivalent of urban legends circulated amongst those in custody, always tell of some heroic, long-suffering soul gaining his freedom. In truth and in fact, such events are as rare as hens' teeth.

It is, however, human nature to try to keep hope alive, especially when one is serving a long sentence, so the inmate law library was a busy place every evening when the prisoners were off duty from their manual labour day jobs. Into that sea of unhappiness and gloom, I shined a light by creating a Legal Research and Writing class every Sunday afternoon, to assist anyone who would need to learn basic legal research techniques, and how to draft those elusive prisoner petitions.

Some were seeking to monitor their pending appeals, and wanted to be able to decipher the legalese in their briefs they had received from their lawyers. The angry ones, who had some imagined injustice visited upon them by the legal system or their lawyers, wanted to craft some motion or memorandum of law. Since the mere act of attempting to remedy your untenable personal situation in prison is a constructive thing, it benefited both my students, who were most motivated and attentive, and yours truly, as all this helped the time pass more quickly.

I did this for my first six months, until something intervened to change my address, and give me a real ray of hope.

Next Week: Traveling time.