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A heart painted on a cracked wall. The concept of broken heart, relationships, love, friendship, mar

MARRIED FELON

My Mitigation Strategy for Sentencing, Marriage & the Prison Experience

I'm a felon, happily married and I face incarceration.  This is the unvarnished journey of a man desperate to salvage his life, save his marriage and find a measure of sanity as he grinds a path forward through the criminal justice system.

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Do It Anyway

It was suggested I decompress and mend my shattered psyche for a few days, but rest is fitful and the feeling of dread only compounds. I...

Judgment Day

It wasn’t exactly the biblical end of days, but soul crushing nevertheless. Like every felon before me, I asked for probation, but the...

Giving Back to the Community

In what ways do I give back to your community? Let me count the ways: Top-20 List 1. I provide affordable housing, 2. I cure...

I Will Never Return to Court

How would a Judge know I will never return to a courtroom as a federal defendant? It’s a fair question. My appearance as a defendant in...

My New Job is Hard

A Judge might want to know if I've been working leading up to your sentencing hearing? I have never been without a job since the tender...

What Does Sorry Mean?

What does it mean you are sorry? I believe my actions speak louder than words, and my actions speak volumes. I have never lost focus on...

The Alternative to Incarceration

What is the least harsh alternative to incarceration? Is there an alternative to jail that would better serve the interests of justice,...

Why am I Different?

What have I done that makes me different from every other defendant that comes before the court? My actions speak louder than words. I...

Why Show Mercy?

Why should the Court show mercy? At the top of my list is no criminal history, I fully cooperated, full restitution paid, all Small...

How to Make Things Right

What steps have I taken to make things right? At first, I struggled with how to express contrition and demonstrate recompense in a...

Controlling My Attitude & the Pain

When I asked my wife, “What is a fit punishment,” and “Who will be harmed or protected by incarceration,” these questions left us...

Who Will Be Harmed?

Who will be harmed or protected by incarceration? The answer to this question should be identified before the Department of Justice is...

My ACE Test

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) criteria offer a measurable predictive quality to future violence, victimization, perpetration,...

What is a Fit Punishment?

What is a fit punishment, and has the offender already been punished? This question is a minefield; answering it the wrong way could...

The Flavor of Mitigation - Cumulative Factors

What are the cumulative mitigating factors? Oh boy, this question promotes a self-aggrandizing fantasy. Can I remain objective and...

The Buck Stops with Me - Responsibility

Have I accepted responsibility for my wrong-doing, and to what extent? I started early in the morning with a cup of coffee watching the...

How to Respect the Law

Will incarceration promote respect for the law? I immediately recognized this was going to be an interesting conversation about...

Am I likely to Repeat this Behavior?

Will this person likely repeat this behavior? This question should be answered as part of any viable sentencing mitigation strategy, and...

How Serious is the Offense?

How serious is the offense? Not an easy question to answer in a public forum, and possibly a dangerous question to answer in the days...

What has the Married Felon Learned?

What have I learned from this experience? I will start with my marriage. I do not believe a traditional marriage counselor is equipped...

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MISSION STATEMENT

MarriedFelon.com will share the journey of a man grinding his way through the criminal justice system, and his effort to save his marriage from the deleterious reach of the criminal justice system.  I have been happily married to the same woman for twenty-nine years.  I have been faithful, devoted, I remain deeply in love, and I recently became a convicted felon.  I am confident I can survive this ordeal, but I will not surrender my marriage of twenty-nine years to the pernicious intrusion I have experienced with the criminal justice system. 

It may be unpopular to champion the traditional relationship between the sexes, and the longstanding institution of the ‘traditional marriage,’ but ask yourself one question, “Has the marriage between a man and woman, in all its forms and traditions, survived the test of time?”  Across cultures, the matrimonial bond between the sexes has survived all manner of social upheaval, persecution, war and regime change, plague, and religious turmoil.  Can a healthy marriage survive the United States criminal justice system?

    

The United States incarcerates more people than any other nation, and accounts for nearly twenty-five percent (25%) of prisoners across the globe but only five percent (5%) of the world population.   In total over 2.3 million people are in prison, and another 4.5 million on probation or parole.  Over the past forty (40) years, the number of people behind bars in America has increased by 500%.  It has given rise to the Prison Industrial Complex.

The American taxpayer spends $35 billion every year on its prison system, including private prisons, and the cost to imprison 2.3 million people is NOT considered a burden on the taxpayer by those who profit from incarceration, but rather a lucrative market.  Between 1990 and 2005, America built 544 new correctional facilities, and between 1980 to 1994, private prisons saw a rise in profits from $392 million to $1.31 billion.  Many in positions of authority have argued it is tantamount to modernized state-sponsored slave labor, and their acknowledgment is a good indication that reform of the criminal justice system is possible*.

     

The Defense of Marriage Act defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman, but was ruled unconstitutional by the United State Supreme Court.  The deck is stacked against traditional marriage. 

Is my financial future and fidelity of my marriage in peril?  Is the criminal justice system so ruinous I will not be able to survive the predatory financial interests of the Prison Industrial Complex and the anti-marriage sentiment of the Judiciary, and will I be able to build a community of married felons that can provide counsel, guidance and fellowship in my journey through the criminal justice system?  I will chronicle my experience.


I hope you find value in the experience and struggles I share at MarriedFelon.com

     *interrogatingjustice.org

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CONTACT

Michael Lain, 48588-509
FCI Florence
Federal Correctional Institution
Satellite Camp
PO Box 5000
Florence,CO 81226

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