If you’ve made it this far at thekylesandler.com than you probably know that I did nearly 7 years in Federal prison for wire fraud, securities fraud and then violating the terms of my supervised release. I’m not going to stand on a soap box and say “I made a mistake” a mistake is forgetting to take the trash out or going too many miles over on your oil change. Stealing millions of dollars from your own investment fund is a lot more than a mistake. I certainly didn’t set out to do it, but then didn’t take chances to get out of my predicament before it snow balled. I did that. I own it.
I did my time, and during my time I pursued two college degrees, received a paralegal certificate and a bachelor’s in criminal Justice. I even got myself out of Federal prison 2 years early the first time and 5 months early on the violation. I was the 8th person out of the BOP on the First Step Act in 2022.
So what’s with the world owing me nothing? I am a staunch believe in things like “second chance month”, “Ban the box” and other things helping justice impacted individuals like myself to get new leases on life, but it’s not owed to me.
I often get invited to speak at places and events for re-entry and I enjoy that type of thing but many of the other speakers in my realm somehow believe the government owes me a handout because I chose to be a thief. They don’t.
I can ask for an open mind or for someone to give me a chance but they don’t have to. Truth be told before I went to Federal Prison myself I firmly believed everyone there was supposed to be there for as long as they were sentenced for. I made sure that I received an “in guidelines” sentence that directly reflected my crime according to the United States Sentencing Commission. With my loss, amount of victims and criminal history 63 months was smack in the middle of my guideline range. So I was supposed to be there for as long as I was. In fact, as I said above, I got out early by understanding my rights and what I had to do under the First Step Act.
I do believe in second chances but only if the person is going to work twice as hard as whoever is giving that chance. I have a lot to prove. Watch me.