Prisoner Connections, LLC

A comprehensive, lawyer supervised review of the criminal case to identify meritorious grounds for appellate and/or post-conviction litigation.

     It was seeing inmates and their families taken advantage through the years working as a law clerk inside that drove me to create Prisoner Connections, LLC. I was successful in creating a legal team of dedicated, competent and ethical attorneys that directly supervise the paralegal work I do on cases; the same paralegal work I have been doing inside and out of prison for over 26 years. To keep your costs as low as possible, I and my staff conduct the initial case review and report my findings to the supervising attorney. The attorney and I then meet about the case, discuss and review my findings. The attorney will then contact the inmate directly, provide them with a hard copy of my case review report as well as his legal advice on how to proceed and the fee for doing so. We are usually able to save clients thousands of dollars in attorney fees by doing the case review first as this saves the attorney valuable time and resources in your case.

     Even if you do not go further with us, you will have a comprehensive case review summary and the attorney’s identification of meritorious grounds and the procedure he recommends to address those grounds, that you can use as you deem proper. Please visit our associated attorneys’ websites to learn more about them and their firms. I have provided a link to their sites on this website under the “Our Team” tab.

     I understand that you have many questions and that navigating the post-conviction legal processes can be challenging. I want to supply as much assistance to you as possible and to answer all your questions fully. However, before I can do that we need to conduct the case review. A comprehensive case review allows me to look at your specific case details, searching for any meritorious grounds to challenge your conviction and sentence. I use checklists of over 200 potential post-conviction grounds as I review everything that was filed and occurred in your case then I report my findings to one of the attorneys I work with. Please allow me to explain the case review process we offer.

Step 1: A member of my staff will assemble all records from the clerk of circuit court and/or what you send to us and upload everything into our computer system. That staff member will then read the entire case file in order and develop a written Case Review Report of his/her findings.

Step 2: A senior paralegal will then review the Case Review Report and read the entire case file to identify any and all meritorious grounds for relief and provide suggestions to the reviewing attorney for litigation of those grounds in the proper venue.

Step 3: The Case Review Report then comes to me with the identified meritorious grounds listed for my review. I also review the entire case file and the Case Review Report with the listing of meritorious grounds. I verify the senior paralegal's findings and arrange a conference with all involved staff about the case. After our analysis is completed and the Case Review Report is done, I set up a meeting with the supervising attorney who will review our Case Review Report and listing of meritorious grounds. The attorney will then verify our findings and discuss the case in depth with me. Thereafter, the attorney will contact you and provide you with a copy of the Case Review Report, his legal findings and advice on the case along with his quote for representing you going forward.

     In order to conduct the case review, we will need to obtain a copy of whatever court documents you and/or the inmate has including the transcripts from the trial or plea and sentencing. If the inmate’s appellate attorney has not sent them the “Record on Appeal” yet, tell the inmate to write to them and ask for it. If you are unable to obtain a copy of the Record on Appeal, we can access the court records on line in most counties. We will review the material sent to us and go over our findings with the supervising attorney. The fee for conducting the case review, meeting with the attorney and providing you and the inmate with a written report on our findings is $1,500 - $3,000 depending on the size and complexity of the trial record.   You can make payments on the fee, but we must receive half of the total fee before work begins and the balance must be paid in full before we complete the case review. Typically, a case review will take from 6-8 weeks to complete.  Additionally, the attorney will take case review fee you paid into consideration when setting his fee for representing you in your post conviction proceeding. Usually, we save clients thousands of dollars in attorney fees due to the work we accomplish through the case review process.

     If these terms are acceptable to you and the inmate, please contact us to make arrangements. Please note that we take case reviews on a first-come-first-served basis so your prompt action in retaining us is recommended.

I regret to say that we are not in a position to offer pro bono paralegal assistance. Usually, organizations that do so are working under the funding of a grant or are public agencies funded by the government. I do not know of any law firm that offers pro bono legal services to those convicted of a crime.

     If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us. It is our pleasure to serve you and look forward to a positive result. 

     Sincerely,

                                                                                          Ron Baker

                                                                                         President

                                                                                         Prisoner Connections, LLC

Preparation of Applications for Executive Clemency, Request for Reviews, Parole Plans and Restoration of Civil Rights Applications.

     I recognize that confidence in the Executive Clemency process is low. However, with recent increased budget allotments for the Office of Executive Clemency and the revision of the rules governing clemency applications, we have guarded optimism for an improved clemency procedure and/or in the creation of a parole system in Florida. In either of those hoped for scenarios, an inmate with a pending Application for Executive Clemency may be one step ahead of the rest of the inmate population as the Commission of Offender Review, formerly the Parole Commission, is the same agency that both reviews clemency applications and parole considerations for recommendations.

     For these reasons, you might consider applying for Executive Clemency. Our office can assist you in this matter.   In providing you clemency services we will assemble the necessary court documents and data from the inmate, their friends and family necessary to present the case in the best possible light.

     It is important that you realize that you must have served 1/3 of your sentence, 1/2 of any mandatory sentence, or 12 ½ years if you are serving a life sentence, to be eligible for clemency. 

     Our process for Parole Plans (if you are eligible for parole) and Clemency Applications, includes a limited case review service to determine if your sentence is entirely lawful. We conduct a sentence review first to fully familiarize ourselves with your case and history and to exhaust every effort to identify any illegal sentence claims. In order to conduct the limited review, we will need to obtain a copy of whatever court documents you have including the transcripts from your trial or plea and sentencing. If you are unable to obtain a copy of your trial transcripts and record, don’t be concerned, we can access your court records online in most counties. We will review the material you send to us and what we access through the Clerk of Court and go over our written findings with a Florida licensed attorney who will provide you with his legal findings and advice. The fee for conducting the limited sentence review, meeting with the attorney and providing you with a written report on our findings is included in the clemency package fee. The only potential additional cost is travel expenses to visit the County Courthouse in the county of your conviction if we cannot access or obtain the record of your case using our normal methods; this is usually not required but can happen in older cases.  We will not incur this additional expense without your authorization in advance.

     Once we determine that there are no illegal sentence claims in your case that can be presented to the courts, will then create a Clemency Package by assembling the necessary court documents and data from you, your friends and family necessary to present you and your case in the best possible light to the Clemency Board.

     The steps we follow are:

STEP 1: We will send a Public Record Request to the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Conviction and request a “Certified” copy of the Indictment or Information as well as the Judgment and Sentence.

STEP 2: We will send you the Clemency Handout and get you started on providing us the data for our assembling of the “Memorandum of Biographical Facts” to file in support of the application.

STEP 3:  Upon receipt of public records and data in support of the Memorandum of Biographical Facts from you, we will draft the application and send it to you for editing. If you are using one of our attorneys, he will review the draft following your editing.

STEP 4: Once these steps are completed, we will mail you the finished product for your review and have you sign the oath page to return to us for filing.

     If you are parole eligible, we will prepare a Parole Plan using the data contained in the Clemency Application that was filed on your behalf at no additional cost. We believe you will be best served by filing a Request for Review-Clemency Package before your parole date so that your case will be in the process of investigation by the Commission of Offender Review (who reviews clemency applications) even before your parole date approaches. Once the Parole Plan is completed to your satisfaction, we will distribute it to the Commission of Offender Review before your hearing and furnish you with a copy for the Parole Examiner for your next interview.

     I would add that I (Dwight Bryant) am a Parole and Clemency Specialist. I work with parole eligible inmates on their parole cases with the goal of getting them transferred to the lifer’s FIU/CPT program at Everglades C.I. and then, upon completion, released on parole. If you are parole eligible and you retain us to prepare the clemency package, we will prepare a Parole Plan at no additional charge while we are working on your clemency package. Even if you are not parole eligible, my expertise in dealing with the Commission of Offender Review for over 40 years enables us to better serve your clemency needs as the Commission is the investigative body for clemency applications. Our goal is to provide both our parole ineligible and our parole eligible clients with the best possible chance of successful release either through the clemency commutation process or through positive parole hearings.

      The fee for our Clemency Services is usually $2500 .

     We have found that it is not advantageous to be represented by an attorney in clemency proceedings, but if you insist on having an attorney represent you, we can help you obtain representation by one of the attorneys we work with for a competitive fee on a case by case basis. There are no other costs or fees for our preparation and mailing of your signed Clemency documents to the Clemency Board.

     After the application package is filed, if a hearing is granted on your Clemency Package (or Parole if eligible) an additional fee of $1,000 will be charged if you want Prisoner Connections’ staff to make an appearance in Tallahassee to speak on your behalf. Our appearance is not necessary, but is usually preferred by our clients so we can organize and direct a full and fair presentation of you and your case to the Commission of Offender Reviews and Clemency Board on your behalf. Prisoner Connections’ staff make personal appearance on behalf of both attorney represented clients and pro se clients.

     If you or your family and loved once would like to look into our company and our reputation we welcome that. You can visit our website listed above and call the attorneys listed there for references. You can also visit or call the Better Business Bureau of Tampa where you find that we have a AAA rating. We are a licensed corporation doing business in Florida since 2010. Even a simple Google search will yield helpful information about us and the legitimacy of our business and level of service.

     If these terms are acceptable to you, please contact our office to make arrangements. Please note that we must take case reviews on a first-come-first-served basis so your prompt action in retaining us is recommended. We require a minimum down-payment of ½ of the total bee before work can begin and the balance is due within the 6-8-week period unless other arrangements are made in advance.

     If you’d like further details, please email us using the "Contact" tab on this website or call me me directly so that we can discuss the matter further.

                                                                                    Sincerely,

                                                                                    Dwight L. Bryant

                                                                                    Clemency/Parole Specialist