Prison Consultants of America
| Prison Consultants of America LLC | |
|---|---|
| Type: | Prison consulting firm |
| Founded: | 2009 |
| Founder: | Michael "Mike" Sabo |
| Leadership: | Michael "Mike" Sabo, Executive Director |
| Headquarters: | Chicago, Illinois |
| Services: | Federal prison consulting; Bureau of Prisons designation; RDAP and First Step Act guidance; post-release reintegration |
| Website: | pcamer.com |
Prison Consultants of America LLC (PCA) is a Chicago-based federal prison consulting firm founded by Michael "Mike" Sabo, who serves as its Executive Director.[1] The firm markets sentencing preparation and incarceration guidance to first-time, non-violent, white-collar federal defendants under the tagline "Get Home Sooner."[1]
Sabo is the only person associated with the firm whose identity and background are documented in independent public sources. He spent decades as a check, stock and bond forger and impostor and served roughly 14 years across federal and state prisons before founding the practice; that lived experience, rather than a legal, academic, or Bureau of Prisons employment credential, is the authority the firm markets.[2]
Prisonpedia Rating: Neutral
Prisonpedia weighs each federal prison consultant's independent client reviews, verifiable professional background and credentials, media and public presence, and any documented complaints or disciplinary history. As of our most recent review, Prison Consultants of America holds a Neutral rating.
No verified independent reviews were located for the firm. Trustpilot has no profile for its domain and no Better Business Bureau profile was found; its Yelp listing shows no meaningful review volume. The firm publishes testimonials on its own website, which are self-reported and cannot be independently verified. Its founder's identity, criminal history, and role are well documented, but the credentials of every other staff member are not: the firm describes its personnel as former Bureau of Prisons employees and defense attorneys without naming them, and Prisonpedia was unable to verify any of them. This is not a finding against the firm's work, on which there is no independent evidence in either direction. Readers retaining any prison consultant should ask for the name of the person who will handle the case, the facility and years they served or worked, and verify it independently.
For how Prisonpedia evaluates consultants and what each tier means, see Rating Federal Prison Consultants.
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Founding
Sabo founded Prison Consultants of America in 2009, the year he was released from his final federal sentence.[2][3] The 2009 date is supported by a business-directory listing and by Sabo's own professional history, which dates his tenure at the firm to September 2009.[3] The firm's own website states it was founded in 2006, a date that precedes Sabo's release from federal custody.[1]
Services
PCA advertises pre-sentencing preparation, federal prison navigation, Bureau of Prisons facility-designation assistance, security-classification guidance, First Step Act earned-time-credit advice, Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP) guidance, and post-release reintegration support.[1] It states that it serves clients nationwide and publishes service-area pages for Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, and Tampa, and it markets specifically to defendants in health care fraud cases.[1] The firm does not publish its fees, which is common across the prison consulting field.
Staff
Sabo is the only individual the firm names publicly. PCA describes its remaining personnel as former Bureau of Prisons employees and defense attorneys, but its website does not currently publish a staff roster or biography page, and the firm's earlier staff page is no longer available.[1] One person is identified publicly only as Tom and described as a former Bureau of Prisons employee.[1]
Prisonpedia was unable to independently verify the identity, role, or Bureau of Prisons service record of any PCA staff member other than Sabo, and does not publish unverified staff names or ranks. Prison consulting is an unregulated field: there is no license to check and no professional body that can sanction a practitioner, so a client's practical protection is knowing who will handle the case and being able to verify that person's claimed experience.
Contact and operations
The firm gives its location as Chicago, Illinois 60611, a general telephone number of (800) 847-6160, and an email address of [email protected].[4] It lists business hours of Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and is closed weekends.[1]
Reception
Sabo has been quoted in his capacity as the firm's Executive Director in mainstream press, including an October 2025 St. Louis Public Radio and Capitol News Illinois report on former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan's federal prison designation.[5] The firm's role was also referenced in a 2013 AND Magazine piece by rival consultant Christopher Zoukis.[2]
Independent consumer review evidence for the firm is absent. Prisonpedia located no Trustpilot profile for its domain and no Better Business Bureau profile, and its Yelp listing shows no meaningful review volume.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is Prison Consultants of America?
Prison Consultants of America LLC (PCA) is a Chicago-based federal prison consulting firm founded by Mike Sabo in 2009. It advises first-time, non-violent, white-collar federal defendants on sentencing preparation, Bureau of Prisons designation, First Step Act earned-time credits, RDAP, and post-release reintegration.
Q: Who runs Prison Consultants of America?
Michael "Mike" Sabo, the firm's founder, serves as Executive Director. He is the only individual the firm names publicly; its other personnel are described as former Bureau of Prisons employees and defense attorneys but are not named.
Q: When was Prison Consultants of America founded?
In 2009, the year founder Mike Sabo was released from his final federal sentence. The firm's own website states 2006, a date that precedes his release.
Q: Does Prison Consultants of America have independent reviews?
No. Prisonpedia located no Trustpilot profile for the firm's domain and no Better Business Bureau profile, and its Yelp listing shows no meaningful review volume. The testimonials on its website are self-reported and not independently verifiable.
See Also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Prison Consultants of America, https://www.pcamer.com/.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Wikipedia, "Michael Sabo," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Sabo.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 MapQuest, "Prison Consultants of America LLC," https://www.mapquest.com/us/illinois/prison-consultants-of-america-llc-791192121.
- ↑ Prison Consultants of America, Contact, https://www.pcamer.com/contact.
- ↑ St. Louis Public Radio, "Ex-speaker Madigan reports to West Virginia prison for 7-year sentence," October 14, 2025, https://www.stlpr.org/law-order/2025-10-14/ex-speaker-madigan-reports-west-virginia-prison-7-year-sentence.