Start preparing to face the worst even if your trial date is a long way ahead.

You need to prepare yourself mentally for standing trial. You should also prepare yourself for facing up to time in prison if you are handed a sentence.

If you can afford to hire a prison coach, do so; prison coaching services are far from cheap but any price is worth paying to learn how to survive in prison.

If you can’t afford to hire a prison coach, buy a book and coach yourself; the better prepared you are, the more chance you have of surviving the ordeal of prison life.

Get coaching to bolster your mental attitude. Get into the habit of positive thinking. You must believe in your self-worth because in prison you won’t have anyone to boost your belief in yourself. You will probably have to face up to bullying and mind games aimed at reducing you to a tearful wreck. Make yourself strong before these tactics are tested on you and you will be better prepared to survive in prison.

Hire the right lawyer to defend you, and make it the best you can afford.

You have two basic choices when it comes to legal representation:

a) hire your own attorney;
b) let the court appoint an attorney to represent you.

Technically there is a third choice: to represent yourself, but that is not worth considering when your whole future is at stake.

Relying on the court to appoint an attorney is like playing Russian roulette; you have no way of knowing what kind of lawyer would be appointed, you could end up in jail if the court appointed an inexperienced lawyer.

Hiring the right lawyer is essential if you want to have:

a) a chance of avoiding a prison sentence, or
b) the minimum term if a prison sentence is unavoidable.

Standing trial could be the most important event of your life (as well as one of the most frightening); you need to make sure you have the best possible legal representation.

The right lawyer can help you to get the minimum sentence, so you have less time to survive in prison.

You should get as physically fit as you can because life behind bars will be a challenge to your body as well as your mind and spirit.

Building up a few muscles might not turn you into a super-hero but it will give you confidence and a confident attitude will go a long way toward making you less of a target for predators in jail.

Physical preparation should not stop at exercise; you should get yourself overhauled. Get a thorough medical check-up so that any emerging problems can be dealt with by drugs or therapy; healthcare outside prison is superior to healthcare behind bars. Get your teeth checked and have any treatment necessary; you could be left waiting for weeks with raging toothache if you need a dentist while in prison.

If you smoke or drink, get help to kick your habit right away – they represent a weakness you don’t want to take inside with you, vulnerabilities are soon spotted and exploited by other inmates. Tobacco, alcohol and drugs are usually redily available (at a high price) on the prison black-market, but you don’t want to get involved in that if you want to survive in prison. If you wind up in debt to another prisoner, the price could be your life.

Get fit and survive in prison.

Prepare for prison by getting your domestic and business affairs in order. If you have complicated business affairs to sort out, the sooner you start making contingency plans the better. Even if you just need someone to pay your bills or take custody of your cat, getting arrangements organised will mean you have less on your mind and can concentrate on your forthcoming ordeal.

Make sure your family will be able to cope without you. If you are the one who normally takes care of payment of household bills etc, hand over these responsibilities well in advance so that your spouse or partner can get comfortable dealing with them while you are still around.

If you are the one who normally sees to household maintenance, getting the family vehicles serviced etc, make a list of the contractors you use and details of the frequency of the work. Making life as simple and stress free for your family while you are able will give you less to worry about when you are in prison.

Learn as much as you can about what you will need to survive in prison

Learn everything you can about prison life. There are numerous ways you could inadvertently breach an unwritten prison code. Nobody is going to treat you leniently because you are a newbie to prison; you need to get to know the rules and codes as thoroughly as possible before you are in the position where you need to abide by them.

There are also things you need to learn about how to present yourself in prison and how to behave towards guards and other inmates. These can be small things such as not maintaining eye-contact too long and “not noticing” if other prisoners are up to no good. All these small things can be woven into a mechanism that will enable you to survive in prison or jail.