Herbert J. Hoelter

Herbert Joseph Hoelter (September 20, 1950 – May 2, 2024) was an American criminal justice consultant and prison consultant. The Associated Press and Boston Globe recognized him as a pioneer in the field of federal sentencing mitigation. He is an expert in sentencing, creative alternatives to incarceration and the Federal Bureau of Prisons' Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP). He is chairman and CEO of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA), a group he co-founded along with Dr. Jerome G. Miller in 1977.

Hoelter was never himself incarcerated. He preferred "professional federal sentencing consultant", and described his work as assisting with the "transition from freedom to incarceration."

Background Herbert Joseph Hoelter was born in Yonkers, New York on September 20, 1950, as the third of eight children. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Buffalo, earning a Bachelor of Arts. He then obtained a Masters of Social Work from Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Hoelter died from heart failure on May 2, 2024, at the age of 73. NCIA, have worked with criminal defense lawyers in developing client-specific sentencing alternatives for defendants facing sentences in state and federal court. He led the NCIA's sentencing and parole services, which has prepared cases in all 50 states, 75 federal jurisdictions, and three countries. In total, more than 15,000 cases have been presented by the NCIA for consideration by sentencing courts and parole boards.

Prior to sentencing, Hoelter and his colleagues at the NCIA present recommendations for alternative sentences and work on clients' behalf to secure appropriate prison placement, typically minimum security facilities where the risk of violence is low. In June 1987 he testified before the United States Sentencing Commission on the issue of alternatives to incarceration, and again submitted testimony to the Sentencing Commission in July 2008 at a national conference on same issue.

Clients Hoelter focused on white-collar defendants in federal cases, and represented prior to and post sentencing Bernard L. Madoff, Martha Stewart, Michael Vick, Michael Milken, Leona Helmsley, Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Mike Tyson, as well as politicians, foreign nationals, husband wife or family defendants, independent business people and Wall Street executives such as Ivan Boesky, Dennis B. Levine, and James McDermott. He is also a speaker, and provides testimony to government panels and professional and academic audiences on the criminal justice system and punishment alternatives that do not involve imprisonment.

He also provided consulting services for a number of Enron executives in the early 1990s. and Billy Martin (lawyer).

Hoelter advised Bernard L. Madoff on medical care, before Madoff began a 150-year federal prison sentence for financial crime. NCIA reviewed the data sets for fiscal years 1999–2009. The information generated by the NCIA's review is intended as a frame of reference for judges deciding fines and imprisonment terms.