Bernard Madoff has hired a veteran prison consultant to help him to find the best possible jail in which to serve his 150-year sentence for Wall Street's biggest fraud. After his sentencing this week Madoff, now Prisoner No 1727-054, met Herb Hoelter, of the National Centre for Institutions and Alternatives, whose previous clients include the jailed Sotheby's chairman Alfred Taubman and the financiers Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky.
The draconian maximum sentence imposed by the judge means that Madoff, 71, will be assigned to a tougher category of prison than most white-collar criminals. He could be forced to mingle with murderers, rapists, drug-dealers and white supremacist gangs with a hatred of Jews. Madoff is Jewish. Ahhhh
"He was incredibly disappointed. He knew he was going to spend the rest of his life in prison. I don't think that was ever an issue," Mr Hoelter told The Times. "But it's patently unfair to cast him as a symbol of all evil." No, he's a victim. Not very good with figures.
Federal convicts are assigned to minimum, low, medium, high-security prison, or even the sole Supermax facility, by the US Bureau of Prisons using a score-card known as Form BP-337 to calculate an inmate's "Security Point Total". A first-time non-violent white-collar criminal convicted in a US federal court would normally qualify for incarceration at a minimum-security "prison camp" with easygoing rules and no perimeter fence. But the length of Mr Madoff's jail term means that he has no hope at all of going to one of them. "Independent of the length of his sentence, he would score out as a minimum-security inmate," said Mr Hoelter. "But because of the length of his sentence, they apply a 'public safety factor' and would never put him in a minimum security facility."
Madoff's lawyer asked the judge to recommend that he should serve his term in the medium-security Otisville Correctional Institute, 70 miles from New York, which has an unusually large Jewish inmate population. The judge refused. That might not be a good idea since most of his victims were Jewish.
A sentence above 30 years usually places an inmate in a high-security category, meaning that Madoff would be assigned to a prison housing violent offenders including murderers and rapists. Ed Bales, of Federal Prison Consultants, which is not involved in the case, said that Madoff was likely to be held in isolation, known as "the hole", at least at first. "He could cause a lot of problems because it's a very high-profile case. People may react very badly to him," Mr Bales said. "He is going to have white supremacists who do not like the Jewish population. He has got some enemies he is going to have to face." It is even possible that Madoff could be upgraded for his own safety to the only Supermax facility, where inmates are locked up for 23 hours a day and never get to mix with the general prison population.
John Webster, of National Prison and Sentencing Consultants, said: "Next to being a sex offender, people who are perceived as stealing from the elderly are not perceived as very popular folk in prison. Everyone has a mother. I think there is going to be some form of retaliation."
Mr Webster, a lawyer who once served a 13-month sentence for lying to investigators, said that white-collar criminals often struggled to adapt to jail. "I have a former client who is a judge," he said. "The first time he was brought to an isolation unit in handcuffs, he said to the guard, 'Would you get me a coffee?'. That was a guy who did not realise where he was yet." Mr Hoelter says that Madoff can at least look forward to moving from the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in Manhattan, where he has been held since pleading guilty in March.
The centre is a maximum-security prison. "He has been incarcerated under very difficult conditions in these past months. Anywhere he goes is likely to be better than where he is now, unless they throw him into the Supermax," he said. "He will be able to get exercise. He will be able to do something that makes him productive. He may be able to tutor other inmates." QuickBooks, general accounting and managing your money.
Does he think he'll actually get to pick his prison? And would the prison system actually go along with it? (Scratch that- of course they would, the idiots.)
What does the judge think about that?
He's in New York, right? Howzabout Sing-Sing? I know there are some high-profile white collar criminals there. He could make new friends and they could try fleecing each other of their prison store toothpaste-and-gum credits.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/04/2009 9:32 Comments ||
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#2
hint to the warden: if he offers to do your books, rent "Shawshank Redemption" on DVD
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2009 9:50 Comments ||
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#3
Very productive swine and feeder pig operation ongoing at the London, Ohio penal farm. Eligability rules dictate inmates must be within five years of eligibility for release. Maybe Bernie could get an age waivor.
#5
It's high time that the US create a new Supermax, solely because the Florence ADX provides far too much horizontal area for its prisoners, to insure their isolation. Instead, the facility needs to be underground, to increase the available area by adding a third dimension to the facility.
The way to do this on a budget would be to take an abandoned hard rock mountain mine and refurbish it as a prison. Some of these, like the Mule mountains in Bisbee, AZ, have dozens of miles of mine shafts, both horizontal and vertical.
Each prisoner's cell could easily be surrounded by a hundred feet of live rock.
#7
The best way to dispose of a body in Colorado is to drop it down the air shaft of an abandoned mine. The usual drop is 2-300 feet, there are tens of thousands of abandoned mines, and the danger of collapse prevents anyone from going there. It would be perfect for Bernie.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/04/2009 13:34 Comments ||
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#8
"Madoff has hired"
Ummmm - where'd he get the money to hire anyone?
He shouldn't have access to one thin dime - all his money should have been seized to repay the idiots who gave him their life savings.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/04/2009 17:03 Comments ||
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#9
Obama could pardon him and put him in charge of social security given his considerable experience running similar operations in the private sector.
#11
I understand SuperMax runs at a loss. I'll bet there are a number of people who would be willing to fund an annuity to cover his cell (and a few more). And no laptop.
Drivers found themselves contending with more than holiday traffic Friday when a chicken was found crossing the road. Northbound Interstate 17 remains backed up north of Loop 101 after a rooster tried to cross the freeway about 11 a.m. at Arizona 74.
"It's just a busy holiday - and of course the rooster," said Officer Robert Bailey, a DPS spokesman. "The rooster only compounded matters."
An officer removed the uninjured bird within 40 minutes, but Bailey expects the heavy Fourth of July traffic to remain slow-and-go through late this evening. The officer gave the rooster a ride to New River in the back of a patrol car where the fowl was released.
"Luckily there's a cage back there so the rooster wasn't flying in the driver's compartment," Bailey said.
No, wait, they'd be calling the boys in the moon suits to clean up the toxicity. Golly, it'd take hours and hours to clear the jam. Better stop, maybe someone here is in charge of chickens.
Let's see, if I short out the battery on this laptop, bet it would cook a couple of these hot dogs while we wait and maybe make a few sparks for the 4th while I'm at it. But would that be ok to do? I mean, is it allowed?
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and the Sandinista-controlled Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) stand accused of rigging last year's municipal elections to steal more than 40 mayor's seats -- including the capital city of Managua. The widespread allegations and documentation of fraud have led to $130 million in foreign-aid cuts from the United States and the European nations, creating liquidity problems for the government that now jeopardize Nicaragua's program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Does that mean Nicaragua will be threatened with expulsion from the OAS, too?
No, no, certainly not, it's different when a leftist does it, ev'ryone knows that ...
Despite the continuing controversy over last year's elections, the Sandinistas refuse to discuss the issue with critics. Instead, they have cracked down on dissidents and routinely clashed with any attempt at opposition protests. The government has also endeavored to silence critical voices in the media -- sometimes with an excessive show of force.
#2
I spent time on the Success, ostensibly to observe an exercise. Spent a lot of time answering questions, like whether I wanted "white, black, or green".
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will use next week's Moscow talks to relieve President Barack Obama of mistaken impressions he remains mired in Cold War thinking, Putin's spokesman said on Firday.
The spokesman was reacting to comments Obama made in a pre-trip interview. The U.S. leader told the Associated Press that Putin needed to "understand that the Cold War approach to U.S.-Russian relationship is outdated" and that Putin had "one foot in the old ways of doing business." Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in mildly-expressed comments, said: "I see that he does not possess full information. After visiting Moscow, President Obama will know the realities better. Judging by these statements it is very good that the meeting with Prime Minister Putin is on President Obama's agenda. I am sure that after the meeting with Putin, President Obama will change his point of view," Peskov added.
He dismissed Obama's suggestion that Putin -- who once described the collapse of the Soviet Union as "the greatest geo-political catastrophe of the century" -- needed to understand the Cold War was over.
Putin developed a good personal rapport with Obama's predecessor George W. Bush, which endured despite Russia-U.S. relations hitting their post-Cold War lows. He will meet Obama for the first time for 1 1/2 hours on Tuesday. "Prime Minister Putin is looking forward to the meeting and plans to make the most out of it despite it being a very short meeting," Peskov said, adding that Putin will seek to understand Obama's world view.
Putin has kept a firm grip on the levers of power since handing over the Kremlin to his hand-picked successor President Dmitry Medvedev last year. In keeping with protocol, Obama will spend more time with Medvedev.
[ADN Kronos] Two boats carrying 44 illegal immigrants from Algeria arrived off the coast of the Italian island of Sardinia late Thursday, the same day that the country made illegal immigration a crime. The migrants were spotted by the Italian coast guard 10 nautical miles off Capo Teulada, on the island's southwest.
The immigrants made the perilous journey on two wooden boats propelled by outboard engines.
A pregnant woman among the migrants reportedly suffered strong abdominal pain during the journey.
After they were intercepted by Italian authorities, the migrants were transferred to an immigration centre in Elmas, near Cagliari, the provincial capital of Sardinia.
Thirty-eight other Algerians arrived in Sardinia on Wednesday, media reports said.
However, the Italian parliament on Thursday approved controversial security bill making illegal immigration a punishable offence.
The law also a triples the amount of time illegal immigrants can be detained in holding centres from two to six months.
Under the provisions, people entering Italy without permission face fines of up to 10,000 euros and immediate expulsion.
In May Italy began returning to Libya migrants rescued or intercepted in international waters, triggering criticism from the Vatican and the United Nations Refugee Agency or UNHCR.
The repatriations followed a deal Italy struck with Libya last year to combat people trafficking in the Mediterranean. However the latest landing arrived from Algeria.
Some 36,000 migrants arrived in Italy by sea in 2008, with around 30,000 landing on the islet of Lampedusa which lies between Sicily and North Africa. A fewer number manage to arrive in Sardinia, located further north.
Italy has the European Union's longest coastline - 4,500 kilometres - making it difficult to police and a preferred destination for migrants.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2009 00:00 ||
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There was a lot in Palin's meandering speech announcing her resignation that didn't quite make sense, but one brief part that did was her mentioning of the ridicule of her infant son, Trig. Also note that in the past month or so, we've seen David Letterman joke about Alex Rodriguez knocking up one of her daughters. (The fact that Letterman kept insisting that he meant the elder daughter didn't really make it much more excusable; for some reason, getting an apology out of the acerbic late night host was like pulling teeth.)
It's one thing to step into the public spotlight and know that people are going to ridicule your intelligence, your appearance, your judgment, your voice and accent, etc. But it's another to know that your loved ones will get that scrutiny, too, and in particular your children.
That spurred this terrifying thought: The lesson that the ruthless corners of the political world will take from the rise, fall, and departure of Sarah Palin that if you attack a politician's children nastily enough and relentlessly enough, you can get anybody to quit. Not everybody would just quit - if you push a mama bear hard enough regarding her cubs she may well KILL you.
#1
I understand she has a requests for speaking engagements that even Slick Willie would envy. Gov. Sarah Palin 'on the road again' might be more of a pain in the ass to the dems than having her chained to a desk in Juneau. Moving targets are more difficult to engage, etc. Ima cheering for her Fall Offensive against the scum!
or chain down with endless and malicious 'ethics' charges and investigations to distract from the real work at hand.*
*not that they seem to interested in cleaning their own house. In fact they seem to act as though its a requirement to hold positions of importance and power.
#3
1 - Occam's Razor - It's about money/family. If it were a scandal, or anything else, she'd have said as much. It isn't. It's to permit a single minded focus on earnings for the family, with the side benefit that her future potential has little to do with any ongoing role as governor.
It's the culture we live in, and she's taking full advantage of it. Look for a well orchestrated international media campaign, with even stops on Oprah and Dave along the way.
She'll control it from here on, and watch the media kowtow to her schedule.
Even if she ultimately never runs again, good for her. She has the "it" factors to make her fortune, wherever she finds it.
It's a long-term Nixon/Teddy Roosevelt career she's looking at.
With luck, she'll be there when NBC and the NYTimes close down.
#4
Not everybody would just quit - if you push a mama bear hard enough regarding her cubs she may well KILL you.
Good point Glenmore - Lets hope this is her 'lets stop eating berries and go after these people who are pestering my cubs' strategy.
I for one would like to see someone hoist Letterman, Curic, Williams, or 'Tingels' Matthews liver on a bearclaw meathook (figuratively speaking of course).
#6
I can speculate about her plans about as well as anyone else who doesn't know what they. But I don't see her backing down from a fight. I may be wrong, but hope I'm not.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/04/2009 14:21 Comments ||
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#7
Don't forget, as Governor she represented the people of Alaska and, as a result, had to be careful in what she says. And in may respect the media has exploited that.
Now the leash is off. She can call Letterman a pervert for coming up with a joke about raping a 14-year-old and go after the media. And I don't think the media will lay off because she resigned either.
#10
One thing that has been passed over like it means nothing is those harassing ethics suits caused her to rack up appx. $500 thousand in debts. That's serious money for most of us. No one but a multi-millionaire can ignore that. And now she can sue for defamation when anyone attacks her family. Letterman had better keep his lip zipped.
#11
Everyone makes some very good points. I see her resigning the Governorship as removing the handle by which the Leftists were jerking her around by, and holding her down.
She's decided to not play by their rules, or on their battlefield. I hope she comes out with fangs bared and claws a slashing. Maybe she can shine a light on some of the crustier GOP idiots as well as the shameless Dimwits.
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Quaid Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Friday asked the PPP-led government to take a look again at the Charter of Democracy (CoD) he had signed with late Benazir Bhutto to get Pakistan on a truly democratic path or else the loser would be the State.
Talking to the Pakistani media here, Nawaz devoted most of his interaction castigating former president Pervez Musharraf, who fearing uncertainty about his future in Pakistan, had taken up a permanent residence in London, only a stone's throw from the posh abode of Nawaz Sharif himself.
Goading the former general, the PML-N Quaid said Musharraf's crimes against Pakistan were so horrific that he had no choice but to stay out of Pakistan.Nawaz said it was regrettable that the former military general had not yet been brought to stand trial for his misdeeds.
He said it took him and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto two years to sign the historic Charter of Democracy (CoD), which clearly recommended accountability of Pervez Musharraf, restoration of the judiciary, supremacy of the rule of law and formation of a truth and conciliation commission.
"By implementing the charter in its true spirit, the PML-N and the PPP could have achieved what has not been achieved in the last 60 years. "The milestone document became the basis for our election manifestos, but today, its value is not more than a piece of paper, signifying nothing.
"Its implementation could have formed the basis for punishing the military dictator, who tampered with the Constitution of Pakistan, killed Nawab Akbar Bugti, and threw out my constitutional government," lamented Nawaz, adding that unrest in Balochistan, terrorism in Pakistan, and drone attacks were the legacy of the Musharraf era.
Even more regrettable, he said, was the continuation and preservation of Musharraf's legacy by the current federal set-up.Nawaz said Pakistan had been pushed to the brink by military dictators, who never respected the supremacy of the Constitution and trampled over it whenever they desired, without taking into account the possible implications for the progress of the nation.
"If Pakistan was not de-tracked again and again by military adventures, we would today not be staring in the face of total gloom. I absolutely have no doubt that all the problems that we face today, including extremism and militancy, would not have raised their head were it not for the military coups."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Nawaz is going to push one step too far, and Musharraf's friends in the Army will cap him. Some people seem dead-set (pun intended) on proving how stupid they can be.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/04/2009 13:39 Comments ||
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[Geo News] Over 800 Pakistanis, went to perform Umrah in Saudi Arabia, have been betrayed by Travel Agent Mafia working in Pakistan, as the money of their return tickets have been refunded here in Pakistan, leaving them in Lurch in Saudi Arabia.
Over 800 Pakistanis went Saudi Arab through separate airlines belonging to various cities who are unable to get back to country due to lack of their return tickets while travel agents in Jeddah have denied them of any support or help to avert this malfunction.
According to sources, the corrupt travel agents in Pakistan have refunded the money of the return tickets of over 800 Pakistanis currently staying in Jeddah for Umrah and their subagents have advised the Saudi authorities to hand them over to Saudi Security Agencies.
Reports have also reached here regarding the involvement of country managers of some airlines in all this corruption while those victimized told Geo news that they cannot afford to buy return tickets again.
Complaints have been registered with Saudi Ministry for Hajj and the investigations are underway in this connection, sources said adding that the money for their return tickets will be deducted from their banks in Pakistan which they had deposited as guaranteed money for Umarh travel.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2009 00:00 ||
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Moneeb Hassan remembers having to choose between a final exam in American history or celebrating the Muslim holy day of Eid al-Adha. In the end, he chose both.
Hassan, 17, is one of thousands of Muslim students in the city who must perform a balancing act between his academic and religious obligations during his holidays. But the nation's largest school district hasn't sanctioned official Muslim holidays. "People came to this country for freedom of religion," Hassan said. "We're just asking for fair and equal treatment."
It's a numbers thingy. Where the population of one group is dense enough, accommodations are made so teachers don't have to repeat lessons for the half of the class that was missing. New York City is an anomaly -- I always had to make up work missed on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I ate matzah sandwiches during Passover without accommodation, too. Thus I learnt that important things are worth sacrificing for. *shrug* Somehow my fragile psyche survived.
Muslim activists lobbying to add the holy days to the school calendar -- which takes school off for Christmas and the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur -- were heartened this week by a City Council resolution supporting the observance of the two holidays -- Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. A handful of school districts in New Jersey and Michigan have recognized Muslim school holidays, while efforts in Baltimore and Connecticut have failed recently.
I imagine they take off Muslim holidays in Detroit, where the numbers support that decision.
New York City has the nation's largest school system. A 2008 study by Columbia University's Teachers College estimates at least 10 percent of the city's 1.1 million students are Muslim. Supporters say the school board needs to be inclusive of the growing number of Muslim students in New York.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke out against approving the holidays this week, saying it would open the door to other religious groups asking for days off. "One of the problems you have with a diverse city is that if you close the schools for every single holiday there won't be any school," Bloomberg told reporters on Tuesday. "Educating our kids requires time in the classroom and that's the most important thing to us more than anything else." A day later, he sounded like he might be willing to give it some thought, saying that he would take a closer look at the resolution. But he still stuck to his original point that honoring every religious holiday isn't practical.
The stress of catching up on school work, rescheduling exams and having to ask for special permission to miss classes for the holidays is a routine Muslim students shouldn't have to go through, Hassan said. He remembers finishing his 7 a.m. history exam in just 40 minutes, racing out of the classroom, jumping into his father's car and speeding off to the mosque. If the exam was later in the day, he would have missed the morning prayer, a significant part of the Eid celebration.
City Councilman Robert Jackson, a Muslim, said he and a coalition of over 80 community groups in the city will begin canvassing the mayor's office for his support for the holiday. If Bloomberg isn't receptive, "we may have to consider legal action," he said. "Discrimination may be an issue in this case." Jackson said a bill that would mandate the holidays as state law has been introduced in Albany.
Susan Fani, a spokeswoman for the Catholic League, said she didn't oppose recognizing Muslim holidays in public schools, but was concerned that Catholics and Christians in the city were not treated with the same amount of respect and sensitivity. "Catholics get a Santa Claus or a tree," but aren't allowed to display nativity scenes in school, Fani said. "We just want to make sure that the enthusiasm that City Council is showing towards Muslims is the same kind of enthusiasm they are showing toward Christians."
But others welcomed the idea, saying it is a chance for the city to extend an olive branch to the Muslim community. "The more we support one another in our spiritual quest, the better off we become as a society," said Rabbi Michael Weisser of the Free Synagogue in Queens. "Children are exempted from school during Rosh Hashanah. A fair minded person would have to agree that our brother religion of Islam should have the same sort of benefit. It's an issue of fairness."
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2009 9:27 Comments ||
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#3
Good Lord, NO! In India, between observing all of the Hindu and Muslim Holidays/Festivals and what not, they only go to school about 7 months out of the year. Do that here and our kids really will be uneduca...ted. Never mind.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Bernard Madoff has hired a veteran prison consultant to help him to find the best possible jail in which to serve his 150-year sentence for Wall Street's biggest fraud. After his sentencing this week Madoff, now Prisoner No 1727-054, met Herb Hoelter, of the National Centre for Institutions and Alternatives, whose previous clients include the jailed Sotheby's chairman Alfred Taubman and the financiers Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky. 
