U.S. prison bureau's decisions a mystery

Madoff in N.C.; judge sought closer to N.Y.

The federal judge overseeing the trial of Bernard Madoff said he would recommend the man who pulled off the biggest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history serve out his sentence in the Northeast. Instead, Madoff landed in a prison nearly 500 miles away from his New York home, in North Carolina.




While the Bureau of Prisons generally tries to follow judges'recommendations, “Once you're sentenced, you're entirely in the government's hands and they can do whatever they want with you,” said Lindy Urso, a defense attorney who has represented federal defendants. Among those she has represented was reputed mobster Salvatore “Fat Sal” Scala, who was housed at the medical facility in Butner until he died of liver cancer in December.

The bureau uses a scorecard of sorts, ranking inmates by a number of factors including the length of punishment. Sentences longer than 10 years automatically disqualify inmates from a fenceless federal prison camp. If inmates have serious health problems, they are usually placed in a federal medical facility. The bureau also considers bed availability and safety factors for the public at large as well as the inmate.

In lobbying for specific facilities, prison consultants and legal experts focus on a convict's pre-sentencing report, a document that lists medical, financial and other information about the incoming inmate. Defense attorneys scour the report in search of anything that could land a convict in an undesirable facility. They try to persuade a judge to delete those items so the Bureau of Prisons won't see them.

Still, defense attorneys' efforts don't always work.

In Madoff's case, his lawyer Ira Sorkin asked in federal court in Manhattan that his client be designated to a medium-security prison in Otisville, N.Y., 70 miles northwest of New York City. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said he would recommend to the Bureau of Prisons that it choose an appropriate facility in the Northeast. Still, three weeks later he was headed for Butner.

Madoff fit the profile of a low-security prisoner, but his lengthy, 150-year sentence pushed him up to medium security, said Herb Hoelter, a prison consultant who advised Madoff on his transition into prison.

The prisons bureau declined to discuss the Madoff case. Hoelter said Butner was “appropriate” for the 71-year-old Mr. Madoff because it is near a medical facility.

The Butner complex includes a minimum-security federal camp, a low-level security prison, two medium-level facilities as well as a medical facility that specializes in cancer treatment.

Inmates aren't allowed to use the Internet, but they do have television privileges. Permitted programs are rated PG-13 and lower.


