Bernie Madoff Has It Pretty Good – Prison Accomodations
by Asher Hawkins (sourced from Forbes.com)
World-class fraudster Bernard Madoff is beginning what is likely to be a lifetime sentence at one of the 
nation’s cushiest prisons. The record-setting scammer has arrived at the Federal Correctional Complex at Butner, N.C. It’s no Club Fed–the U.S. Bureau of Prisons’ minimum-security camps, which are the easiest places to do federal time, are only for offenders with 10 years or less on their sentences. Bernie’s is for 150.
But Madoff shouldn’t be too despondent. Neither should Marc Dreier, the swindling super lawyer who was handed a 20-year fraud sentence on July 13. Prison camps have always been white-collar convicts’ destination of choice, but even fraudsters with long sentences can find ways to make doing time easier–and to avoid sharing a cell with an ax murderer.
We asked Allan Ellis, a Philadelphia defense attorney who penned the Federal Prison Guidebook, for a shortlist of the prisons considered most desirable by federal inmates. Then we took into account features like availability of e-mail, distance to the nearest major airport and presence of on-site substance abuse treatment, a sentence-reducing initiative that has seen a wave of apparently sober white-collar cons claiming serious addictions.
His place is nicer than mine.
This is pretty wild how some peeps got it so good.
I’m peeved that someone serving a 150-year sentence can still be considered medium security, though I’m sure Madoff is harmless. If the place he was sent to (NC) won’t have e-mail until at least 2010, I assume that also means there’s no internet access.
You know, I’ve read a few in-depth stories about this whole Madoff affair, and I still can’t wrap my head around it intellectually. I can’t for the life of me understand how this could have happened … how he could have eluded authorities for so long, how he could allow himself to perpetrate this scheme day after day after day, how people in his company didn’t catch on to what was happening (considering not a single trade was ever actually made) — and so on.
I really feel for those who were robbed. At the same time, I wonder why his clients weren’t more suspicious given the annual portfolio gains (even during economic bad times). I guess the profits blinded them and discouraged them from asking the hard questions.