Madoff and his “posse”

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 Center 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. He could even find himself incarcerated with terrorists in the infamous “Supermax” jail in Florence, Colorado.

“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,” Hoelter told The Times. “But it’s patently unfair to cast him as a symbol of all evil.” Federal convicts are assigned to minimum, low, medium, high-security prison, or even the sole Supermax facility, by the U.S. 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 U.S. federal court would normally qualify for incarceration at a minimum-security “prison camp” with easygoing rules and no perimeter fence.

“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.”

Um….draconian maximum sentence?!?! You’re breaking my heart! At this point I’d like to believe Madoff doesn’t have enough money for a pack of smokes, much less hiring a consultant.