Bernie Madoff's hellhole: Ponzi schemer is caged 23 hours a day, gets bad food and few visitors

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Bernie Madoff's hellhole: Ponzi schemer is caged 23 hours a day, gets bad food and few visitors



An undated photo released by the Metropolitan Correctional Center shows a typical jail cell.

Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff is being held in a super-max wing of the Manhattan federal lockup - a unit so tough it drives hardened criminals mad, the Daily News has learned.

The lights burn 24 hours a day, and an inmate's every move is caught on video. Madoff gets just 60 minutes a day outside his 8-by-8-foot cell - in wrist shackles.

Windows are blacked out so disoriented inmates can't catch even a glimpse of the world outside.

What passes for food is slipped through a narrow slit in a stainless steel door that fronts a spartan cell - cold in winter, scorching hot in summer.



Bernie Madoff's official mugshot.

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/03/19/2009-03-19_bernie_madoffs_hellhole_ponzi_schemer_is.html

[Eric J in MN]

1. Prisoners should be allowed to talk to each other,

...as people need the stimulation.

They should also get decent food.

[spotbird]

2. You are right. nt

[LakeSamish706]

Tell that to all the people who's lives he ruined... I think they would disagree. n/t

[Eric J in MN]

10. Human rights standards...

...shouldn't be based on how someone who hates a prisoner wants him treated.

[Last Stand]

3. My guess is that they are trying to wear him down so he talks.

In the meantime, they are keeping him well lit so they can make sure someone doesn't take him out before he talks about the other major players in this swindle.

Pass the Grey Poupon....

[cali]

4. I don't believe in that kind of treatment for any prisoner. period.

[Jennicut]

5. Agree.

[BlueJac]

6. Fuck the crook......

the picture has a window that is not blacked out! WTF?

[Nordmadr]

9. Yeah, that was my thought. I see light coming in through

the window in that cell. He lived in a way most can only dream of. Let him suffer.

[MrPerson]

7. He should be treated like all other prisoners.

No better. No worse.

This obviously is worse.

BTW. He didn't kill anyone.

[KittyWampus]

8. if you are 75 and on medication living off life savings he stole... yeah, he kind of did kill

that said, I find this hard to believe unless its part of trying to get him to talk and give up co-conspirators.

[grasswire]

15. this is not worse than other prisoners are treated.

He's being kept separate for his own protection. If he were in the general population of a prison, he'd be dead already. Another reason to keep him isolated at this point is to keep a suicide watch on him.

[MrPerson]

16. Which could happen to any prisoner.

[rolltideroll]

11. Way to blow it at the end Bernie

As far as life goes, this guy is Leon Lett.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2kcpTmheM4

[Jackpine Radical]

12. Keep in mind that this is a temporary "accommodation."

Most prisons (except for a few Supermax types) are far less restrictive than this.

As a general rule, jails are much harsher places than prisons. That is why, while sentences of under a year may be served in jail, sentences of over a year are done in prisons.

A number of ears ago, when WI's prisons were badly overflowing, the State leased cells from the county jails to hold some of the overflow. Inmates were doing whatever they could--faking psychoses, threatening suicide, etc.--to get themselves transferred back to prison. I recall one jail in particular calling me in at least once a week to do a psych eval on one or more state prisoners.

If Bernie gets a term of incarceration (presumably he will), he will not sit it out in a place like this.

[global1]

13. This Might Be A Good Retirement Fund For Us Common Folk......

a room with a bed and toilet; 3 squares a day; supervised attendants and health care. Now that we lost all our retirement funds - this could be an option for many people that won't be able to afford a place to live (assisted living or nursing home)- won't be able to afford food and will have no health care.

It's all at how you look at it.

[closeupready]

14. I'm not exactly crying here.

In a general sense, I agree that prisons must be reformed, but Madoff's treatment is not a case to rally people around such a cause.

[rateyes]

17. ...

:nopity: