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u.s. prison system

Judges, forget the ‘country club’ life

By BILL O ’ BOYLE boboyle@timesleader.com

WILKES-BARRE – Talk about a pay cut.

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Preate

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As sitting judges on the Luzerne County bench, Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan each made in excess of $150,000 per year.

But in prison, they will work 7 � hours a day, five days a week, for about $273 to $780 a year. That’s about 14 to 40 cents per hour.

Ciavarella and Conahan pleaded guilty to corruption charges and are awaiting sentencing.

It is not known where they will serve their time, but spokeswomen from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons insist there are no “country clubs” in the system and the former jurists can leave their golf clubs at home.

“There are no golf courses at any of our facilities,” said Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Felicia Ponce, responding to a common misconception about minimum-security prisons such as Allenwood near Williamsport.

Traci Billingsley, another Bureau of Prisons spokeswomen, said inside the federal prisons the programs are the same and all inmates are subject to the same rules and regulations at all levels of incarceration, from minimum security to maximum security facilities.

“Whatever level of security they will serve, the facility is still a prison,” Billingsley said. “The only difference may be with the perimeter of the facility – the number of walls and type of security such as the presence of gun towers and armed patrols.”

If any public official should know what federal prison life is like, it’s former state Attorney General Ernie Preate, who served almost a year in a prison camp in Duluth, Minn.

“Deprivation of one’s freedom is not a country club,” Preate said. “I accepted it. It was cold there; I wore a winter coat on the Fourth of July.”

Preate said he doesn’t think Ciavarella and Conahan will be placed in Pennsylvania. He said he doubts they will be sent anywhere on the East Coast.

“The scenery was quite stark in Duluth,” Preate said.

In 1995 Preate pled guilty to one count of mail fraud in connection with campaign-finance-related crime. He went from being a hard-nosed prosecutor with gubernatorial ambitions to a convicted felon after accepting illegal campaign contributions from video poker operators.

He was sentenced to 14 months, fined $25,000 and ordered to serve two years probation upon his release. He was released in December 1996, and served the rest of his sentence in a halfway house in Scranton.

Preate said he was allowed to exercise and read, but he said the corrections officers were always there to do their job.

“In prison parlance, my sentence is called a drive-by,” Preate said. “But when you lose your freedom, you can’t do what you want to do when you want to do it; you obey the rules. You are told to walk on one side of a line and if you cross over, you’re considered an escapee. It can get very, very tough.”

Ponce said basic components of a prison – cell size, type of bed, linens, bathroom facilities – don’t vary. She said in lower security facilities, such as prison camps, dormitory-style housing is used instead of cells. She said bunk beds are used in those rooms and several inmates may share space.

“But there is nothing fancy about our prisons,” Ponce said. “All prisoners are treated the same. Beds are never softer, linens are the same and pillows are not fluffier. I’m sure inmates would like that, but it just doesn’t happen.”

Ponce said a typical day in the life of an inmate starts with breakfast at 6:30 a.m. She said all prisoners medically able to work are assigned a job. They break for lunch at around 11 a.m., she said, and their work day ends at 3:30 p.m.

Billingsley said when Ciavarella and Conahan are sentenced they could be remanded to federal custody and transported to the appropriate institution. She said the defendants can “self- surrender” on an agreed date and the surrender can take place at the selected prison destination.

Billingsley and Ponce said the Bureau of Prisons will decide where the former judges will serve their time. Wherever they are sent, all federal prisoners are treated the same. They said from the inside of a federal facility, it is difficult to tell what security level the prison is – low, medium or high security.

The bureau has specific criteria it considers when determining an inmate’s destination. Billingsley said the seriousness of the offense, the expected length of incarceration, any history of escapes/violence and medical needs weigh heavy in the decision.

She said judicial recommendations are accepted, but are not binding. Inmates will be sent to a facility within 500 miles of their residence when possible, Ponce said. However, if there are extenuating circumstance – such as safety concerns – the inmate could be sent anywhere in the system.

Even though the judges are considered white-collar criminals, Ponce said that does not factor into where they will serve time. Conahan and Ciavarella may encounter other inmates who have been convicted of violent crimes and drug-related crimes. It’s unclear if they will serve time at the same facility. The bureau will make the decision once the sentences have been rendered, but may consider any recommendations made by the court.

There are 114 federal prison facilities in the U.S. – nine in Pennsylvania. U.S. District Judge Richard P. Conaboy said he has toured many of the prisons across the country and said some are “horrible” and others “nicer.”

“I’m always happy when leaving them,” Conaboy said.

Conaboy said judges make sentence recommendations based on reports provided by probation officers that include everything known of the defendant from the day they were born.

“We do not say what institution they should go to,” Conaboy said. “The bureau retains that right under the law. We can make a recommendation based on a request by the family, but nothing is binding.”

Conaboy said a judge can make a “strong recommendation” but he said the bureau will decide and will issue a report back to the judge detailing how the decision was made.

Martin Carlson, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, declined comment on the matter of prison designation in the Ciavarella and Conahan cases. “This is an issue which is left to the sound discretion of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.”

Preate, now 68, is back to practicing law. He said God gave him a second chance and he’s making the most of it.

“This may sound funny, but it was a positive experience for me,” Preate said. “I met a lot of nice people there, believe it or not; people who made mistakes, bad decisions, but good people.”

Pa. has nine federal prisons

There are 114 correctional facilities in the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, nine in Pennsylvania.

In Pennsylvania, the facilities are: Allenwood – a three-facility complex that includes a low, a medium and a high security prison; Canaan, high security; Lewisburg, high security; Loretto, low security; McKean, medium security; Moshannon Valley, low security; and Schuylkill, medium security.

According to the bureau’s Web site, institutions are ranked at five different security levels based on the presence of external patrols, towers, security barriers, or detection devices; the type of housing within the institution; internal security features; and the staff-to-inmate ratio. Each facility is designated as either minimum, low, medium, high, or administrative.

Minimum security institutions, also known as Federal Prison Camps, have dormitory housing, a relatively low staff-to-inmate ratio, and limited or no perimeter fencing. These institutions are work- and program-oriented; and many are located adjacent to larger institutions or on military bases, where inmates help serve the labor needs of the larger institution or base.

Low security Federal Correctional Institutions have double-fenced perimeters, mostly dormitory or cubicle housing, and strong work and program components. The staff-to-inmate ratio in these institutions is higher than in minimum security facilities.

Medium security facilities have strengthened perimeters -- often double fences with electronic detection systems -- mostly cell-type housing, a wide variety of work and treatment programs, an even higher staff-to-inmate ratio than low security FCIs, and even greater internal controls.

High security institutions, also known as United States Penitentiaries, have highly-secured perimeters featuring walls or reinforced fences, multiple- and single-occupant cell housing, the highest staff-to-inmate ratio, and close control of inmate movement.

A number of institutions belong to Federal Correctional Complexes. At FCCs, institutions with different missions and security levels are located in close proximity to one another. FCCs increase efficiency through the sharing of services, enable staff to gain experience at institutions of many security levels, and enhance emergency preparedness by having additional resources within close proximity.

Administrative facilities are institutions with special missions, such as the detention of pretrial offenders; the treatment of inmates with serious or chronic medical problems; or the containment of extremely dangerous, violent, or escape-prone inmates.