Day 16

When the whole debacle went down in 2009 and his so called boss was being investigated he was so sure he had no involvement that he hadn't taken one step to protect himself.  By the time he realized he was also being dragged into it - it was too late. When all of your assets are confiscated or frozen - you are done.  Forget trying your case with a public defender especially when it could mean 20 years if you lose.  You take the deal. It will destroy your reputation, your coveted friendships and your family.  It will cost you all the way to the end of your future.  But, when you are nearly 60 years old, you can't afford the gamble.  You take the deal.  Your attorney is saying they won't go for the max of the deal (5 years).  The prosecutor does not seem out for blood. The meetings with the judge have gone well.  It is your first conviction. You have agreed to pay back the funds that were paid out to you and they were minimal in the scope of things.  You are thinking they may go with community service, probation or at the most a year.

Day of reckoning and you get 46 months to be served nearly 1200 miles away from your family.  The plea deal you thought had taken into consideration that your family lived several states away and you expected to serve your time there (if there was time to serve.)  The reality is you won't see your 6 children and grandchild for the better part of 4 years.  It seems beyond cruel.  I can't believe it is legal.  So, I begin to sleuth.  I soon discover that there is no legal obligation to return an inmate to the area they resided.  It is perfectly legal to have them serve their time where the so called crime was committed.

What about prison transfers?  This is harder to figure out because things changed after the patriot act and it varies from state to state.  It appears you can request a transfer.  It also seems that they are highly coveted and rarely given per request.  Interstate transfers are the most difficult of all.  The process itself it seems could easily drag as long as the sentence itself.  If there is a transfer, they tend to happen towards the end of the incarceration as a way to start to reintegrate a human back into their own life.

What is the point of all of this?  According to the judge at the sentencing they said he was to serve as a deterrent for others.  A poster child.  The brains, the talent, the kindness and his enormous ability to help others could have been harvested via community service is locked up.  Instead, he wastes away his time and the tax payers hard earned dollars along with many other nonviolent criminals in the gray bowels of a federal pen.