Jim Black and Diesel Therapy

As I discussed earlier, Jim Black had requested a delay in his sentencing to give BOP time to designate a facility. He had requested Butner, north of Raleigh, and about 3 hours from his home town of Matthews, near Charlotte. As it turns out, BOP was able to designate a facility in time (last Thursday to be precise) -- he was assigned to a camp in Lewisburg, PA, 500 miles away. While they stated that it is common to move "celebrity" inmates further away so they will be treated more anonymously (this is supposedly for their own good), I suspect that the limited amount of time the judge gave them factored into their decision. They simply may not have been able to find space at Butner given the time constraints.

However, a bigger problem was that Black was scheduled to be in a state sentencing hearing today, the day after he was scheduled to report to federal prison! He asked for a 1 week delay, but the judge never replied.

So.... yesterday (Monday), he turned himself into the US Marshal Service in Raleigh and served one night in the county jail before attending his state sentencing hearing today. At least they let him put on a suit, rather than show up in his orange jumpsuit. At that hearing, he was fined $1,000,000 due by December. If he doesn't pay by then, he could face more prison time in NC -- 19-23 months, although it would likely run concurrently with his federal time, which makes it rather moot. Interestingly the state judge said he "agreed with the federal judge's sentence on related charges, though he felt it was severe." He implied he felt this was really a state not federal matter since the citizens of NC were the real victims. I couldn't agree more.

Now what. Well, he is probably spending tonight back in the county jail and sometime in the next couple weeks (!), he will get in a prison van and start the long ride to Lewisburg, PA, which is totally absurd for a 72 year old man. There is absolutely no reason for the federal judge to have not given him a one week delay to self-surrender in Pennsylvania other than the pure sadistic pleasure of torturing the guy. Absolutely none!

You think I exaggerate when I call it "torture?" There is a reason they call prison transportation "diesel therapy:"

Imagine being handcuffed with a chain around your waist securing the handcuffs to your stomach area. You can't move your arms up and down or side to side. Your feet are shackled, limiting you to baby steps. Now get on a bus. And then be stuck on the bus with similarly shackled convicts forever. (It starts at three or four in the morning, and 12-­16 hour days are the norm.) You can try and guess where you're going, but you never will.

Given how far he has to go and the fact that he will probably be the only inmate in the van that is going there, I doubt they will be in a hurry to get him there. It could literally take weeks, with stops at various county jails and federal holdover facilities along the way. If he is really unlucky, it will include a few nights in the Atlanta Penitentiary holdover where he might find himself sleeping on the floor under a toilet in a room with 4 other men, but designed for 2.

If you don't believe me, read the following account on Michael Santos' website (he was sentenced to 45 years for distributing cocaine... a first offense at age 22 -- nice, huh -- he would have gotten a lighter sentence had he murdered his customers rather than sold them coke), which includes references to both Lewisburg and Atlanta in the same transfer.

Prison transportation is not segregated by security level so all inmates are treated as maximum security (thus, the handcuffs and chains). Jim Black could find himself seated next to a mass murderer.

Have we lost our minds? Is this really what we do to public officials who take $29K in illegal contributions? Why don't we just pull out some of these old punishments. I'm not making excuses for what he did... it was clearly wrong... but, my God, a little perspective is in order.

On a slightly different note, the Charlotte Observer today published a list of items Jim Black can bring to "camp" according to camp director Scott Finley. By the way, what the heck is a camp director? I knew of the warden and captain and lieutenant and COs, but "director?" In any case the items are:

Eyeglasses (no gemstones in them)
Plain wedding band
Watch (value at less than $100; can't be capable of photos or Internet).
Softbound religious book (such as the Bible or Quran).
Small address/phone book.
Up to $150 to put into an account.
Receipt showing paid court-ordered fine.
Tennis shoes (white, black or combination; valued at less than $100).
Medicine has to be approved by medical staff.

This was basically the same as FPC Pensacola, except for the watch and tennis shoes. I was not allowed to bring those; I had to buy them in the commissary at a cost of $28 and $54, respectively, and which counted toward my $290 monthly limit. Also, there was no stated limit on the amount of cash I could bring. I brought $1060 to deposit, which they readily accepted.

[UPDATE: According to this Charlotte Observer Editorial, the state judge may have been more supportive of his federal sentence than I first realized, calling it "severe, but appropriate." He felt that the federal government had taken away Black's power and freedom, so it was his job to take away his money. Whatever. Seems like everyone is trying to outdo the other in showing how much they can torture the guy. While there is no doubt he did some really stupid things that certainly created a conflict of interest, there is not one scintilla of evidence that I have seen that anything of substance was done to harm the people of North Carolina. No one has identified a single piece of legislation that was altered or a single person that was harmed. He should have been impeached and perhaps fined but to send the guy to prison for 5+ years, and possibly another 23 months if he doesn't come up with $1 million dollars by December 10 is just luncacy.]