Best Places To Go To Prison - Forbes

Often, but not always. Take the case of Samuel Waksal, the former ImClone Systems CEO, who requested to serve his seven-year sentence at Eglin Federal Prison Camp in Florida. (Eglin was once considered so cushy that the term “Club Fed” was actually coined to describe it. It was recently closed.) Instead, Waksal was shipped off to the Schuylkill Federal Correctional Institute in Minersville, Pa., which did not make our list.

And the fates of crooked corporate titans like former Tyco Chief Executive Dennis Kozlowski and Adelphia founder John Rigas can hardly be encouraging either. Kozlowski will serve up to 25 years of hard time in a New York state prison, while Rigas, who is free pending an appeal, was sentenced to 15 years in the can.

The days of “Club Fed”–think golf courses and lobster bakes–are long gone. But minimum security facilities, known as federal prison camps, are the best suited for disgraced CEOs and other white-collar criminals. In theory, inmates in these camps show no risk of violence or escape. Both shoe-mogul Steven Madden and Martha Stewart are FPC alums.

Why are prison camps the way to go, if you must go at all? Among other perks, federal prison camps have a relatively low staff-to-inmate ratio, dormitory-style accommodations and little to no fencing. In fact, inmates could walk away from these camps. Few do, however, because recaptured inmates face severe consequences.

While some of the minimum security facilities still stand on their own, it is increasingly common to have camps lie adjacent to larger and more secure institutions, particularly low-security federal correctional institutions.

“It used to be that those freestanding facilities were considered to be more relaxed,” says David Novak, a former Microsoft consultant who served time in a federal prison camp for mail fraud. “The differences now really come down to convenience for family, weather and things of that nature.”

Ellis says the quality of life among staff members also can make one prison more pleasant than another. “Happier staff makes for happier inmates,” he says.

To determine which prisons are the best places to serve time, we turned to the man who wrote the guidebook, literally. Ellis has written several editions of the Federal Prison Guidebook, which profiles each of the nation’s 178 federal prisons.

Eglin is the original “Club Fed,” nicknamed as such back in the 1980s when prisoners were allowed to wear their own clothes and even go home to have dinner with their families. Those fast and loose days are long gone, but the nickname has stuck. Inmates maintain the golf course at nearby Eglin Air Force Base, but make no mistake–they never get the chance to hit a few themselves. Disgraced shoe designer Steve Madden is serving his 41-month sentence here

Location: Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

Opened: 1962

Capacity: 800

Population:792

Amenities:  Open dormitories hold 50 men who sleep in two-man cubicles. Softball, basketball, soccer, flag football, universal weight machine, free weights.Vocational training offered in diesel and small-engine mechanics; dental assistant apprenticeships.

Prisoner perks:  Eglin has an active music department that sponsors a number of inmate bands and also has a stash of instruments that prisoners can check out. Also of note is the camp’s strong religious studies program that even goes so far as to offer Native American practitioners a small hide tent that can be used as a sweat lodge.

Nellis is one camp that is often requested by white-collar criminals because it’s the only minimum-security facility on the West Coast that’s freestanding–or, in other words, that isn’t located alongside a higher-security prison. Camps that co-exist with hard-core cellblocks feel more like “real” prisons since camp inmates often have to work inside of them, surrounded by the razor wire and watchtowers.

Location: North Las Vegas

Opened: 1990

Capacity: 415

Population: 588

Amenities:  Men sleep four to a cubicle in open dorms that hold up to 40. Softball, basketball, soccer, flag football, universal weight machine, free weights, stationary bikes and stair stepper machines, as well as pool and pingpong tables. Classes offered in leather working and general art.

Prisoner perks: The dormitories at Nellis are air conditioned, which is unusual for a system that’s generally bereft of any creature comforts. And Nellis’ gym is better equipped than those at other camps. Most prisons just let inmates pump iron, but Nellis actually has cardio equipment (albeit very old), including stationary bikes and stair climbers.

Perched amid the rolling Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia, Morgantown is one of the most picturesque camps in the system. Inmates say it is not unusual for them to awake in the morning to the sight of deer grazing on the compound.

Location: Morgantown, W.Va.

Opened: 1969

Capacity: 935

Population: 1,009

Amenities:Dorms house up to 300 men, sleeping in two-man cubes. Weights, pool and pingpong tables. Classes in leather working, art and wood carving. No organized team sports.Vocational training offered in data entry and welding, plus apprenticeship programs in baking, commercial photography, computer technology, air-conditioning systems, landscaping, printing presses, painting and plumbing.

Prisoner perks: Morgantown is one prison camp that isn’t located on a military base. This means that instead of taking three or four hours getting cleared to enter the base and then the camp, Morgantown visitors can practically breeze right in and out.

Otisville was designed primarily with the Orthodox Jewish community in mind, although it is not officially designated as a Jewish facility. It was built in response to the fact that Orthodox Jews often tried to get out of doing time by making the legal argument that the Bureau of Prisons violated their First Amendment rights because it could not accommodate their religious lifestyle.

Location: Otisville, N.Y.

Opened: 1980

Capacity: 100

Population: 119

Amenities: One dorm with two-man cubicles. Playing cards, board games and walking. No athletics.No vocational training.

Prisoner perks: Kosher kitchen, weekly Shabbat observances. Every year during Passover, Jewish convicts are flown into Otisville temporarily to participate in a seder.

Allenwood is mentioned often by the media, probably because so many convicts from the New York City area are sent there. And like Eglin, inmates used to be permitted privileges like having food from the outside sent in. But after the public became outraged by these cushy conditions, the camp was overhauled and is now considerably more austere.

Location: Montgomery, Pa.

Opened: 1952

Capacity: 567

Population: 584

Amenities: Dorms house up to 80 men in two-man cubicles. Softball, basketball, soccer, flag football, universal weight machine, free weights, pool and pingpong tables.Vocational training offered in horticulture. One program is 150 hours, another is 500 hours. Graduates of both receive certificates of completion.

Prisoner perks:Its musical program not only provides instruments but also offers inmate-led instruction. Allenwood is also known for having a particularly diverse inmate population–which, according to experts, makes it a little easier for white-collar convicts to fit in.

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