Posted on 05/20/2012 3:50:07 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
OTISVILLE — That's the sound of the men working on the gold-chain gang.
White-collar criminals and crooked politicians are banging down the door to get into Otisville Federal Correctional Facility in New York — described by some as a castle behind bars.
"You could do about anything you wanted there," claimed former inmate John Altman. "It's not just good. It's sweet. That's why you request to go there."
Disgraced former state Sen. Carl Kruger will serve out his seven-year corruption sentence in the suburban Orange County lockup. His boyfriend, Michael Turano, has requested to stay there too, and with good reason.
The prison's store doubles as a delicatessen, serving up such favorites as rib steak, gefilte fish, salmon, chorizo and smoked oysters.
It's just a 90-minute drive for visitors from New York City, and it boasts boccie courts, horseshoe pits and enough room to play soccer.
Altman, who has spent time in six prisons since his 1989 conviction for running an interstate prostitution ring, said convicts could stay up until 2:00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights watching HBO, Showtime and Cinemax.
The low-security camp that's connected with Otisville's 1,200-inmate medium-security complex is exclusive too, housing only about 125 felons, two to a cell.
Memorial Day and the Fourth of July are celebrated with cookouts serving hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon and potato salad.
"The food is right. The commissary is right. The officers don't bother you. There are a lot of courses you can take. You had weights inside and outside, free weights and machines," Altman said.
"Food, activities, TV and movies, and visitations are the four things you judge a facility by," he said. "Things were good."
Even Forbes magazine ranked Otisville one of America's "10 Cushiest Prisons," calling it the only one of 115 federal joints where "Bernie [Madoff] wanted to spend the rest of his life."
Madoff was sent to Butner federal prison in North Carolina instead.
Some high-profile cons who have luxuriated at Otisville include "Crazy Eddie" Antar, the electronics mogul convicted for stock fraud, Harlem heroin kingpin Leroy "Nicky" Barnes and Sam Waksal, the insider trader tied to Martha Stewart.
There’s..........just.............something very, very wrong with this.
What abut the female officers? If Hillary Clinton were to be sent there someday -for her chinagate treason- do any of these women officers wear 'blue dresses' which might help Hillary's mental state? Oh, never mind, just speculating.
I wonder how many homeless vets would trade their life on the street for this ‘incarceration’ and the medical bennies that come with it?
You said it all - nothing to add...
Make me emperor for a day and I’ll take every one of these inmates, drop them off at the 300 mile mark of the Aleutian Island chain, and tell them to walk/swim home to finish their sentence.
LOL I was hoping somebody else remembered that one.
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