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When I saw this just now, I got choked up reading it. 
These two jerks ruined thousands of people's lives and now they could have a rough time in the big house. At least they can afford to get the best lawyers in town to put off their trip to lock up for a "few" weeks. 
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA052606.01A.Enronpunish.219dc241.html
For Skilling and Lay, No Posh Punishment
Web Posted: 05/26/2006 12:00 AM CDT
Mark Babineck
Houston Chronicle
The elimination of notoriously comfortable "Club Fed" lockups, along with a recent trend of handing out hard time to Enron-related convicts, could mean Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling will share prison space with drug dealers, child pornographers and gang members.
There was a time when white-collar criminals could count on assignment to minimum-security prisons, known as "Club Feds" because of their cushy conditions — dorm-style living, fewer guards, fewer restrictions — particularly compared to traditional units.
But the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has closed four of those facilities recently, and government rules require nonviolent inmates with long sentences to be upgraded to more severe security levels designated as "low" or "medium."
Experts predict Skilling and Lay are likely to receive sentences of 12 to 25 years.
And any punishment of more than 10 years practically guarantees a more secure prison because sentence length is a major factor in placement, said Alan Ellis, past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a specialist in sentencing and prison placement of white-collar offenders.
Common inhabitants of such units are drug felons, scam artists, child pornographers and even people with violent pasts who have shown good behavior in more secure units.
Sentences of 25 years or more likely will mean a step up to medium security, Ellis said.
"Now you're having carjackers, bank robbers, people with assaultive histories and people doing life who kept their noses clean and were moved down," Ellis said.
U.S. District Judge Sim Lake is scheduled to hand down punishment Sept. 11.
The only people convicted in Enron-related trials before Thursday were all sent to low-security prisons despite clean backgrounds and sentences of less than four years each.
Former Enron Treasurer Ben Glisan Jr., who pleaded guilty to conspiracy, began serving his five-year stretch in a low-security unit before being shipped down to a minimum-security camp once he began cooperating with prosecutors.
Federal judges can recommend destinations, but the prison system ultimately decides.
Bureau officials say they try to place prisoners within 500 miles of home in the lowest level of security for which they qualify, but their rules allow an inmate to be upgraded to the next level without cause.
Of course, Lay and Skilling will try to remain free on bail during inevitable appeals. Attorneys said such bail is rare in Houston federal courts, though, and to get one Lake must decide the two men are not flight risks and have a "substantial likelihood" of getting their convictions or sentences overturned.
As for prison, where California Attorney General Bill Lockyer once remarked publicly he'd like to see Lay share a cell "with a tattooed dude who says, 'Hi, my name is Spike, honey,'" Houston defense lawyer Kent Schaffer says the federal system tends to be safer than state lockups.
"The Bureau of Prisons is going to want to make sure Ken Lay is not assaulted in prison," Schaffer said. "If somebody of that stature is assaulted in any way, that's going to be really bad PR for the United States government."
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mark.babineck@chron.com
These two jerks ruined thousands of people's lives and now they could have a rough time in the big house. At least they can afford to get the best lawyers in town to put off their trip to lock up for a "few" weeks. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA052606.01A.Enronpunish.219dc241.html
For Skilling and Lay, No Posh Punishment
Web Posted: 05/26/2006 12:00 AM CDT
Mark Babineck
Houston Chronicle
The elimination of notoriously comfortable "Club Fed" lockups, along with a recent trend of handing out hard time to Enron-related convicts, could mean Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling will share prison space with drug dealers, child pornographers and gang members.
There was a time when white-collar criminals could count on assignment to minimum-security prisons, known as "Club Feds" because of their cushy conditions — dorm-style living, fewer guards, fewer restrictions — particularly compared to traditional units.
But the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has closed four of those facilities recently, and government rules require nonviolent inmates with long sentences to be upgraded to more severe security levels designated as "low" or "medium."
Experts predict Skilling and Lay are likely to receive sentences of 12 to 25 years.
And any punishment of more than 10 years practically guarantees a more secure prison because sentence length is a major factor in placement, said Alan Ellis, past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a specialist in sentencing and prison placement of white-collar offenders.
Common inhabitants of such units are drug felons, scam artists, child pornographers and even people with violent pasts who have shown good behavior in more secure units.
Sentences of 25 years or more likely will mean a step up to medium security, Ellis said.
"Now you're having carjackers, bank robbers, people with assaultive histories and people doing life who kept their noses clean and were moved down," Ellis said.
U.S. District Judge Sim Lake is scheduled to hand down punishment Sept. 11.
The only people convicted in Enron-related trials before Thursday were all sent to low-security prisons despite clean backgrounds and sentences of less than four years each.
Former Enron Treasurer Ben Glisan Jr., who pleaded guilty to conspiracy, began serving his five-year stretch in a low-security unit before being shipped down to a minimum-security camp once he began cooperating with prosecutors.
Federal judges can recommend destinations, but the prison system ultimately decides.
Bureau officials say they try to place prisoners within 500 miles of home in the lowest level of security for which they qualify, but their rules allow an inmate to be upgraded to the next level without cause.
Of course, Lay and Skilling will try to remain free on bail during inevitable appeals. Attorneys said such bail is rare in Houston federal courts, though, and to get one Lake must decide the two men are not flight risks and have a "substantial likelihood" of getting their convictions or sentences overturned.
As for prison, where California Attorney General Bill Lockyer once remarked publicly he'd like to see Lay share a cell "with a tattooed dude who says, 'Hi, my name is Spike, honey,'" Houston defense lawyer Kent Schaffer says the federal system tends to be safer than state lockups.
"The Bureau of Prisons is going to want to make sure Ken Lay is not assaulted in prison," Schaffer said. "If somebody of that stature is assaulted in any way, that's going to be really bad PR for the United States government."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
mark.babineck@chron.com
