Experts see Prison for Siegelman, Scrushy

Friday, June 30, 2006
by Brendan Kirby
Staff Reporter

Former Gov. Don Siegelman and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy almost certainly face significant prison terms now that they have been convicted on multiple corruption charges, according to people familiar with federal sentencing practices.

Edward S. Bales, who runs a national consulting firm specializing in federal prison, said that Siegelman can expect a prison sentence in the four-to-eight-year range. With no prior criminal record and no history of violence, he said, the ex-governor probably would spend his time in a minimum-security prison camp.

Alabama has two such facilities: the Federal Prison Camp at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery and a prison camp that is adjacent to the medium-security Talladega Federal Correctional Institution. There is no guarantee that either man would be incarcerated in Alabama, however.

Life at such camps is regimented but also fairly comfortable, Bales said, with opportunities for reading, exercise and outdoor recreation.

"Everybody calls it Club Fed, and in many ways they are Club Fed compared to state prisons," he said.

Siegelman's experience would be "similar to what Martha Stewart went through, only his sentence will probably be longer," Bales said. Stewart, a celebrated author and designer, served time for lying to federal agents investigating a stock deal.

U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller will sentence Siegelman and Scrushy later this year. Between now and then, the U.S. Probation Office in Montgomery will conduct an in-depth pre-sentence investigation, as it does with all federal defendants in the Middle District of Alabama who are convicted or plead guilty.

That probation office will calculate the prison ranges under advisory sentencing guidelines. Although not bound by those guidelines, federal judges follow them more than 90 percent of the time.

The sentencing range will be determined by comparing the offenses with the defendants' criminal histories. The judge decides the official sentencing range after prosecutors and defense lawyers have a chance to object to the Probation Office's findings.

Leslie Prim Hopek, the chief U.S. probation officer in Montgomery, said it would take 70 to 90 days to finish the pre-sentence report. "We're going to treat these folks exactly the same as any other defendant," she said.

Acting U.S. Attorney Louis Franklin said Thursday that federal prosecutors would wait for the pre-sentencing report before recommending sentences for Siegelman and Scrushy.

If sentenced to prison, Siegelman and Scrushy -- like all other federal inmates -- would not be eligible for parole, according to officials from the Federal Bureau of Prisons. They would have an opportunity to shave 54 days off their terms each year for good behavior. Inmates also can reduce their sentence by up to a year by successfully completing a drug treatment program, but the Bureau of Prisons must determine that the defendant has a substance abuse problem and is otherwise eligible.

Mark Kirby, a spokesman for the agency, said all inmates who are physically able must work 7½ hours a day in jobs that can range from landscaping to food services to mopping floors. There also are certain mandatory programs that they must participate in, he said.

Prison camps typically have no physical barriers keeping inmates inside.

"No bars. No locks on doors. You live in dormitory-style arrangements," said Lambert Mims, a former Mobile mayor who spent 3½ years in prison after a federal jury in Mobile convicted him of corruption. "You can walk away if you want to, but you have to be prepared to pay the consequences."

Mims, who discussed his time at the Maxwell Air Force Base prison camp in a recent memoir, said in an interview that his experience was more pleasant than he had anticipated.

"The place was super clean. Every blade of grass was in the right place," he said. "The food was not too bad."

Still, he added, "Any place you can't go home at night is not a good place."

Bales, managing director of Federal Prison Consultants outside Philadelphia, said the typical federal prison camp has "cubes," 8-by-9-foot rooms shared by two people. The rooms usually have a desk, a locker for each inmate and bunk beds. Most federal prison camps are air-conditioned, he said.

"It would remind you of a college dormitory. The rooms are smaller," said Bales, whose company helps defendants in federal court try to mitigate their sentences and offers expert witnesses.

Mims said the Maxwell prison had tennis courts, soccer and softball fields and bocce ball. It also had a woodworking shop, he said.

Mims said his fellow inmates included a former member of Congress, a pair of former state attorneys general, county commissioners, city councilmen and other elected officials.

"To be honest with you, some of the finest people I ever met were in prison," he said.

Mims said the hardest part of prison life was adjusting to the restrictions on day-to-day life.

"A person who is in authority in government or owns a business is accustomed to making the rules and having everyone follow," he said. "There, you have to follow the rules. ... It's a great adjustment."

If, when and where Siegelman and Scrushy will end up serving time is unknown. Both are certain to appeal, and Bales said judges often allow such nonviolent, high-profile defendants to stay out of prison while the conviction is on appeal. He said that is not a given, however.

As for where, the decision ultimately rests with the Bureau of Prisons, although judges sometimes make recommendations. Agency spokeswoman Carla Wilson said that officials take into account the severity of the crime, the length of the sentence and the rehabilitative needs of the inmate.

Kirby, the other spokesman, said prison camp inmates typically move to a federal halfway house -- such as one on the Causeway in Spanish Fort -- for the last six months of their sentences.

Wilson said the bureau also attempts to place defendants within 500 miles of their homes.

But, Bales said, prison administrators often send politicians farther away.

Mims, the former Mobile mayor, insists to this day that he was innocent. But he suggested that Siegelman and Scrushy make the best of any prison time. "Life is what you make of it. You can be better or bitter. I chose to be better. I came out of there a better person."

(Capitol Bureau Reporter Bill Barrow contributed to this report).