The good prison guide

Press, 13 March 1987, Page 16

The good prison guide

From the “Economist,” London

It is said that a new group is even trendier than America’s yuppies; the yips, or young indicted professionals. On February 20, Mr Dennis Levine was told by a Federal judge that he would go one better by becoming a young imprisoned professional for two years. This is on top of a $362,000 fine on Mr Levine, a former investment banker at Drexel Burnham Lambert, and the $11.6 million in insider trading profits that he has already agreed to repay. Opinion is divided on whether Mr Levine’s sentence was unduly strict, given his co-operation with Federal investigators, or unduly

lenient, given the need to deter other insider traders. It is still not known to what sort of prison he will be sent. Assignment to one of America’s 19 minimum-security prisons (open prisons in Britain) and an early parole would ease his pain considerably. White-collar criminals are not made to do hard labour. Nor, up to now, have they gone to highsecurity prisons packed with murderers, where stabbings and rapes are endemic. Because they are deemed harmless and unlikely to escape, they are usually sent to fenceless prisons, where the only security is a daily headcount.

The favourite such "Club Fed” is Allenwood Federal Prison Camp, an institution that is more camp than prison. Located in Pennsylvania’s Appalachian mountains, Allenwood features kosher and vegetarian menus, tennis courts and showings of newly-released movies. A stack of “Wall Street Journals” arrives every day. A 5000-volume library provides ample space for drafting bestsellers and lecture tours. Alumni include Mr Gordon Liddy, a Watergate burglar, exSenator Harrison Williams, of New Jersey, who did legislative favours in return for business deals, and Mr Clifford Irving, the pretender to Howard Hughes’ inheritance.

Federal courts try to place criminals close to friends and family. A native New Yorker, Mr Levine is a likely candidate for Allenwood.

However, those convicted in the north-east can request a transfer to prisons in sunnier places. Mr John Mitchell, another Watergate offender, and Mr Marvin Mandel, a former Governor of Maryland, both opted to move south, for health reasons.

Mr Geoffrey Collier, who is now facing six charges of insider dealing in London, will be less fortunate if found guilty and jailed. Britain’s open prisons are starker places. Their main perks are pay telephones and less crowded conditions than, say, Brixton. Financial crooks in Sweden do better. Low-risk convicts carry the keys to their cells, have six or more holidays a year and go on prison-organised trips to the theatre.

Whatever the facilities, boredom is a problem. Allenwood inmates work a 40-hour week making furniture for Government officials (annual sales are about $3.6 million), hours which might leave former Wall Street workaholics fidgety. The pay is poor by Wall Street standards: Il cents to $1.30 an hour.

Prison courses taught by inmates provide some diversion. Half of Allenwood’s population are drug offenders. Their curriculum has included organic gardening and import-export trade in addition to Hebrew, taught by a jailed rabbi.