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Stanford Complains: Prison Too Prison-Like
Zachary Roth | July 27, 2009, 6:05PM
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Allen Stanford, the Texas banker charged with orchestrating an $8 billion fraud, isn't too happy behind bars, it seems.
His attorney, the heavy-hitting criminal defense lawyer Dick DeGuerin, has filed papers calling conditions at the federal detention facility north of Houston where Stanford is being held "oppressive," and asking that the cricket-loving billionaire be moved.
CNBC reports:
DeGuerin notes that "during the hottest part of the summer, with outside temperatures of 100 degrees or more," Stanford is being held in a facility that was without air conditioning "for at least a week" during a recent power outage.According to the filing, Stanford is housed in a single cell with as many as ten other men. "There are no windows for light or ventilation and the conditions are intolerable," the filing says.
The filing also notes that Stanford is unable to consult with his attorneys or review evidence at the facility, since most of the evidence is on computer files and the facility does not allow inmates to use computers.
No word on whether Stanford would also prefer that a larger menu of food options be made available to him.
Stanford has been in prison since June, after a judge ruled him a flight risk.
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tiowally
July 27, 2009 6:31 PM
Why isn't Sir Allen being held at the Four Seasons Houston? He hasn't been convicted of anything. To make it oppressively jail-like they could take away the bubblebath and limit his room service allowance to $400 per day.
They sure didn't treat Bernie Madoff that way while he was awaiting trial, and he stole some "real" money.
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commie atheist
July 27, 2009 6:45 PM in reply to tiowally
Maybe because the judge in the Madoff case ruled that Madoff wasn't a flight risk?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/14/business/main4721653.shtml
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JNagarya
July 28, 2009 1:45 PM in reply to commie atheist
Watch: Madoff will soon enough be touted as an advocate for prison reform.
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EH
July 27, 2009 6:42 PM
Maybe he'd prefer to move to Maricopa County AZ.
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Jukesgrrl
July 28, 2009 1:36 AM in reply to EH
Maricopa's the place. Pink is a much more flattering color than orange. But seriously, let this be a lesson to all financial criminals. If you're going to get caught, do it in New York not Texas.
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laffingby
July 27, 2009 6:45 PM
Too bad Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas (where Dr. Mudd was imprisoned) is now closed. It would be so much closer to Sir Allen's beloved Antigua.
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laffingby
July 27, 2009 6:51 PM
I knew his connection to Stanford University was bogus. The photo clearly shows that he has chosen to wear University of Texas burnt orange rather than Stanford cardinal.
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Makaden
July 28, 2009 1:21 AM in reply to laffingby
Nice.
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Armageddon T. Thunderbird
July 27, 2009 6:56 PM
Well I think all he needs is some good reading to help pass the time. Try some Dickens.
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jeaton
July 27, 2009 7:01 PM
That's why they call it, PRISON, you @$$hole!
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JNagarya
July 28, 2009 1:41 PM in reply to jeaton
Duh! Ya think!?
But watch: Stanford, being a wealth criminal, will now become an ardent advocate for prison reform.
(And if he can work out the details, profit financially from it.)
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LegalCat
July 27, 2009 9:09 PM
You know, I sympathize. I really do. Prison is a really exceptionally nasty place, and it doesn't take being a billionaire who's used to the finest of everything to figure that out. It's nasty for the guys that are doing 25 to life for lying on a workers' comp application, too. (Think I'm kidding? I'm not. In California, insurance fraud is a felony, and if you commit any felony at all with two prior violent or serious felony convictions, 25 to life. Thank God we're spending $50K a year to keep *that* guy off the streets. But I digress.) Conditions are really horrible in virtually every prison, mostly because of overcrowding but also because of broken infrastructure stuff like the A/C failing, which is actually no joke in the middle of the desert. It's too bad we can't read about the effect of these conditions on non-billionaires in the media, but I'm delighted that we could read about them at all.
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JNagarya
July 28, 2009 1:48 PM in reply to LegalCat
He should have had the foresight to engage in prison reform when he still had the money to do it.
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Bobble1
July 28, 2009 4:28 PM in reply to LegalCat
I'm kind of surprised by the comments above. Everyone seems to have forgotten that he has been convicted of nothing. So much for the constitutionally mandated presumption of innocence. I can't imagine what the conservative blogs are calling for. Rule of law is apparently much easier to talk about than to implement.
Legal Cat- Texas prisons do not have air conditioning (except medical or special needs units). Nor do Florida or Louisiana prisons, I'm told.
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commie atheist
July 28, 2009 7:35 PM in reply to Bobble1
Stanford is being held in jail because he is considered a flight risk, unlike Madoff. And people held on lesser charges, who can't make bail, are also imprisoned while they await trial. So, what's your point? We should just let everyone who's been charged with a crime, but not yet convicted, free on their own recognizance? You do see the problems inherent in that approach, don't you?
I'll agree that everyone should be considered innocent until proven guilty, but in the system that currently exists, many people are imprisoned pre-trial. Sucks for the innocent ones, and obviously needs to be reformed, but at least Stanford is being treated the same as everyone else.
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drjackanapes
July 27, 2009 9:57 PM
Really these people should be encouraged to build luxurious prisons as monuments to themselves while they're flush. It'd be like anyone else buying a burial plot.
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tiowally
July 27, 2009 10:56 PM in reply to drjackanapes
Without mentioning Roland Burris — d'oh! — that's a great idea. After all, Behind every great fortune is a thinly disguised crime. Thus it'd be a model of both efficiency and efficacy.
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out of the loop
July 28, 2009 9:24 AM
One measure of a society is its treatment of prison inmates. The notion that people being held for trial should be punished is wrong. I don't care much about the individual case of this Stanford fellow. He sounds like a jerk. But the fact is that hundreds of thousands of poor people who can't make bail bond are being held in atrocious conditions. (And never mind the hideous immigration jails.) As a people we should be ashamed of these conditions. Many countries provide much more civilized conditions for inmates. We are on a par with third world nations.
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JNagarya
July 28, 2009 1:49 PM in reply to out of the loop
Many countries provide much more civilized conditions for hospital patients.
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NewChautauqua
July 28, 2009 9:43 AM
Ok folks, I gotta give ya a big WHOA! here.
Yeah, we know he's been charged with a lotta bad things, but he has NOT been convicted of ANYTHING.
We get all caught up in the court of the press or public opinion so easily. As the saying goes..."You can get a Grand Jury to indict a ham sandwich". Having experienced the world of my federal government thinking "we know you know something so we are going to seriously f*ck with you" I caution people to be careful. It could happen to YOU anywhere anytime. All it takes is for a federal agent to get a bug up his/her ass.
I hope they throw the book at Mr. Standford. But he deserves a trial before anything get's thrown.
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JNagarya
July 28, 2009 1:52 PM in reply to NewChautauqua
Isn't he in Tejas? Where the maxim is, "Wanted Dead (Or Alive if that Can't be Avoided) -- No Trial Necessary"?
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CosmicBoy
July 28, 2009 9:57 AM
Just wait 'til he get sent to the federal "pound you in the @$$" prison, then he'll REALLY hate it.
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KY Yellow Dog
July 28, 2009 11:35 AM
If he's still capable of speaking rationally to his lawyer, then prison hasn't been remotely close to prison-like enough.
Hundreds of thousands of supposedly innocent until proven guilty defendants languish for months if not years in far, far nastier places in this country every year because they cannot afford bail.
Stanford's a long, long way from earning my sympathy.
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JNagarya
July 28, 2009 1:54 PM in reply to KY Yellow Dog
He's also (charged with being) a long, long way from actually earning his billions.
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sunnysteve
July 28, 2009 12:04 PM
Our nation (we) are responsible for both the conditions which allow the alleged crimes by Stanford to succeed and the conditions which face uncovicted defendants who are denied or unable to post bail.
Our nation has created a privileged class of the wealthy and powerful and a penal system which makes a mockery of Constitutional rights and human decency. We look away from the abuses resulting from both situations.
The savings & loan and Wall Street bailouts are the most expensive examples of the first. Guantanamo is the most recent example of the second (and perhaps most egregious assault on Constitutional protections).
What to do? Increase many, many fold the punishments for abuse of wealth and power. Ensure the rights, safety and dignity of any person emprisoned for any reason.
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JNagarya
July 28, 2009 1:44 PM
Umm . . . DeGeurin, aren't you overlooking somethinng? -- like the other NINE in the same cell who are suffering the SAME conditions?
Oh, never mind: class action suits aren't appropriate to the defense of the classy.
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Helen Rainier
July 29, 2009 9:01 AM in reply to JNagarya
Well, I'm sure the other nine in the same cell as Stanford aren't wealthy white men and they may have been selling drugs or something like that. They're probably not "as good" as Stanford by virtue of the fact that he has "money." /snark
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Skybolt
July 28, 2009 4:38 PM
Heh, yeah, inhumane prison conditions are really funny. Unless you happen to know or like someone who is in prison, then they're totally not funny.
Or maybe all prisoners should be held in facilities that are designed, maintained, and run in a humane fashion as if it's a matter of human rights or Constitutional law, or something.
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USgreentech
July 30, 2009 10:37 AM
That's a sad sad story.
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