He’d be safer in Prison.
My understanding was that Rikers isn’t a prison, it’s a jail. You go there while you await trial unless you can post bail. More to the point, nobody in Rikers has been convicted of a crime yet.
Have I been completely wrong about this essentially my entire life?
Like many city jails, it holds defendants pretrial, and also those serving sentences less than one year. People sentenced to a year or more go to a state prison (exceptions probably exist).
This little tidbit from the article surprised me
Though no longer CFO, Weisselberg remains on paid leave from the Trump Organization.
I thought they would have cut him off as soon as he turned state’s evidence.
Thanks much. I would say I learned my something new today, but that does sound vaguely familiar. I think I knew that once.
He didn’t rat on Trump personally, so I’m sure they’re grateful.
Thanks for that clarification. I could have sworn that Harvey Weinstein was enjoying the hospitality of Rikers Island, but indeed, he was transferred to a state prison. I believe he was at Rikers prior to sentencing. I would love to see Trump following that same route.
Yeah, this. Weisselberg essentially gave up as little information as he could without incurring a multi-year sentence.
I’ve heard it said that the Trumps actually learned a lesson after the experience of Michael Cohen–who gave up a huge amount of damaging information after being cut off from all financial support. They made sure Weisselberg would stay loyal to the extent he could without being given a 20-year sentence, by keeping the cash flowing to him.
Of course it’s tough to imagine the Trumps learning anything–but where money is concerned, apparently sometimes they do.
I too was wrong about this. I really didn’t know there was a difference between “jail” and “prison” and always thought they were just synonyms. Huh. Thanks for educating me, everyone.
I didn’t know the difference until I had a brother who was incarcerated.
My vague understanding is that Riker’s is a crumbling, mismanaged hell-hole, so I suspect it will be a very unpleasant 5 months for Weisselberg. (Though maybe it’s not so bad for rich white guys.)
Be that as it may I personally would not want to spend five minutes in the nicest part of Rikers Island. Five months doesn’t sound like much but I don’t think a single moment of it is going to be fun for Weisselberg.
No joke. When I think of jail I think of a few small holding cells in a police station like on Andy Griffith and countless other shows and movies. Not only is Rikers a separate self-contained facility – making it more prison-like – it’s on a fucking island. That makes it more Alcatraz-like. Hell no. Do not commit a crime in New York City.
Inmates there volunteer to go do work on Hart Island to get out for a while. (And any quick explanation of Hart Island would make most people think a horror writer was trying too hard.)
I think the nicest part is a few miles offshore. Think Escape from New York with bars.
19 people dies in there last year.
Jeez, I just looked it up, and you’re not kidding. It’s got to be a top candidate for 'island most likely to be haunted by angry, vengeful spirits":
Hart Island has been the location of a Union Civil War prison camp, a psychiatric institution, a tuberculosis sanatorium, a potter’s field with mass burials, a homeless shelter, a boys’ reformatory, a jail, and a drug rehabilitation center. Several other structures, such as an amusement park, were planned for Hart Island but not built. During the Cold War, Nike defense missiles were stationed on Hart Island. The island was intermittently used as a prison and a homeless shelter until 1967; the last inhabited structures were abandoned in 1977.
I wish they had built that amusement park… an then abandoned it. An abandoned amusement park is like the one thing that island is missing.
Make it an abandoned golf course too. With very deep bunkers where you can’t get out because the sand keeps falling down on you when you try.
Yes, I know who I am thinking of.
Yeah, and the reason it had been abandoned is because of the many tragic and mysterious ‘accidents’ that kept befalling the visitors to the park. It’s a horror story that writes itself.
Not to mention a ton of Batman stories.