The Failing New York Times has a great article today about how some of the parents convicted of trying to bribe their kids into good colleges are paying consultants and others to try to keep them out of jail.
Needless to say these people are self-entitled oligarchs who really ought to be humbled with a little jail time. The judge seems to be onto them too. That is good.
But my goodness, $400,000 to avoid a maximum of six months in jail? In a minimum-security jail? That is crackers.
Pay me $400,000 and I will do the sentence for you.
I know it depends. Bill Gates could pay millions to avoid a week on probation, but how the heck rich would you have to be to pay that much to avoid so little inconvenience?
I swear our Ruling Class is just stupid.
I read one fellow who had to do a few months in a Federal minimal security place saying it was all in your attitude. He said he and his buddies treated like a summer camp adventure.
My son works in a prison in Florida. He has told me about doing intake; where people who have been in jail during their trial, have been convicted, and now are entering prison. Some men who thought jail was a joke spend their first night in prison in tears.
That’s unusual. Most people will tell you that jail is worse than prison on a day-to-day basis. Of course, the downside of prison is that you’re going to spend a lot more days there.
So if people are crying on their first night in prison, it’s probably not due to a comparison between the conditions in jail vs those in prison. It’s more likely to be a belated realization that they aren’t going to beat the charges via some legal maneuver.
I think some people go through the whole process of arrest and trial by convincing themselves that this is just a temporary setback. It’s bad now but they’re going to get through it and return to their normal life. It’s not until they hear the cell door close on that first night of their sentence that it hits them that their life has changed.
Even after the judge announces the final sentencing, how sure can the guilty man be that he will be sent to an “inconvenient” Club Fed, and not to a real prison?
Because a wimpy white guy like me with no tatoos wouldn’t survive in a prison like they show in the movies.
So, yeah, I’d pay everything I have in the bank to stay out, or guarrantee that I get sent to a Club Fed (minimum security) jail.
[related question, maybe deserves a thread of its own:]
Who determines which jail a guilty guy gets sent to?
It surely makes a huge difference in whether the punishment is effective.
Now jail maybe a experience that adds to one’s existence, in which case for the enlightened soul it is welcome, but what is money to that soul? What is their mission in life? Fear is only a constraint usually on the lower classes from experiencing life.
It depends on how long a sentence we are talking about, and how certain it was that spending the money would avoid the sentence.
Assuming it’s six months, and Club Fed rather than maximum security, I probably wouldn’t spend much at all. Prison time would essentially end my career, but I am due to retire in three years or so anyway. I would rather save the money and have it to spend when I got out. Of course, I would probably have to pay a large fine as well, which has to be taken into consideration.
No doubt prison would suck, even minimum security.
I have never been in prison, surprisingly, but I know people who have been and have read accounts. From what I hear -
[ul][li]It’s not like the movies.[/li][li]Boredom is a bigger problem than violence.[/li][li]Most people in prison just want to get their time done so they can get out (and go back to what they were doing, which may or may not be a good idea but it is a goal)[/ul]Obviously Little Nemo and Dr. Qadgop would be a better source of information than I.[/li]
Regards,
Shodan
You do realize how rich some of these folks are & what $400m is to them? They probably spend less time agonizing over spending that then the average person would spend over buying a second hot dog at a ball game. I certainly would spend it if I had that kind of net worth.
There was at least one (in)famous local ex-politician who wrote a book/started a consulting business on how to survive in the slammer after he got out. So sometimes they’re both lawyers & consultants with firsthand knowledge.
You really need to talk in terms of days, weeks or months of income. So instead of $400,000 to avoid 6 months of prison it might actually be 6 months of income to avoid 6 months of prison–which assuming we could raise the money would be something most of us here would probably do.
I would pay everything I could afford to to say out of prison. (I can’t afford $400,000, so I wouldn’t pay that - but if I could afford it I would pay it and more.)