Schuylkill prison is not exactly a day at the beach

Inmates work 5 days a week and have little privacy

Gil Rudawsky, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 28, 2007 at midnight

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Schuylkill federal prison is not exactly a "Club Fed."

Felicia Ponce, public information officer for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, said Friday that if and when Joe Nacchio reports to the prison, he will work five days a week, from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Nacchio's attorneys requested and Judge Edward Nottingham recommended Schuylkill, a minimum security prison camp, but the Federal Bureau of Prisons will make the final call based on a variety of factors.

Ponce said the normal turnaround for the designation is three days once the bureau receives the paperwork from the sentencing. That can take two weeks, she said. Nacchio has 15 days to report to prison once the assignment has been made.

If he gets Schuylkill (pronounced school-kill), new inmates are given a variety of tasks, including cleaning pots and pans, mowing the grass, and cleaning housing areas.

Schuylkill is about 90 miles from Nacchio's home in Mendham, N.J.

The prison houses about 300 inmates, who sleep in military-style rows of bunk beds. They have common toilets and showers. Each inmate has a personal locker, but there is little privacy, Ponce said.

The only perk allowed is 300 minutes of phone calls a month, excluding attorney phone calls. All personal calls are monitored. Fifteen to 20 hours of personal visits are allowed each month, and visitors are searched upon their arrival at Schuylkill.

The prison is in the heart of Pennsylvania coal country, about 50 miles from the capital city of Harrisburg. The nearest town is Pottsville, about 15 miles away.

The facility recently underwent a multimillion-dollar renovation, but people still say it is a medieval-like fortress.

Cindy D'Alio, managing editor of the Pottsville Republican & Herald, said the prison is quiet and only makes news when a prisoner walks away from the minimum security area.

ImClone Systems founder Sam Waksal served part of his sentence at Schuylkill but later moved to a federal prison in New York. Waksal pleaded guilty to securities fraud charges related to an insider trading scandal that also snared Martha Stewart.

Also serving time at Schuylkill is former Rite-Aid Vice President and board member Franklin Brown. He received a 10-year sentence for his role in an accounting fraud at the company.

Schuylkill federal prison, at a glance Situated in the heart of Pennsylvania coal country, Schuylkill has no barbed wire or fences at its minimum-security camp. Inmates at the camp are housed in cubicles that sleep two each.

• Location: Minersville, Pa.

• Population: 1,288 in medium-security prison, 316 in minimum-security satellite camp

• Recreation: Softball/soccer field, horseshoes, weights, gymnasium, aerobics, hobby crafts (leather working, painting), pool tables, jogging track

• Work: Food services, laundry, landscaping, janitorial work. Medium-security prison has an upholstery factory where prisoners make chairs for sale to the federal government. Minimum- security camp has FedFast shipping service, which ships chairs and other office equipment to federal facilities within 48 hours.

• Well-known prisoners: ImClone Systems founder Sam Waksal and former Rite-Aid vice president and board member Franklin Brown

Prison tips

Tips for Nacchio, based on Rocky interviews with other white-collar criminals sentenced to federal prison and experts.

• Be humble

• Don't discuss the crime

• Be prepared to be bored

• Buy a cheap watch

• When reporting, wear white sneakers, white pants, white T-shirt

Prison trade-offs

• Freedom for a regimented day

• Control for no control

• Tooling around in a Porsche for walks around the prison grounds