Ex-Gov. Ryan assigned to Wisc. prison

Former Gov. George Ryan has been reassigned to a prison in Wisconsin, days before he was scheduled to report to a similar facility in Minnesota, his lawyer confirmed Friday.

Ryan got a letter Thursday from the Bureau of Prisons designating the Oxford, Wis., institution as the place where he'll report Wednesday to begin serving a 6½-year sentence -- barring a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing him to remain free on bond while appealing his corruption conviction. That ruling must be made by 2 p.m. Monday.

Ryan's attorneys had been lobbying for his placement at Oxford, saying the Minnesota facility to which he originally was assigned was too far from his home and his family. Ryan, 73, lives in Kankakee.

"That (placement at Oxford) was what we had originally asked for, based upon the ability of his family to visit him," former Gov. James Thompson, a member of Ryan's legal team, said.

"Both Oxford and Duluth are fine institutions and it's not a matter of choosing one over the other, but the travel time to Oxford is better for his family," he added.

He said Ryan, who received notice of the reassignment Thursday in a letter at home, "is pleased, I guess, that the designation is Oxford."

Ryan was convicted more than a year ago of fraud and racketeering. A jury decided he had traded governmental contracts for favors and benefits for himself and family.

Problems with the jury during the trial, though, led the appellate court to rule Ryan could stay out on bond as members decided his appeal.

Last week, that court voted 6-3 to uphold the conviction.

Ryan was ordered to report to prison on Nov. 7 with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals saying his "day of reckoning" was at hand. Thompson then asked U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens to grant Ryan bond while he tries to get the high court to consider his appeal.

Stevens on Thursday asked the government to reply to the request for bond, which was filed on behalf of both Ryan and co-defendant Larry Warner. They have been free on bond since their April 2006 convictions.

Ryan was convicted by a jury of steering contracts to Warner and other friends, using state resources to run his campaigns and killing an investigation of bribes paid in exchange for truck drivers licenses.