Ryan moved to prison in Hoosier State

SPRINGFIELD -- Former Gov. George Ryan is now serving out his federal prison sentence in Indiana rather than Wisconsin.

A Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman said a policy change regarding the Oxford, Wis., prison necessitated the move. Specifically, the prison's status was changed and no longer will house older inmates.

Ryan, 74, was moved to a similar minimum-security prison camp in Terre Haute, Ind.

The former Republican governor from Kankakee is serving a 6½-year prison sentence for his role in steering millions worth of state contracts and leases to political pals.

He reported to the Wisconsin prison in November after legal attempts to keep him out on appeal failed. He has said he'll continue to fight his conviction in the courts.

Federal prison records show Ryan is scheduled for release on Independence Day, 2013.

The Terre Haute prison camp is part of a federal prison complex that also includes a medium security prison and a high-security penitentiary for inmates serving federal death sentences.

For Ryan's family, the trek to visit is essentially a wash.

The Oxford prison camp was nearly 4½ hours away from Kankakee but had easy interstate access.

The Terre Haute prison camp is just more than three hours away, but there's no direct interstate link from Kankakee. Plus, Terre Haute is in the Eastern Time Zone, so it's an hour later there than it is in Illinois. Getting there effectively becomes a more than four-hour jaunt.

The bright side for the former governor is it means if he stays at Terre Haute, he could get out an hour earlier than if he'd remained in Wisconsin.