Facts about prison life awaiting Blagojevich
Some facts about the prison life that awaits former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in prison for multiple corruption convictions:
— Blagojevich, a Democrat, is likely headed to a federal prison outside Illinois, possibly in Oxford, Wis., or Terre Haute, Ind., where his predecessor as governor, Republican George Ryan, is serving a 6 1/2 -year prison sentence for corruption.
— Prisons with white-collar felons usually have minimal security, often with just a simple fence. While they are sometimes dubbed Club Fed, they are hardly luxurious. Inmates’ lives are strictly regimented and they are largely cut off from the outside world.
— Blagojevich will have to work an eight-hour-a-day prison job — possibly scrubbing toilets or mopping floors — at a starting wage of 12 cents an hour, or about a dollar a day. Earning any outside revenue, including from books or articles, is forbidden.
— Internet and cell phone use is prohibited. Inmates receive 300 minutes a month on a phone to call family — or about 10 minutes a day.
— Blagojevich won’t have to cut his trademark hair. Prison guidebooks say, “Your hair may be worn in any style and length you wish.”
— The former governor will be given an eight-digit number, which will be affixed to his prison clothes.
— Prisoners, all of whom share rooms, wake at 6 a.m. and are subject to head counts half a dozen times a day.
— Blagojevich, an avid jogger, will have to settle for running in circles on a prison track or around a yard.
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Sources: Federal prison guidebooks, U.S. Bureau of Prisons.