Replies

Incarceration

FCI Butner Medium, where Madoff is incarcerated
Madoff’s attorney asked the judge to recommend that the Federal Bureau of Prisons place Madoff in the Federal Correctional Institution, Otisville, which is located 70 miles (110 km) from Manhattan. The judge, however, only recommended that Madoff be sent to a facility in the Northeast United States. Madoff was transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution Butner Medium near Butner, North Carolina, about 45 miles (72 km) northwest of Raleigh; he is Bureau of Prisons Register #61727-054.[125][126] Jeff Gammage of The Philadelphia Inquirer said, in regards to his prison assignment, “Madoff’s heavy sentence likely determined his fate.”[127]

Madoff’s projected release date is November 14, 2139.[126][128] The release date, described as “academic” in Madoff’s case because he would have to live to the age of 201, reflects a reduction for good behavior.[129] On October 13, 2009, it was reported that Madoff experienced his first prison yard fight with another inmate, also a senior citizen.[130] When he began his sentence, Madoff’s stress levels were so severe that he broke out in hives and other skin maladies soon after.[131]

On December 18, 2009, Madoff was moved to Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and was treated for several facial injuries. A former inmate later claimed that the injuries were received during an alleged altercation with another inmate.[132]

Other news reports described Madoff’s injuries as more serious and including “facial fractures, broken ribs, and a collapsed lung”.[131][133] The Federal Bureau of Prisons said Madoff signed an affidavit on December 24, 2009, which indicated that he had not been assaulted and that he had been admitted to the hospital for hypertension.[134]

In his letter to his daughter-in-law, Madoff said that he was being treated in prison like a “Mafia don”.
They call me either Uncle Bernie or Mr. Madoff. I can’t walk anywhere without someone shouting their greetings and encouragement, to keep my spirit up. It’s really quite sweet, how concerned everyone is about my well being, including the staff […] It’s much safer here than walking the streets of New York.[135]

After an inmate slapped Madoff because he had changed the channel on the TV, it was reported that Madoff befriended Carmine Persico, boss of the Colombo crime family since 1973, one of New York’s five American Mafia families.[136] It was believed Persico had intimidated the inmate who slapped Madoff in the face.[137]

On July 29, 2019: Bernie Madoff had asked Donald Trump for a reduced sentence/pardon on his sentence for the Ponzi Scheme, to which the White House and Donald Trump made no comment. [138]

In February 2020 his lawyer filed for compassionate release from prison on the claim that he was suffering from chronic kidney failure, a terminal illness and had less than 18 months to live. He was hospitalized for this condition in December 2019.[139] The request was denied due to the severity of Madoff’s crimes.[140]