Madoff's Prison Prep: Calm and Cool
Bernie Madoff remorseful but composed as he headed off to big house
By HASANI GITTENS
Updated 10:55 AM EDT, Wed, Jul 15, 2009
Rich people always need "coaches" for everything: Life coaches, work-out coaches, style coaches... Coach bags.
Fallen financier Bernie Madoff even has a "prison coach."
Herb Hoelter is the self-proclaimed prison coach who helped the disgraced Madoff get ready for his 150-year sentence and he claims the ponzi schemer was not afraid before starting his term at a federal penitentiary in North Carolina.
He told the CBS "Early Show" that Madoff was remorseful but composed when Hoelter met him four days before sentencing.
Hoelter said Madoff would not be in danger at the Butner prison, where he was transferred this week from a federal jail in New York.
The coach called Butner a "good facility" that is well-run. He said Madoff will get 300 minutes a month in phone time to make calls.
We would have thought the best coaching you could give a new prisoner is to "do lots of squats," but Hoelter didn't seem to go that route.
Hoelter, who has a Masters of Social Work, is co-founder and CEO of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, a prisoner advocacy group.
The 71-year-old Madoff pleaded guilty in March to charges that his investment advisory business was a multibillion-dollar scheme that wiped out thousands of investors and ruined charities
Copyright Associated Press / NBC Washington
First Published: Jul 15, 2009 8:53 AM EDT on NBC New York
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