SHUT DOWN CLUB FED? - IT'S ABOUT TIME!

A group of federal inmates, mostly white collar criminals, are suing the Bureau of Prisons because the government has shut down minimum (non) security camps and sent them to low security prisons where they are forced to mingle with common criminals. They are demanding that the Club Fed camps be reopened for them. WHOA! - HOLD THE HORSES AND GIVE ME A MOMENT TO SHED SOME TEARS.

The minimum (non) security prison camps were established to house non-violent offenders who did not constitute a risk to society. I have seen some of these camps and they resemble summer vacation camps - hence the nickname "Club Fed". Most were located on or adjacent to military bases. There is little (if any) security since inmates are not likely to walk away from the camps, because if they leave, they will be charged with escape.

Lawrence Jay Levine, who is serving a 10-year sentence for dealing methamphetamines and has acted as a "jail house lawyer" for other immates, helped write the lawsuit. He had the assistance of Ginny Carter, whose 60-year old husband, Robert, is serving time for a $17 million insurance fraud scheme. Coincidentally, Mrs. Carter is a defendant in a criminal case related to her husband's crime.

The litigants claim that their dignity has been taken from them because now they are subjected to frequent searches and other security measures, the same as the common criminals who they now have to mingle with. They demand that the recommendation of judges, that they serve their time at a camp, be adhered to.

Gee whiz! It's just god awful that corporate executives, lawyers, doctors, and others from well-to-do families, who have been convicted of a crime, are forced to suffer the indignities of searches and of having to associate with low-life common criminals. And what about the recommendations of those sympathetic judges? Those are just recommendations and the prison authorities are not obligated to follow them.

The closure of these camps appears to be based ,mostly on budget restraints, Camp Fed should have been done away with long ago. When someone commits a crime which is too serious for a probated sentence, they shoould be punished by serving their time at a facility other than a summer vacation camp, regardless of their station in life.