Good Riddance

Jeffrey Skilling goes to jail today. From the link:
HOUSTON - Former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling is expected to report to prison today. One day after a federal appellate court ruled that the former Enron chief executive could remain free until it decided on his request for bail pending appeal of his sentence for conspiracy, fraud and insider trading, the judge in the case rejected the request.

An arrogant, wealthy, white businessman (AWWB) in handcuffs is a thing of beauty; an AWWB in a jumpsuit, sublime. From his WikiPedia page:
As CEO he earned $132 million in a single year.
Skilling greeted the California energy crisis with amusement, jokingly asking one meeting of Enron employees the difference between California and the Titanic ("At least when the Titanic went down, the lights were on").

He'd asked to serve his 24-year sentence in the Butner Federal Corrections Complex, home of disgraced Republican former House Representative Duke Cunningham. He's reporting to a low-security facility in Waseca, Minnesota. More on that facility:
The bureau of prisons requires all inmates to work if medically able, so Skilling will work. Most earn 12 cents to 40 cents an hour doing such jobs as preparing food, washing dishes, cleaning bathrooms or keeping grounds.

But some facilities, including the one in Waseca, also have Federal Prison Industries factories. Those jobs pay 23 cents to $1.15 per hour to inmates who make office furniture, electrical components, license plates, signs, and police and military uniforms. About 200 of Waseca's 1,000 inmates work in the textile factory making uniforms, curtains, mattresses and bedding.

The Waseca facility, like others in the federal system, offers activities for inmates during nonworking hours. Those include a course in horticulture, which is reminiscent of the property's former life as a University of Minnesota satellite campus that focused on agriculture programs.

A recreation department has aerobics, stationary bicycles, stair steppers and rowing machines. Inmates can play pool and ping pong, and can work with leathercraft or ceramics in a hobby center.

And the prison offers a nine-month, 500-hour alcohol and drug abuse treatment program that Skilling plans to enter. If he completes the program, he can shave up to a year off his term.

Traci Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the bureau of prisons, said the Waseca facility's population reflects that of the entire system, where more than half committed drug crimes.

The rest could include a mix of bank robbers, immigration lawbreakers, burglars, some white-collar offenders convicted of fraud, extortion or bribery, and other types of offenders.