Prison coaches charge up to $20K to prep white-collar perps - like Martha Steward & Madoff

[Liberal_in_LA]

Prison coaches charge up to $20K to prep white-collar perps

By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

Wealthy first-time convicts are turning to a novel cottage industry: prison coaches with advice on what it's like inside the big house.

Feeding off of notorious financial scandals, consultants school anxious inmates for fees of up to $20,000. White-collar convicts such as Martha Stewart and Bernard Madoff sought their help to learn about inmate life.

"After all, it's not like planning your vacation," Ira Sorkin, Madoff's lawyer, says of the service that the Wall Street swindler used to prepare for his 150-year prison term.

Madoff and Stewart got their penitentiary insight from the Baltimore-based National Center for Institutions and Alternatives. Herbert Hoelter, its co-founder, says the firm waived its fee for Madoff because his assets were frozen.

At least a half-dozen similar firms have emerged across the country. Steven Oberfest, for instance, touts himself as an "inmate adaptation specialist" and offers a course in close-quarters combat.

"I can prepare you to go into hell," says Oberfest, an ex-convict who opened his firm after the 2002 Enron collapse.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-07-14-prison101_N.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno

[billyoc]

1. Hopefully this will become a growth industry.

[aquart]

2. I know. I wish them great success.