Disgraced media baron Conrad Black on Monday began his six-and-a-half year prison term imposed for a multi-million dollar fraud and obstruction of justice,``If I had committed any of the offenses charged, I would have pleaded guilty and asked for a sentence that would enable me to atone for my crime and assuage my guilt and shame,'' Conrad Black, the convicted former chairman of Hollinger International Inc. and a member of the U.K.'s House of Lords, began his 6 1/2-year federal prison sentence in Florida as inmate 18330-424.
Black, 63, turned himself in today to the federal prison at Coleman, Florida, said Charles Ratledge, a spokesman for the facility, located about 50 miles northwest of Orlando. Black was found guilty last year of fraud and obstruction in a scheme to defraud his company and investors. A federal court last week denied his bid to remain free while he appeals. ``I cherish my liberty as all people do, but I am unafraid. I have faith in American justice,'' Black said in a column published today by the New York Sun, a newspaper which identifies him as a founding director. Black maintained he is innocent. A jury of nine women and three men in Chicago convicted Black in July for his role in the theft of $6.1 million from the Chicago-based newspaper publisher now known as the Sun-Times Media Group Inc. He was also found guilty of knowingly removing documents sought by U.S. authorities from his Toronto office. Black led Hollinger for eight years both as chairman and chief executive officer, during which time the company became the world's third-biggest publisher of English language newspapers, including the Chicago Sun-Times, Canada's National Post, the Jerusalem Post and the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph. In November 2003, amid allegations of corruption, he was forced to resign as CEO and was fired as chairman two months later. Born in Montreal, Black relinquished his Canadian citizenship in 2001 to accept a life peerage in Britain's Upper House of Parliament, where he holds the title Lord Black of Crossharbour. He is married to journalist Barbara Amiel Black, and has three children from his first wife, Joanna Black MacDonald. The Coleman Federal Correctional Complex includes one low, one medium and two high-security facilities surrounded by wire fencing, its location demarcated by blue and white signage. The main gate through which Black entered sits perpendicular to the four-lane federal highway U.S. 301, along which reporters, photographers and television news crews began gathering before dawn today. Across the highway from the main gate sits a narrow strip of grass, dirt and gravel bounded by a barbed wire fence, blocking access to the woodlands beyond. Black's low-security lock-up is about a three-hour drive from his home in Palm Beach. As of Feb. 21, that unit had a population of 1,997, Washington-based U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman Mike Truman said in a telephone interview. Black will live behind a razor wire-topped double fence and will be forced to wear the prison's standard-issue khaki shirts and pants, as well as a pair of steel-toed shoes, Ratledge, the Coleman Complex spokesman, said. Inmates occupy double-bunked cubicles with small, sealed windows. Each inmate has a chair and shares a common desk, said Ratledge.
Visitation by family members and friends is limited to 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and only from Friday through Monday. ``We have non-contact visiting,'' Ratledge said. ``They get to hug when they enter and they get to hug before they leave.''
All prison inmates are required to work unless they are deemed medically unfit, said Truman. Duties include scrubbing toilets, waxing floors, washing pots and cooking and serving food, Truman said. Prisoners receive a starting wage of 12 cents per hour. Prison lights come on at 6 a.m. Breakfast is served a half hour later and inmates are required to be at work by 7:30 a.m. They receive three meals per day and are counted five times, said Truman. Every prisoner must be back in his cell by 9 p.m. and lights are turned off at 11 p.m. Prison amenities include separate law and leisure libraries, a jogging track and a basketball court. ``Coleman is an excellent facility,'' said Chicago attorney Jeffrey Steinback, who joined Black's defense team to assist with sentencing matters. Black may participate in a program that allows inmates to teach other inmates, the lawyer said. ``He's an outstanding guy for a purpose like that,'' said Steinback.
Black has written biographies of U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and Franklin Roosevelt, as well as Quebec Premier Maurice DuPlessis. Because Black renounced his Canadian citizenship and was then convicted of a felony, he may have difficulty returning to his native country when his sentence is finished. ``If he tried to come back to Canada, he could be deported to Britain,'' said Mariel Grant, a history professor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.
Grant, who holds a doctoral degree in modern British history from Oxford University in England, said Black wouldn't be the first member of the House of Lords to be jailed. Novelist Jeffrey Archer in 2001 was jailed for four years after being convicted of perjury. ``There's no legal precedent to strip somebody of their title except in cases of treason,'' she said. ``He can keep his title because he hasn't committed treason.''
Black's time in prison may be marked by an adjustment period during which he experiences depression at his circumstance and becomes accustomed to a world in which the former corporate chairman must take orders, not give them, said Robert Morgan, a professor of correctional mental health and forensic psychology at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. ``There is always an adjustment period once somebody is incarcerated, especially a person of his caliber that's never been in prison before,'' said Morgan, who does not know Black personally. ``If he remains productive and goal-oriented and future- focused,'' the adjustment period will be easier, Morgan said. ``Give this man a typewriter in his cell and 6 1/2 years can fly by relatively quickly.''
In his New York Sun column today, Black said, ``I believe in the confession and repentance of misconduct, as well as in the punishment of crimes,''
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