An American Lion

North Carolina? Ouch.

Officially, Mr. Madoff is just another inmate in a federal prison that houses men convicted of crimes including embezzlement, bank robbery, espionage and drug dealing. Nancy Fineman, who represented investors in a suit against his wife, Ruth Madoff, interviewed him this summer. She says he mentioned chatting with fellow inmates such as reputed Colombo crime-family boss Carmine Persico and Jonathan Pollard, an American imprisoned after admitting to spying for Israel more than two decades ago. Other high-profile inmates at Butner include former Rite Aid Corp. vice chairman Franklin C. Brown, who was convicted of crimes tied to accounting irregularities at the drugstore chain.

Prison spokeswoman Denise Simmons declined to comment on Mr. Madoff’s life behind bars other than to say that all inmates are treated fairly. Several people in Butner (pop. 6,169) who run businesses frequented by correctional officers say guards have been told they’ll lose their jobs if they talk to the media about Mr. Madoff. Mr. Sorkin declined a request to interview Mr. Madoff.

Butner Federal Correctional Complex has typical features of prison life, according to the Bureau of Prisons. Inmates rise at 6 a.m. and report for mandatory work duty by 7:30 a.m. They are paid between 12 cents and $1.15 an hour, depending on the job, which could include groundskeeper, plumber or kitchen crew. Lights are turned off at 11 p.m. There are gangs and a thriving black market for smuggled luxuries, a current inmate says, such as liquor, shrimp, chicken and cigarettes, which can fetch $10 apiece. Inmates can manufacture military clothing, take Spanish classes and learn heating and air-conditioning repair. Internet access is strictly forbidden, so inmates rely on the word-of-mouth prison rumor mill called “inmate.com.”

The informal code of prisoner conduct is strict: Mind your own business. Don’t try to find out anyone’s inmate number because it could be used to determine a prisoner’s criminal record, which is considered private. Don’t walk uninvited into another inmate’s “cube,” or cell. Don’t wake anyone who is sleeping. Don’t change the TV channel when someone else is watching.

Oh, that’s a load of bull. Madoff still has money stashed away somewhere, and he probably has his own Internet hookup, a Macintosh laptop, and free access to anything he wants. He’s probably drinking Margaritas and watching the Officelike everyone else tonight. Even if all Madoff has is a few hundred thousand dollars, he can trade on that for the rest of his natural life there in prison and live high on the hog.

There’s always jail bait in jail, if you catch my meaning. The jail bait gambit is, you trick one of those young guys into running into the wall, over and over again, because it works in the cartoons, you see. This is true—I have seen it with my own eyes—many young people who end up in prison actually believe cartoons are real and will re-enact cartoon incidents or escape plots, thinking they will actually work. And, no, there’s little or no sex in prison, to speak of. The saltpeter takes care of that.

That’s where we have Jonathan Pollard? My goodness. Pollard should be hanging upside-down by his ankles in the Supermax. What is this world coming to?