A Model Prisoner And Then Some

When people who are accustomed to receiving respect from the community for their recognized high-profile business dealings and social standing are sent to prison because they are found guilty of white collar crimes, they usually wait out their time with some measure of resentment at their predicament. It is a humiliating experience to be found guilty of a social crime against the laws that have been enacted for the benefit of an entire society.

Justice insists that it be seen to be done. That if an individual has created a situation that illuminates their activities as being counter to the criminal code they must, after standing trial and being judged, pay the price for their injudicious indiscretion. The criminal justice system also looks for signals from the sentenced malefactor that he/she feels personal regret and responsibility for their personal situation.

But not all sentenced white-collar-crime prisoners agree that they have indeed been guilty of insulting the law, despite having undergone the rigours and evidence related to a trial. There are those individuals who insist, loudly and publicly, that the law, in their particular case, is an absolute ass. That they conducted themselves with honour and that the manner in which they were prosecuted left a good deal to be desired.

Conrad Black has his passionate defenders and he has his many critics. And people on either side of that equation often feel admiration for his bearing. A man of great personal pride having to bear public shame and a surrender of his good name to the denigration of blame and motivation toward wrong-doing is a heavy burden to bear. And this man bore his burden with uncommon good grace.

He went much, much further. Finding himself firmly incarcerated he decided that it would not be to his credit to remove himself from social contact with others in similar situations. He determined that he would use his considerable knowledge and experience to assist others to further their knowledge base under his tutelage. He comported himself with good humour and a friendly, helpful attitude to his fellow inmates.

Tutoring four days a week in the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Florida, he became responsible for extending learning opportunities to others by sharing his own knowledge in English, writing, economics and history. In the process of making himself useful to others, he helped himself by the very action of being functionally involved in offering his expertise with various issues.

And he also maintained an active correspondence with people outside the penal system, who wrote to him in response to the many informed and authoritative articles he wrote for publication on a regular basis on topics that the public held a great interest in; historic figures, current politics, international affairs. He inspired respect in people for his perseverance and his continued involvement in the world outside prison.

He was, after a period of incarceration, enabled to be released pending a further review of his sentence in light of the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled an irregularity relating to two of the three fraud convictions he was sentenced for. Now Judge Amy St.Eve who presided over Lord Black's original 2007 trial is to consider whether to impose the remainder of his sentence yet unserved, or to grant him a full release.

Prosecutors for the U.S. government are urging Judge St.Eve to consider Conrad Black's resistance to declaring himself remorseful and taking full responsibility for the crimes he was charged with, and return him to prison. Claiming there is a need to "Impose a sentence that promotes respect for the law, provides just punishment for the offense and affords adequate deterrence to criminal conduct."

His former fellow inmates at the Coleman Correctional Complex have written to Judge St.Eve to urge her to consider a full release for Mr. Black. Citing the fact that he had taken it upon himself to be enormously useful to the prison inmates and by extension the prison authorities. His active participation in assisting inmates contributed to a huge increase in the high school graduation rate of the inmates.

And he has served considerable time as punishment for the crimes for which he was found guilty. To the prosecutorial team it is irrelevant that Lord Black was a model prisoner who greatly aided the educational fulfilment of his fellow inmates through his generosity of spirit. What matters to them is that Mr. Black adamantly continues to claim his innocence of wrong-doing.

Any level-headed individual who is not enamoured of bleak retribution should be satisfied with the 29 months' incarceration that has already been served. It is past time to declare Lord Black's sentence well served, and to permit him to take up his normal life once again. Anything less represents a travesty of justice.