No matter what, Bernie Madoff, of the Ponzi scheme Madoffs, will not complete his 150 year sentence. To the extent there was any question of how long his sentence would actually be, the answer seems to be around the corner.
Bernie Madoff said he is in the end stages of kidney disease, must use a wheelchair and is in need of round-the-clock help. At 81, he is too old for a transplant, and he has been moved to palliative care within the Federal Medical Center prison in Butner, N.C. He is asking for compassionate release so he can die at home.
He’s served about 11 years. His eldest son, Mark, committed suicide. His youngest, Andrew, died of cancer. Bernie lived large on a fraud of massive proportions, ruining more lives than one can count. But since his downfall, he’s suffered as well, both by his sentence and his legacy.
“I’m terminally ill,” Madoff said. “There’s no cure for my type of disease. So, you know, I’ve served. I’ve served 11 years already, and, quite frankly, I’ve suffered through it.”
Quite frankly, Bernie, it’s not as if you had a choice in the matter, or it was undeserved. Considering the suffering Madoff caused, this likely isn’t the strongest argument in his favor. But still, he’s terminal. He is dying.
According to the BOP, he has 18 months to live, and so he’s sought compassionate release. He will die, but he wants to die outside the prison walls.
Relatively few inmates seeking compassionate release have had their petitions approved by the Federal Bureau of Prisons since the federal program was created in 1984. But a bipartisan criminal justice reform law passed in late 2018 gave prisoners the right to appeal denials to a federal judge, and that is what Madoff is attempting. His attorney filed a motion late Wednesday in the Southern District of New York.
When this hit the news, the reaction on the twitters was, well, as one might expect. Let him rot in prison.
Others continue to suffer. Gregg Felsen’s savings were wiped out. Now 72, Felsen works as a wedding and event photographer in Palm Springs, Calif., to make a living. He said that he will never be able to retire and that Madoff doesn’t deserve to be granted a compassionate release.
“I never got a break; why should he get a break? He’s terminally ill? I’m terminally broke,” said Felsen, who said he did not receive restitution. “He ruined a lot of people’s lives and changed them forever. He deserves no leniency whatsoever.”
It’s understandable that his victim would grant him no “leniency,” if death is how one defines leniency. Felsen is right that Madoff “deserves” no leniency, but that’s not really the question. The question is whether we possess enough compassion in light of his impending death to let him die at home. He won’t commit another crime. He won’t be out partying, eating at fine restaurants, driving around in fancy cars. He will die.
The same compassion that gives rise to tears of sadness and outrage for some doesn’t seem to apply to others. What distinguishes Madoff isn’t so much the pain he caused others, but the nature of his crime and the nature of his identity. He’s not of the class of people who have been deemed oppressed or marginalized. He’s a white, cis-het male. He’s Jewish. He’s privileged, if you believe in such things. And there is no critical theory narrative that can rationalize his crimes. From the social justice perspective, he’s just evil without any excuses.
But even Bernie Madoff is a human being. We’re tested by our capacity to hold firm to our principles when applied to the worst among us, and to many on the left, Madoff is the worst. If you cry for compassion, but only when it’s applied to those you favor because they fit within your ideological paradigm, then you aren’t really compassionate.
No, Bernie Madoff doesn’t “deserve” to die at home. He’s done nothing to earn it, and his complaint that he’s suffered reflects an astounding lack of recognition of the suffering he’s caused others. And yet, he should be released to die at home. Not for his sake, but for ours.
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CMS defines a patient terminal when the “Normal progression of a disease would lead to death within six months or less”. That’s not what Bernie is claiming. This is another scam perpetuated by a habitual scam artist. Please loose the keys and walk away.
course o a
Federal law defines a patient terminal if they have 18 months or less to live.
If you want to talk definitions, use the one that applies.
You are correct. Let’s talk about regulatory compliance around terminal diagnosis. Bernie’s legal team has at least two physicians willing to state that he has a present federally defined terminal condition of 18 months. CMS has recovered millions for violating cms defined terminal condition of 6 months from Hospices. I would argue Bernie’s medical frailty is unique and unpredictable and worthy of clinical pursuit but does not compel judicial review.
You’ve confused a law blog with a medical blog. Let’s not talk about whatever shit pops into your head instead.
He lost his freedom by his actions. I don’t think that part of the equation has anything to do with weather I have compassion or not. I have compassion for all that suffer, no matter if you did bad things or not, but in this case, the location has been decided. I think he should have all the proper drugs and treatment and physical comfort provided to anyone in his condition, and even more lenient visiting for any one he wants with him. Where this happens has been decided. It’s out of my compassion’s jurisdiction.
So there should be no such thing as compassionate release?
Such a nebulous word…i hear the call of the rabbit hole.
So, could you not also tag it on a different word…lets say “compassionate retention”?
…directing the compassion toward the victims? Or would the sentence “Life with no compassionate release” just be a nice euphemism for “Life plus cancer”?
It brings us to the question of the definition of compassion. Personally, I have a hard time conjuring much for those who intend, and carry out harmful acts on others. Am I a horrible person because i don’t have enough to give it freely to one and all?…that i see context mattering when it comes to compassion? Maybe I’ve given too much to the naive, the foolish, and the innocent….IDK….and I’m not sure if i want to.
That it’s called “compassionate release” wasn’t my choice, but that’s what it’s called. Nonetheless, compassion isn’t a reason, but an emotion. Emotions have no rational foundation. It’s not provable like Maple Walnut is the best ice cream flavor.
Yes…not a reason. But compassion can appear because of reason.
I think my ruminating is more along the line of, ” is it a commodity?”. I can’t speak for others, but for me there’s two kinds of compassion. I’ll call them conscious and unconscious compassion.
The unconscious is the ‘immediate’ emotion..the instant gut reaction to anothers bad situation, very similar and connected to empathy. The one that can be used against you. The one that allows the sociopath to hook you with a sob story.
The conscious kind is something that comes from using the intellect and the heart after the gut reaction. The compassion that appears after thinking and understanding….and has the flavor of being a commodity you give to those who in your opinion deserve it. Don’t tell me you’ve never been hooked by a sob story only to find upon reflection it was all BS, causing you to withdraw any and all compassion and sympathy.
Maybe it makes me some kind of moral relativist, but the man made a choice, the sentence is what it is, and weather he’s healthy up to the day he drops in prison, or dies suffering his fate, ( like so many of us will that didn’t consciously fuck thousands of people over!) i just can’t come up with anything that resembles compassion. No soup for you, Bernie.
For me, human emotion is complicated and nuanced. Or maybe I’m just confused and crazy. Probably both.
I never answered your question. What BlackBellamy said below.
I was thinking of his case specifically not the concept.
Discussions like this remind me that humans are primates and our first and instinctive impulse is to punish in response to transgression. Compassion is a higher order skill. No wonder it’s so difficult to find.
The irony here is that many of those lacking compassion for all believe with every fiber of their being that they’ve reached self-actualization.
If the court grants his motion, I don’t really see any social benefit. Prison is his home now. Maybe they can paint some murals in his cell so it looks like his old study or TV room. It really shouldn’t matter. He has everything he needs.
It’s unclear who he would go home to, or where his home would be. Still, that isn’t really the question.
His old home is gone. The wife has moved off to CT, where she is said to be scraping by on a mere $2.5 million. Per the motion, he proposes to live with a friend.
He’s been in for 11 years. The old neighborhood won’t be what he remembers. He won’t be a popular character, either. He’s better off where he is. He truly can’t go home again.
I disagree. Mr. Madoff would be better off receiving care through Medicaid in the free world than through any prison medical system, including the federal system. I have, regrettably, a great deal of experience with various prison systems’ providing of care to clients with terminal conditions, from which dying is hard enough wherever one is and which every prison system seems intent on making worse. (One of my former clients was dying of a metasticized, painful cancer and had the choice of palliative care, but no contact with his family, or staying in the prison without palliative care, but the abilty to see his family as he died. The cancer debilitated him completely and he was no threat to anyone. He chose to forego palliative care in order to see his family as he died. No nation that reveres human rights shoudl require a prisoner to make that choice.)
As Scott says, this isn’t about them, it’s about us. We deserve to be judged harshly for how we treat these prisoners.
From a practical sense it would be cheaper for the taxpayers to let him go then to continue to pay for his care.
Wonderful, but I am unconvinced by the anecdotal experiences of your former client. If Mr. Madoff has a complaint as to the quality of his care, that is an 8th Amendment issue, not a “compassionate release” issue, and counsel has filed the wrong paperwork.
Compassionate release was meant for old black guys who got mixed up with stuff but they’ve been all right for a long time now except for the disease. I know Joe shot his woman down, but that was 40 years ago, and besides I can sympathize as he caught her messin’ ’round with another man.
Of course there should be compassionate release. Just not for Madoff, specifically.
Zechariah 7:9
“Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.”
Luke 12:48
“But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”
Let’s look at precedent, how many geriatric Mafia capos have been granted compassionate release and died out of prison?
As long as any similarly situated prisoner, (terminally ill, non-violent) regardless of wealth or skin color, gets the exact same treatment, I say cut him loose.
In some circles, it’s considered particularly empathetic to consider each prisoner on their own unique merits. In other circles, it just demographic outcomes. Which is more woke depends on which outcome receives the high priestess’ blessing.
Sitting in the pokey,
Where his kidneys likely ache,
He’d like the court to let him out,
Just for compassion’s sake,
Well, I don’t doubt he’s feeling,
Somewhat short on vim and verve,
But he’s gonna get a major break,
On the time he was to serve,
And I’m sure it wouldn’t interest,
Anybody,
Outside of a small circle of friends. . .
When I first read about Madoff’s request to “go home,” I wondered, home? Where on earth is “home” for a man like Madoff, whose sons are dead and whose wife wants nothing to do with him.
I thought of the line from the Robert Frost poem, The Death of the Hired Man: “Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in.”
There’s no one left who has to take in Bernie, but if he has a friend who is willing to take him in, then I’m OK with releasing him. Though I can understand why many of his victims probably feel different.
Madolff did not receive the death penalty.
He has effetely served a life sentence.
The law provides for an objective measure of death phase of life.
He and others situated similarly should be released to finish their “end-of-life trajectory” in a manner they choose.
Perhaps Hammurabi understood us better over 3.5 millennia ago than we understand ourselves today.
“If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.”
“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”
It says a great deal about our society that most typically read this as justification for retribution. There is another very different way to read this, however. Humans require no justification for revenge. Kindness, forgiveness, integrity in the face of injustice all take effort, but not revenge.
Perhaps instead of a justifying retribution, it was an attempt to limit it. The natural human response to losing an eye is to murder the person who took it. The instinctual public reaction to Bernie Madoff seems to be to ramp up his suffering without limit and call it not enough regardless. I’ve heard more than one person tell me over the past 10 years that life in prison was to good for him. Unlike myself, this statement usually comes from those who have never been incarcerated and view prison as club med with orange jump suits. I think Dostoevsky defined the wages of the punisher well:
“Tyranny is a habit; it is able to, and does develop finally into a disease. I submit that habit may coarsen and stupefy the very best of men to the level of brutes. Blood and power make a man drunk: callous coarseness and depravity develop in him; the most abnormal phenomena become accessible, and in the end pleasurable to the mind and the senses. The human being and the citizen perish forever in the tyrant, and a return to human dignity, to repentance, to regeneration becomes practically impossible for him.”
For those who believe Bernie Madoff, or anyone else is beyond compassion, is the cost worth it to you?