May 17, 2010
From Police Chief to Prison: Kerik Starts Sentence
By SAM DOLNICK
In the coming days, Bernard B. Kerik will begin work as a groundskeeper, or maybe a housing orderly, at a starting salary of 12 cents an hour. His blog, where he defended his blemished record and discussed finding strength in Rocky movies, will go dark. His exercise regimen, which helped shape his fireplug physique, will be limited to the hours between dinner and bedtime.
Mr. Kerik, 54, the former police commissioner of New York, surrendered at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Md., at 1:45 p.m. on Monday, said Felicia Ponce, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons.
Now registered as Inmate 84888-054, Mr. Kerik will serve his four-year prison term in the facility’s minimum-security wing, which houses more than 450 other inmates, Ms. Ponce said. He pleaded guilty last year to eight felony charges, including tax fraud and lying to White House officials.
Mr. Kerik’s days will most likely look much like those of most federal inmates, she said. He will rise around 6 a.m. and eat breakfast at 6:30. After a medical and psychological evaluation, he will begin work at a job prison officials will assign him — salaries start at 12 cents an hour and rise to 40 cents. The money will be deposited in his commissary account to be spent on snacks, stamps or hygiene items.
Lunch will be served around 11 a.m. The work day ends at 3:30 p.m. He will have free time from 5 to 9 p.m., when he will have access to the library, leisure rooms and computer rooms. He will sleep in “a cubicle” with bunk beds, sharing the room with three to five other men, Ms. Ponce said. He will be allowed to e-mail family and friends, but his correspondence will be monitored, and he will not be allowed to update his blog or his Twitter account, Ms. Ponce said.
Mr. Kerik posted his final message on Sunday, in which he defended his public service record, quoted from “Rocky Balboa” (the 2006 installment in the series) and criticized Judge Stephen C. Robinson of United States District Court, calling his prison sentence “a gross injustice.”
“Words cannot express my disappointment in the prosecutors and the judge’s behavior, and his sentence that followed,” he wrote.
Judge Robinson had no qualms making clear his displeasure with Mr. Kerik during the long pretrial process last year. He went beyond the federal sentencing guidelines by 15 months when he issued the 48-month sentence in February.
Mr. Kerik was a close ally of former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, whom he served as a bodyguard and driver. Mr. Giuliani then tapped him for a senior position in the Correction Department, and he went on to become the agency’s commissioner. (At one point, Mr. Kerik had a jail named after him in downtown Manhattan. The name has since been changed.)
He later became the police commissioner, serving a little more than two years, and he led the department during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. That caught the attention of President George W. Bush, who nominated him to lead the Department of Homeland Security. The bid quickly collapsed in scandal, marking the beginning of the end of Mr. Kerik’s career.
The case against Mr. Kerik centered on charges that a New Jersey construction company, the Interstate Industrial Corporation, had paid for renovations at his home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. Prosecutors said company officials had hoped Mr. Kerik would help them obtain a city license.
The company was barred from doing city work in 2004 because city investigators concluded it had ties to organized crime, an accusation its owners have vehemently and repeatedly denied.
Last November, Mr. Kerik pleaded guilty to two counts of tax fraud, one count of making a false statement on a loan application and five counts of making false statements to the federal government while being vetted for senior posts.
Mr. Kerik’s lawyer, Michael F. Bachner, said he spoke with Mr. Kerik on Monday morning before he surrendered.
“He’s ready to do this and ready to start the process,” Mr. Bachner said. “He’s looking forward to the beginning of the trip so he’s closer to the end of the trip.”
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