CONFESSIONS OF A
MONEY LAUNDERER by Kenneth Rijock
Financial Crime Consultant, for World-Check
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 42
3 November 2007

When the time came, my name was called, and I walked through the prison administration building into Receiving & Discharge, the input/output facility of the institution. There, my belongings were examined, and those few items that I could not bring into the prison were boxed up and sent home. I had worked from a list sent to me weeks before, and the only thing I wanted in that they wouldn't let me have were some OD (olive drab) t-shirts, a personal link to my military past, when only soldiers going to combat zone were issued OD. My civilian clothes off, I donned a navy blue air force-type work utility uniform;I was, after all, totally inside a USAF facility. No name tag, though, no stripes to denote rank, no patches or other identification. It was a totally anonymous identity, and, carrying my issued bedding and other items, like a new recruit in any military, I went into the next room to be interviewed by one of the staff.

A corrections counselor is not there to provide any form of  meaningful assistance, nor to bring you from your criminal past into the straight and narrow. True corrections, where a person is reformed from his prior anti-social behaviour, and proceeds to adopt a law-abiding attitude, is not the aim of the US Bureau of Prisons. In truth and in fact, it is actually:

  • Punishment: incarcerating the offender as a punitive act, both to publicly punish him, and to (hopefully) deter others from following along the same criminal path, through fear that the same treatment will be visited upon them. The politically correct term for punishment is justice.

  • Incapacitation: To take the offender out of the geographic area where he or she has been committing criminal acts, thus preventing them from continuing to plague the community. This can be very important, where the offender has a prominent role, for example, as a money launderer servicing drug kingpins in a major urban area. If you are  absent, you cannot aid and abet the criminal activities of others, since career money launderers often work in conjunction with, or complement other criminal industries.

  • Incentive to provide Substantial Assistance to law enforcement: Since parole was effectively abolished in 1987, offenders must serve 85% of their sentences, (which are often long) and then be supervised for three to five years after release. All this is a major incentive to seek to reduce their sentences through assisting law enforcement in a way which results in a reduction of their sentence by the court. By making the period of incarceration as bleak as possible, especially through consistent reminders that the inmate is in custody, they drive him towards cooperation as a means of reducing the time of incarceration.

The corrections counselor went through a number of questions with me, all of which quickly confirmed to me my original estimate that most of my fellow inmates at this minimum security prison were either in there for minor white-collar offences, or were convicted of drug crimes, and had drawn short sentences by testifying against their associates in court, or given damaging evidence against some other unlucky individuals, causing them to be arrested. The questioning seemed to focus upon whether I had done so (I had not), and whether I feared for my safety. (I did not).

At the conclusion of the interview, I was escorted onto the grounds of the prison, which looked like most institutional housing, barracks-style, that I knew well from my military service. The difference that day was, whilst I was being taken to my housing area, a fight broke out amongst two inmates. My escort didn't miss a step, he let some of the correctional officers handcuff those responsible, and they led them away to the lockup.

The housing unit was much better than those I remembered from the army, and especially in my primitive quarters in Vietnam. I was to be on the top of a two-man bunk bed, and my blanket was a reassuring olive drab. As one might expect, there was no privacy whatsoever, just an open room for sixty or so inmates.

Since this was a minimum security institution, there were no bars, no locks, and no barbed-wire fence  , just a line painted around the outer limits of the prison camp. To cross that line  was forbidden, and to do so would generally constitute escape, a nice little Federal crime that is worth five years' of your freedom.

I was admonished not to stray too far from my bunk, as there would shortly be a head-count. In a minimum-security facility without fences, since they cannot guarantee you will be there, they count the population several times a day. That's how they know whether anyone has run off, meaning escaped.

How I felt at that moment is hard to describe; perhaps the word lost comes close. I knew, barring any unforeseen circumstance, I would be safe there, but coming from a professional world, being a lawyer, and now having sunk to the very bottom level of existence, the impact, even shock, of the moment was powerful.

However, having been in tough places before, everything being relative, it could have been much worse; I could be serving 25 years to life, had I chosen to defend myself in court. The storm clouds of the first Gulf War were gathering, and at least I wasn't in the Middle East, wearing a green uniform, that day.

Then, the inmate work-day ended, and my new roommates came in. It was no surprise to me that I recognised some of them, and other I knew personally from the Miami narcotics trafficking scene. And some were clients. And so it began.

Next Week: The prison routine; boring, frustrating and aimless.       

The facts and opinions stated in this article are those of the author and not those of World-Check. World-Check does not warrant the accuracy of any facts and opinions stated in this article, does not endorse them, and accepts no responsibility for them.

Read more in this exciting series

Confessions is on holiday, but read earlier chapters here
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 69
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 68
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 67
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 66
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 65
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 64
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 63
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 62
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 61
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 60
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 59
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 58
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 57
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 56
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 55
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 54
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 53
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 52
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 51
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 50
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 49
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 48
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 47
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 46
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 45
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 44
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 43
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 42
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 41
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 40
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 39
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 38
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 37
Confessions of a Money launderer - Part 36
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 35
Confessions of a Money launderer - Part 34
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 33
Confessions of a Money launderer - Part 32
Confessions of a Money launderer - Part 31
Confessions of a Money launderer - Part 30
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 29
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 28
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 27
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 26
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 25
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 24
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 23
Confessions of a Money Launderer - part 22
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 21
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 20
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 19
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 18
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 17
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 16
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 15
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 14
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 13
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 12
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 11
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 10
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 9
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 8
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 7
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 6
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 5
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 4
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 3
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 2
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 1
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