Although it is not publicly known where «Real Housewives of Salt Lake City» star Jen Shah will report to jail on Friday, her lawyers have pushed for her to serve her 6 1/2-year sentence for wire fraud in federal prison. to camp.
Experts say that if you have to serve time, the minimum security institutions are the best places to do it.
«A minimum security camp is obviously the gold standard for a defendant,» said Danny Cevallos, NBC News legal analyst.
While not that luxurious”Shah Ski Chalet» – he $7.4 million, 9,400 square feet, five bedrooms mansion where Shah lived in the first two seasons of «The Housewives»: Federal prison camps don’t have the cells, barbed wire, or strict regulations characteristic of higher-security prisons.
Instead, inmates live in dormitory-style housing, and there is little to no fencing around the facility. according to the Bureau of Prisons.
The camps house mostly nonviolent offenders who are serving short sentences or committed white-collar crimes, according to Cevallos and criminal defense attorney Alan Ellis.
Ellis said the camps are «more relaxed» than low-security prisons, which have double-fenced security perimeters and a higher staff-to-inmate ratio, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
Shah’s request
At Shah’s sentencing last month, where the judge handed her over for running a telemarketing scheme that defrauded seniors out of thousands of dollars, her attorney requested that she serve her sentence at FPC Bryan, a Texas women’s camp with more than 500 inmates, located about 100 miles northeast of Austin.
Shah’s lawyers did not respond to questions this week about where he will serve.
Court documents show that the judge recommended that she be housed in a facility. in the center-south region, which spans Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico and includes FPC Bryan and several minimum-security satellite camps, which are adjacent to higher-security camps. There are 65 satellite camps and seven separate federal prison camps across the country, according to a BOP spokesperson.
An inmate’s location isn’t available until after they’re in custody, and their assigned facility depends on several factors, including the level of security they require, their medical needs, proximity to their residence and where beds are available, said the office spokesperson.
‘Like having a gap year’
Life inside the camps is structured around work and programs, according to the BOP.
He manual for FPC Bryan says inmates earn between 12 cents and $1.15 an hour for their jobs, which include food service and factory work.
In satellite camps, inmates may hold jobs within higher-security institutions or in off-site programs.
When not working, inmates at FPC Bryan can take classes in subjects including business skills and foreign languages, play sports, watch TV, do crafts and attend religious services, the manual says. They can also have visits on weekends and holidays, as well as video calls.
One of Ellis’s former clients who served time in a federal prison camp even compared it to «having a gap year» that gave him time to catch up on his reading, the lawyer said.
Shah plans to use his free time to address an unspecified substance abuse problem, his lawyer said at his sentencing last month.
According to Inner City PressPriya Chaudhry told the judge that Shah wants to serve his sentence in a facility that offers a Residential Drug Abuse Program, also known as RDAP, that describes the BOP as its «most intensive» substance abuse treatment program. It lasts for nine months and takes up half of each day, while the other half is dedicated to work, school or vocational activities, according to the BOP.
RDAP participants live in a separate unit from the general population. And if they successfully complete the program, they can earn up to a year off their sentences, according to the FPC Bryan handbook.
If Shah wins admission to the program, Cevallos said, «it’s fantastic.»
“A year is a big deal, especially if you’re in the federal system where you really do your time,” Cevallos added.
The early release offered by the program has also made it ripe for abuse, said Cevallos and Ellis, noting the 2019 federal indictment of three Michigan residents charged with conspiracy and fraud for training inmates how to falsely claim a substance use disorder to gain admission to RDAP.
The defendants pleaded guilty to the charges. Samuel Copenhaver and Constance Moerland each received sentences of one year in prison and three years of supervised release, court records show. Tony Tuan Pham received a six-year prison sentence and three years of supervised release. according to the Department of Justice.
The FPC Bryan handbook notes that applicants are screened for documentation showing a history of substance abuse. If such testing is available, prospective participants meet with a drug abuse program coordinator to determine if they can meet the American Psychiatric Association’s criteria for a diagnosis of a substance use or dependence disorder.
When she pleaded guilty last July, Shah told the judge that she had been treated two years earlier «for alcohol and depression,» court documents show. Shah told the judge that she was not hospitalized for treatment.
Shah could also earn up to 54 days a year off his sentence for good behavior, according to BOP policy. For Shah, that could mean more than 320 days cut from his sentence.
If she earned that time for good behavior and completes the RDAP, Shah could be released sometime in 2027.
Camps are no stranger to celebrities.
If Shah ends up at FPC Bryan, he could be there with other high-profile inmates. The judge who sentenced Elizabeth Holmes in November for defrauding investors in her failed blood test company Theranos recommended that she serve her 11-year sentence at FPC Bryan, court documents show.
Todd and Julie Chrisley, who flaunted their opulent lifestyle and family drama on the long-running reality show «Chrisley Knows Best,» began serving their sentences for bank fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud United States in federal prison camps last month. .
Todd Chrisley was sentenced to 12 years in FPC Pensacola, a men’s prison in Floridawhile Julie Chrisley has been sentenced to the satellite camp in Lexington Federal Medical Center in Kentucky, a BOP spokesperson confirmed.
The couple’s daughter, Savannah Chrisley, 25, he said on his podcast that he can email and visit his parents, and that his father is working in the camp chapel and his mother plays cards and attends church.
Jerry Harris, a rising star of the Netflix documentary series «Cheer,» is serving his 12-year prison sentence on federal charges related to images of child sexual abuse at the FMC Lexington medical center, a BOP spokesperson said.
Following her 2014 fraud conviction, «Real Housewives of New Jersey» star Teresa Giudice served 11 months in FCI Danbury, a low-security prison with an adjacent minimum-security satellite camp. After releasing her, she told Andy Cohen of Bravo that she was in the camp part of the facility that lacked cells, bars, or fences.
Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin spent 11 days and two months, respectively, at FCI Dublin, a low-security prison with an adjacent satellite camp 91 miles southwest of Sacramento, for their roles in the so-called Varsity Blues college admissions program.
Martha Stewart served a five-month sentence for insider trading at FPC Alderson in West Virginia between late 2004 and early 2005, spending her time teaching yoga, taking pottery classes, scrubbing floors, and cleaning offices.