Not so hard time

By Tim McGlone |

The Virginian-Pilot

They live in military-style barracks with 12 men to a room and no lock on the door. A shared bathroom is down the hall. Guards aren't called guards, but managers, counselors or officers.

At the Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution in New Jersey, inmates have a little more freedom than at more secure facilities. But it is still a prison. Life is strictly regimented, and penalties for misbehavior are severe.

It is home to former Bank of the Commonwealth president and CEO Edward J. Wood-ard Jr. and former Executive Vice President Stephen Fields.

Fort Dix FCI, a low-security prison about 20 miles northeast of Philadelphia, is the nation's largest federal prison, with 4,729 inmates, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

Congress made life for federal inmates a little more arduous in 1996 following revelations that some facilities offered cable television with HBO and R-rated movies. (There was a myth that one prison had a golf course for inmates, but one did offer miniature golf until the law was passed.)

Still, inmates at Fort Dix have access to amenities such as an indoor gym with a weight room and stationary bikes, a music room with guitar and piano instruction, handball and racquetball courts, horseshoes, bocce ball and volleyball. Hobby activities include leather craft, pastel drawing and acrylic or oil painting, according to the prison's inmate handbook.

The handbook also contains the following.

Allowed: Ball caps, but they can be only white or gray, must not have logos and must be worn with the bill front and center.

Not allowed: Sunbathing.

Allowed: Photos, but no more than 25.

Not allowed: Black clothing.

Allowed: Kissing visitors.

Not allowed: Conjugal visits.

And the handbook provides a nine-step system to prevent sexual assaults.

No. 1 says: "Carry yourself in a confident manner at all times. Do not permit your emotions (fear/anxiety) to be obvious to others."

Inmates must work, barring any physical limitations. Work details include carpentry, electrical, refrigeration, air conditioning, landscaping and plumbing. Inmate pay ranges from 12 cents to 40 cents an hour, with bonus opportunities up to half a month's pay.

Inmates are free to roam the facility when they are not working or eating. They can shop in the prison commissary for items that include Spam, Oreos, Fruit Loops, Swiss Rolls, three kinds of coffee, four kinds of tea and sundries such as over-the-counter medications, vitamins, watches, bath robes and four types of sneakers.

Misbehavior can result in solitary confinement with no personal possessions other than a blanket, pillow, mattress, toilet tissue, a shaver and religious and legal materials.

Michael Santos spent 26 years in the federal correctional system before being released in August. He spent about a decade at Fort Dix, earning bachelor's and master's degrees, and he now lectures on prison life at San Francisco State University.

He wrote extensively about life in the system. He noted in a 2000 essay that there are generally two types of inmates: those who accept their positions and use whatever the facility has to offer to their advantage, and those who remain "angry because they feel their lives passing by them, their families growing apart from them."

While Fort Dix does offer extensive amenities, his descriptions of life inside the prison are generally bleak.

"The bathrooms constantly reek of urine and waste, and the stench frequently permeates the entire floor. Every bathroom window was sealed with concrete blocks, so that no fresh air can come in," he wrote in the essay.

"Some guards who count during the middle of the night take a sadistic pleasure in waking prisoners from a sound sleep," he continued. Strip searches, including cavity examinations, are common.

Fort Dix, at the low-security level, is one notch above the lightest-security federal prisons, and it is typical of facilities where white-collar convicts are sent. It's also home to Phil Hamilton, a former state delegate from Newport News who was sentenced to 9 1/2 years in 2011 after a jury convicted him of trading legislative favors for a job at Old Dominion University.

Woodard, 70, is serving a 23-year prison term. With time for good behavior already calculated into his term, he is scheduled for release in 20 years, according to Chris Burke, a spokesman for the prison system. Fields, who just turned 50, is serving a 17-year term.

Woodard and Fields were convicted at trial this spring of conspiring to defraud Bank of the Commonwealth through a series of illegal banking practices that led to its collapse. They are blamed with other defendants for causing more than $334 million in losses to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. They are appealing.

When they were sentenced this fall, each asked U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson in Norfolk to recommend to the bureau that they be housed in a facility as close to home as possible.

Burke said such requests are taken on a case-by-case basis, and they depend in part on the level of security needed to house the inmate and the availability of a cell. The bureau typically tries to house an inmate within 500 miles of his or her home, he said.

Dwight Etheridge, another defendant in the case, was convicted of falsifying construction invoices and spending millions on personal expenses instead of building materials and labor. He is at the Hazelton, W.Va., penitentiary's minimum-security satellite camp, about 350 miles from Norfolk.

Etheridge, 49, of Chesapeake, is scheduled for release in May 2017. According to court filings, he is trying to get moved closer to Norfolk.

Citing his wife's deteriorating health, Etheridge has requested that he be sent to the prison in Butner, N.C.

His lawyer wrote in a petition to Jackson that his wife has suffered two strokes and has other medical problems that make it difficult for her to travel long distances.

"It is important that defendant be as close to his family as possible," Melinda Glaubke of Virginia Beach wrote.

The judge has not made a ruling, but he can only recommend to the Bureau of Prisons that an inmate be transferred.

Burke said inmates typically must serve 18 months without a disciplinary issue, but cases of family medical problems can be taken into consideration before the 18 months are up. An inmate's behavior is still a key factor.

"He needs to demonstrate positive judgment," Burke said, speaking generally.

Woodard's son, T. Brandon Wood-ard, 37, who was convicted in a mortgage fraud scheme while serving as a bank executive, is housed at the medium-security prison in Petersburg, outside Richmond. He is scheduled for release in 2020.

A key witness in the case, Eric Menden, a bank customer who admitted defrauding the bank out of $40 million in construction loans, is also at Petersburg.

Menden was sentenced to 11 1/2 years in prison, but in exchange for his cooperation, his term was cut to about four years. He is scheduled for release in April 2016, according to bureau records.

His business partner, George Hranowskyj, who also cooperated, received a similar cut in time. He was originally sentenced to 14 years in prison, but his term was cut to about five years. He is due for release in December 2017, according to the records. Hranowskyj is at the low-security prison in Loretto in western Pennsylvania.

Tommy Arney, another bank customer who admitted defrauding the bank and turned government witness, is serving two years and three months at the minimum-security prison in Morgantown, W.Va.

Pilot writer Bill Sizemore contributed to this report.

Tim McGlone, 757-446-2343, [email protected]

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Stephen Fields Former bank executive vice president

Serving a 17-year term at the low-security prison at Fort Dix, N.J.

Dwight Etheridge Developer

Set for release in 2017 from minimum-security camp in Hazelton, W.Va.

Edward J. Woodard Jr. Former bank president and CEO

Scheduled for release in 20 years from the low-security prison at Fort Dix, N.J.

T. Brandon Woodard Former bank executive

Set for release in 2020 from medium-security prison in Petersburg.

Eric Menden Developer

Sentence cut for cooperation at trial. Set for release in 2016 from Petersburg.

George Hranowskyj Developer

Sentence cut for cooperation. Set for release in 2017 from low- security prison in Loretto, Pa.