Inmate No. 06581138Z: What Awaits Harvey Weinstein Behind Bars
NEW YORK — A day after a judge ordered him jailed for his conviction on two felony sex counts, Harvey Weinstein was still being held in a prison ward at a hospital after complaining of chest pains.
Once he is released from that prison ward at Bellevue Hospital Center, Weinstein is not likely to be housed with the general population at Rikers Island. Instead, it’s expected that the Department of Correction will grant his lawyers’ request that he be sent to a special medical facility where inmates who need extra protection are jailed, at least until his sentencing next month.
Rikers Island would be only the first stop for Weinstein — now listed as inmate No. 06581138Z — in what is expected to be a long journey through the New York penal system.
It is also likely to be an arduous process that could last months until he finally arrives at a cramped state prison cell upstate.
On his travels through the criminal justice system, Weinstein will be advised by a prison consultant he hired two weeks ago, and once he reaches his final destination it will complete a precipitous fall for the award-winning producer, who once lived a life of luxury in Manhattan and ruled the red carpets at the Oscars and Cannes with films like “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love.”
If he is housed at a medical unit at Rikers after his stay at the hospital, Weinstein — who, friends have said, is terrified of being behind bars — could end up in a double-size, private cell, a former city jail official said, with his own television, shower and bathroom and possibly a phone, too.
“It’s like a little hotel, like your own little apartment,” the former official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect future employment. “You have everything you need. It’s very isolated. It’s a way to guarantee his safety.”
After his conviction Monday, Weinstein’s lawyer asked the trial judge to recommend he be sent to a medical facility, and the judge said he had no objection, saying the decision was up to jail officials. But he expected Weinstein to be held in “something close to protective custody.”
The city correction department on Tuesday declined to say where Weinstein would be housed or why he was still being held at Bellevue.
Describing one of the complex’s medical facilities, North Infirmary Command, Martin Horn, a former commissioner of the city’s Department of Correction, said it was not “luxurious” but was not “draconian” either. It contains about 10 cells on a block as opposed to the nearly 30 on a typical Rikers cell block. The facility was built in 1932 as a hospital for inmates and once housed people with acute conditions like tuberculosis.
A second medical unit, known as West Facility, has the features like private cells with showers.
Horn said it was not unusual that correction officials would house Weinstein in a secluded setting for his protection inside a jail complex known for violence. North Infirmary Command, for instance, houses inmates whose safety may be at risk if they are placed in the general population, according to two people with knowledge of the facility. Such inmates could include celebrities, rape victims or, in some cases, transgender people. There is also an area reserved specifically for police officers.
“We have an obligation to protect every prisoner irrespective of what they did and who they are,” Horn said.
On Tuesday afternoon, one of Weinstein’s lawyers, Arthur Aidala, went to visit him at Bellevue, telling reporters that the former film producer “looked like he was in good shape.”
“He is somewhat flabbergasted by the verdict,” Aidala said, adding that Weinstein wanted to continue to fight the charges.
Full article https://www.yahoo.com/news/inmate-no-06581138z-awaits-harvey-130801683.html