Madoff hires consultant to shop for best prison

Bernie Madoff is not going gentle into that good night of prison life. Instead, he has hired a top prison consultant to help him find the best possible joint in which to spend the rest of his life.

Herb Hoelter, CEO of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA), has provided the same service to other high-profile felons, including Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken and Sotheby's Alfred Taubman.

Madoff will certainly not be eligible for one of the country-club prisons, given the despicable nature of his crimes, but his team will want to be prepared with arguments why he should not be thrown into a hellhole with the worst of violent offenders, such as the Administrative Maximum facility in Florence, Colorado. I suspect that many of his victims, on the other hand, would be delighted to see him locked up with murderers, rapists, terrorists and Jew-hating white supremacists.