(Paskova/Getty Images)
First you hate ’em, then you get used to ’em. After long enough, you get so you depend on ’em. That’s “institutionalized.” — “Red” Redding
Former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen entered prison in May 2019 to begin his three-year sentence for tax evasion, false statements to a bank, and campaign finance violations. At the time he told reporters that “I hope that when I rejoin my family and friends that the country will be in a place without xenophobia, injustice and lies at the helm of our country.” So, that didn’t work out for him.
Instead, Cohen, like so many that society has locked away, has emerged prematurely into a world that passed him by while he’s been on the inside. Since he’s become an institutional man, the streets of his New York City home are now largely empty, those high-priced restaurants where Cohen used to make power deals have all seemingly shuttered, and people have embraced a baffling fashion trend of growing out their hair and donning surgical masks while out on the town. This just isn’t the world he remembers.
Cohen will serve out the rest of his sentence in his family’s apartment. We wish him luck transitioning to life on the outside.
Seriously though, prisons are facing widespread outbreaks of COVID-19 because of the system and a serious purging of the inmate rolls is warranted. Back in March, I criticized attorneys for talking about the threat of COVID in prisons, not because it wasn’t a serious threat, but because prison conditions are already abysmal and deserve serious reform on their own merits and shouldn’t need a hot-button issue to spark changes. At least the Bureau of Prisons seems to be getting the memo. And while the federal system is broken, it’s a dream compared to the states. Exactly how responsibly are all those private prisons taking this? And where are the re-entry services for people coming out? They seem to be largely unavailable too.
And while the BOP should be commended for letting people out under these conditions, just watch as they inevitably release all the white-collar criminals in better-equipped prisons before worrying about the random non-violent marijuana possession guy. If for no other reason than people like Cohen, and Paul Manafort before him, have the crafty lawyers still fighting for them to seek release. Having expert witnesses in the form of medical specialists able to argue that they face a “heightened risk” is just icing on the cake. It’s as if the usual flaws of the criminal justice system are playing out in reverse: affluent white people get lighter sentences on the front end… and now they get first dibs on getting out.
It’s easy to chuckle at Cohen’s brief stay in prison, but it highlights the more important problem of dealing with the sorry state of the incarceration system that puts people at risk.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.