Trump's former attorney goes to the US prison who offers a model balloon soup and a full-time rabbi

NEW YORK (Reuters) – With a menu that includes a matzo ball soup and gefilte fish, as well as a full-time rabbi and a chance to occasionally visit the house, the US jail where the ex-lawyer Donald Trump's chief will spend the next three years is unique in the federal system.

Michael Cohen is scheduled to show up Monday at the Federal Prison Institute in Otisville, New York, about 110 kilometers northwest of New York.

Cohen, 52, will be housed in a dormitory-like camp in the institution's minimal security camp. Prison consultants believe that this destination has become a destination for Jewish detainees because of its proximity to the Jewish Orthodox Jewish enclaves and North American New York. .

"It goes in what I like to call" the Jewish paradise, "said Larry Levine, founder of Wall Street Prison Consultants, who served a 10-year sentence of imprisonment that was completed in 2007 for racketeering and other crimes.

Cohen, who once said he'd "take a bullet" for Trump, was sentenced in December for orchestrating payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. of time before the 2016 US presidential election. Cohen said Trump was leading the payments.

Trump, who denied the facts, said that he had never ordered Cohen to do anything illegal.

Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for unaffiliated payments and financial crimes.

At Cohen's sentencing hearing, his attorney at the time, Guy Petrillo, requested that Cohen be sent to Otisville, but did not justify his request. Petrillo could not be reached for commenting on the choice of prison.

Jack Donson, a former prison director who now runs a prison consultancy, said the camp was "a great place for white-collar Jews."

Unlike most federal prisons, which periodically recruit part-time "contract rabbis," Otisville has a full-time rabbi, Levine said.

In an email, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said that only four of the more than one hundred prisons run by the agency had full-time rabbis.

Another thing that distinguishes Otisville is the food.

"The availability for kosher food is much greater," said Michael Frantz, another former inmate, who founded Jail Time Consulting.

The Commissioner's menu on the Otisville website promotes matzo ball soup, gefilte fish and rugelach, pastry, Dorilla chips and Diet Sprite. Kosher items are marked everywhere with the letter K.

The camp is not fenced and detainee movement throughout the day is not as tightly controlled as in safer settlements.

Prisoners are assigned jobs, which Levine describes as "busy work", such as cleaning or emptying garbage.

But, in practice, the hours of work in Otisville are short, sometimes one to two hours a day, said Justin Paperny, a former inmate whose consulting firm White Collar Advice has clients in the camp.

For much of the day, Cohen "may very well do what he wants," Frantz said.

The camp offers weights and other training equipment, a basketball court, a tennis court and a baseball field, as well as a petanque ball, according to its manual.

Paperny also stated that Otisville was granting leave – temporary releases for inmates, usually one or two days, which may be granted for family or other reasons – "in my experience, more than in other institutions".

Cohen is married to Laura Shusterman, 49 years old. They have two grown children, Samantha and Jake.

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Cohen's celebrity could make his experience different from that of a typical inmate.

"There will certainly be prisoners who will be seduced by his status, being the former personal advocate of the President of the United States," said Paperny.

However, said Paperny, it is unlikely that Cohen is being retaliated by Trump fans dissatisfied with his decision to cooperate with the president, because the inmates of the minimum security prisons are serving relatively short sentences. and want to keep them that way.

"You will find that because the prisoners have such clearly defined release dates, they do not want to do anything to keep them in prison any longer," he said.

Despite its reputation as one of the most comfortable prisons in the country, the consultants pointed out that Otisville was still in prison.

The guards, said Frantz, "are intimidating you a lot. They talk to you a lot. It's not a pleasant atmosphere.

"The staff of the (Bureau of Prisons) is trained and must behave in a professional manner, especially with respect to the humane and courteous treatment of the men and women in our custody," said the Office of Prisons in a statement.

Levine likened the prison experience to the movie "Groundhog Day," in which Bill Murray's character lives the same day again and again.

"It's really a boring existence," he said.