The Ultimate Personal Rejection...

Federally-subsidized affordable housing...

Thirty or so miles north of Raleigh is the small community of Butner, N.C. which is the home of a large, modern federal prison complex.  The prison is the source of many valuable jobs for the area and is also the home of many of the formerly rich, formerly prominent, and formerly innocent. 

"The rent is much, much
cheaper than NYC!"

Bernie Madoff is a resident, as was Jim Bakker, the ex-televangelist, Jon Hinckley, attempted assassin of President Regan, and Larry Flynt, former publisher of Penthouse magazine. It's a pretty - formerly - fast crowd!

Federal prison, of course, is a serious business. Nothing much funny about losing one's freedom due to a substantial personal failing - judicially confronted and publicly admonished.

But it's difficult not to smirk a bit at Jesse Jackson, Jr.'s unusual introduction to the most rigid and inflexible of governmental bureaucracies - the federal prison system....

U.S. Congressmen serve
two year terms.

Mr. Jackson, as you know, was an Illinois Congressman convicted of embezzlement and lying in connection with "political fast cash" and influence peddling - until recently considered not a crime, but "business as usual" in Illinois political circles.  Mr. Jackson was sentenced to a two year term at the Butner facility.  Here's the news account of Mr. Jackson's arrival in N.C. ...

" Jackson sought to enter the Butner Correctional Center on Monday but was turned away.  His attorney had to return hours later to pick up Jackson when prison officials called her and said an administrative obstacle would delay processing him.  Jackson spent the night at a local motel, then reported - this time successfully - to prison on Tuesday."(N&O - 10/31/13)

So, here are the fundamental questions:

1. I've booked the place for the next two years and you can't put me up for one extra night?
2. Should I be disappointed and angry that you wouldn't let me stay in prison last night?
3. What does the phrase "successfully reported to prison" mean?
4. What was the "administrative obstacle" which caused the delay?  Were you attempting to sign on to verify my health insurance coverage on-line?
5. Will you count my unexpected stay at the local motel in Butner as "time served" (if you know what I mean)?
6. Is it true that if I were a Wall St. banker, I would have been immune from prosecution and not required to admit guilt?

Wall St. "b-oink-ers", as yet,
unsuccessfully reported to prison.