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CHICAGO - DISGRACED media baron Conrad Black has asked the US prison bureau to treat him like an American for sentencing purposes, court papers showed.
Black, who was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison last month for raiding the coffers of his once mighty newspaper empire and trying to cover up his crime, is ineligible for minimum-security prison because he hold British citizenship.
But his lawyers have asked prison officials to waive the 'Public Safety Factor' so that he could serve in a minimum-security facility near Miami.
Minimum security prisons, often called 'prison camps,' typically do not have fences and inmates are housed in dormitories.
'Mr. Black has extensive connections with this country ... and he otherwise presents no security risk whatever,' the lawyers' four-page letter read.
'The only real question, then, is whether Mr. Black's status as a deportable alien ... increases the risk that he would abscond.'
Black continues to retain substantial interest in the United States and is involved in extensive civil litigation here.
'Were Mr Black to flee from the facility where he was incarcerated, this would have devastating effects on this litigation and a dire impact on his financial future,' the letter argued.
Judge Amy St. Eve, who presided over the case, has recommended that Black serve his sentence in the Miami minimum-security prison.
This would make it easier for his wife to visit him regularly as the couple owns a home in Palm Beach, Florida, the four-page letter said.
He is set to report to prison on Mar 8.
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