Former Congressman Anthony Weiner's 21 month sentence for sexting a teen poses an interesting dilemma for the Federal Bureau of Prisons as to where to house him when he reports to Federal Prison on November 6, 2017.

Before starting Wall Street Prison Consultants, I myself served a ten year sentence at 11 different Federal Correctional Facilities after being convicted of charges related to Securities Fraud, Narcotics Trafficking, Racketeering, Obstruction of Justice and Machine Guns, and have a working knowledge on how inmates with Weiner's type of crime are treated and where they are sent.

While most non-violent Federal Inmates who received such light sentences go to so called minimum security "Club Fed" Federal Prison Camps, Weiner's crime carries a higher custody penalty as it could be classified as a sex crime and cause him to have what the BOP calls a "Public Safety Factor" to be placed on him, and be given a "Management Variable as Threat to The community causing him to be designated "behind the wire" as they say, to a low security (FCI) Federal Correctional Institution.

The differences between a minimum security camp and low security FCI for an inmate can be drastic.

• Camps have no perimeter fences or armed security.
• FCI's have two secure barbed wire fences with roving security patrols armed with Machine Guns.
• Camp housing unit doors are never locked.
• FCI inmates are locked in their housing units at night.
• Camps generally house non-violent white-collar offenders.
• FCI's can house bank robbers, drug dealers and those convicted of sex crimes
• Camps house inmate serving up to 10 years or less.
• FCI's house inmates serving 10 to 20 years.
• Camps have relatively few correctional workers.
• FCI's have a high ratio of staff to inmates.
• Camps have few incidents of inmate on inmate violence.
• FCI's are known to have stabbings, inmate on inmate violence and occasional riots.

While the prison staff attempts to protect inmates from abuse and physical violence, they can't be everywhere at once opening the door to possible abuse. And if someone was to assault Weiner while he was in custody and he told on them, he would pick up another stigma of being labeled a rat which could cause him additional grief while in custody.

Another issue going against Weiner is his crime itself. The federal system is loaded with people convicted of sex crimes, but unless they are high profile like former Congressman Dennis Hastert or former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle, no one knows who they are. People with sex crimes along with informants are at the bottom of the food chain in prison and are constantly subject to ridicule and possible violence by the inmate population.  His crime itself is enough for him to carry a "Chomo" stigma "Child Molester" by the other inmates who will constantly remind him of it.

On the inside, no one wants to eat, socialize or hang with the Chomos, causing the Chomo's to hang with each other meaning that Weiner's new best friends may all be sex offenders. And they'll get to know him well, because all of his new best friends will be going to sex offender therapy along with him.

Reach Larry Levine at: llevine@wallstreetprisonconsultants.com or 213-219-9033