Andy Fastow, Release Dates, and RDAP

I thought it would be useful to discuss RDAP and release dates.

RELEASE DATES

Andy Fastow’s release date is 12/17/2011. This date has good behavior already factored in. The way BoP works it, (it doesn’t always work out this way, but usually) is they enter people into RDAP (Residential Drug Abuse Program) based on their release date such that they finish RDAP just in time to go to the halfway house. RDAP participants are required to do 6 months at a halfway house (part of that can be home confinement; up to 10% of your incarceration can be spent at home. In Andy’s case, probably 4-5 months). So, assuming Andy gets the maximum 1 year off for RDAP participation, that will make his release date 12/17/2010. Subtract 6 months from that and he could be going to the halfway house as early as 6/17/2010. This is the absolute best he could do. RDAP takes 9 months – you have to do the full 9 months – therefore for Andy to hit the 6/17/09 date he would have needed to start his RDAP class by 9/17/09. So notice he was nearly finished with the program; he had only three months to go when the DOJ finessed his exit.

BoP does not make mistakes or adjustments that EVER let someone out early (they make plenty of mistakes that delay release dates).

Also, there is sometimes a waiting list for a halfway house. This doesn’t reduce the time an RDAP person spends there. For instance, Andy may have had to wait past 6/17/10 for a bed and would still have to spend 6 months in the halfway house.

RDAP

Residential Drug Abuse Program is intended to be an intense drug treatment program. All RDAP participants live in the same housing unit. You go to class 3 hours/day, 5 days/week for 9 months. It is called the 500 hour program because you have to complete 500 hours of classwork to complete the program. It is not really “intense”. Like most BOP employees, the instructors are either lazy losers or psycho nut jobs. Laziness guarantees you’ll have little to do.

Plus, the BOP gets around $4,000 for each inmate that finishes RDAP, so it is almost impossible not to get through. The only people who don’t make it through are the ones that test positive for drugs. At BOP it is all about the money.

Andy Fastow’s Fate

When you consider the dual issues at play (DOJ wants to look good, BOP wants to make money), you see why there would be some inside baseball. I’ve never pretended to be a fan of Andy Fastow, but I don’t like him (or anyone else) being used by the DOJ to score political points. The DOJ bringing pressure on the BOP to withdraw Fastow is a chilling sign of things to come as they attempt to salvage what was clearly an overreach in the Enron prosecutions.

It will be interesting to see if Andy gets his time off for good behavior. I’ll keep an eye out for that.

I will also watch for Andy to start retracting some of his statements now that the DOJ has screwed him over.

Andy Fastow Yanked From RDAP

The DOJ has pulled Andy Fastow out of the RDAP program because they did not want him to get a year off his sentence. The Bureau of Prisons hates DOJ (even though it is part of DoJ) and it is surprisingly difficult for DOJ to get BOP to do something like this. Because of the political horse trading involved, I speculate that the publicity over the Skilling appeal could be causing the DOJ to be tougher because Enron is back in the public eye. Thus they do not want to appear weak by allowing Andy out after what amounts to about four years and change.

The DOJ was Andy’s best friend during the Skilling trial. They needed him to help hang Skilling. They cajoled, coaxed, pet, wheeled and pleaded with him for info and shaped his story in order to get Lay and Skilling. He committed perjury to appease the DOJ. The DOJ did some of the same stuff with almost every other prosecution witness, but with Andy it was so over the top, it was just ludicrous. (A “Global Galactic” list? Are you serious?)

But now Andy has outlived his usefulness. Promises can be revoked. The DOJ is not honorable even with the people it ruins to destroy other people’s lives.