Island jail fit for a prince: Posh prison digs offer cable TV, sunset view:
EDGARTOWN, MA – Lawyers for the Saudi prince who pleaded guilty yesterday to a misdemeanor charge – homicide by motor vehicle while operating under the influence of intoxicating liquor – were recently granted a guided tour of the ritzy Colonial house that serves as the Martha’s Vineyard jail so they could determine if it was fit for royalty.
Dukes Sheriff Michael A. McCormack said a defense attorney for Bader Al-Saud contacted him, saying the prince’s confinement – which began yesterday – was a “special case.”
His lawyers asked for, and received, a tour of the Dukes County Jail and House of Correction. The jail is a handsome clapboard house built in 1873 and ringed by a white picket fence.
The wind carries a sweet sea breeze to the prison yard, which boasts a full weight set that Al-Saud, 23, can use to bulk up his frame.
Inmates can take in the brilliant sunsets from their windows – which are framed with wooden shutters and decorated with understated iron bars. Cons wear their own clothes and can order their food from an in-house chef, said former inmate Alan Thistle, 53.
Cells are outfitted with 13-inch, remote-controlled cable TVs that inmates can hook up Nintendo game systems to, Thistle said.
“I got better treatment in there than I do at some hotels. I’m telling you, it was picturesque,” said Thistle, who served an 18-month sentence on drug charges.
No word on whether they have a bar and let the inmates drive.
John S. Alley, chairman of the county commissioners, said he was “flabbergasted” a defendant who confessed to mowing down a man in a drunken stupor would be housed in a jail built for nonviolent offenders.
Actually, this is more like "Kennedy Plan B." Plan A is to come up with a preposterous story and then buy your way out of trouble.
