What will happen if Keith is indicted?

It has been reported that Keith Raniere is under federal investigation by the FBI.

Sources say charges may include human trafficking and other crimes arising out of his blackmail and branding scheme he named DOS. So what happens if a grand jury returns an indictment charging Keith Raniere?

If he remains out of the USA – for instance in Mexico – the feds could seal the indictment until they can arrest him. The feds could contact Raniere’s attorney, if he has one, to ascertain if Raniere is planning on cooperating. If so, he may be permitted to surrender himself to the FBI in NYC.

If Raniere decides to remain outside the jurisdiction of the US courts, the feds may move to extradite him. Raniere will likely lose on extradition but may be able to buy time or possibly find an opening to flee and hide somewhere.

But the most likely scenario is that at some point in time, he will be located, detained, and, after extradition is approved, brought back to the U.S., in  handcuffs and shackles by the U.S. Marshals, and arraigned. Although the prosecuting AUSA will likely oppose bail by claiming that Raniere is a “flight risk”, the presiding judge could still grant Raniere bail and make him [Clare Bronfman] provide bail or cash bond.

He might also be released with an ankle monitor so the feds can monitor his whereabouts.

If he does not get bail – and his years off the grid might move the judge toward that outcome –  he may be held in the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn  – or the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Manhattan for the 18 months or so it may take to get to trial.

MDC is a US federal administrative detention facility, operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. It currently has a population of approximately 1,800, the vast majority of whom are people awaiting trial and people awaiting sentencing.

MCC is a small er version of MDC – and currently has about 750 inmates.  Once again, the vast majority of those are  people awaiting trial and people awaiting sentencing.

Keith could end up bunking with almost anyone at either facility: a bank robber, a drug dealer, an MS-13 gang banger. There a lot of gangs in there as well as murderers, terrorists, kidnappers, child molesters ,and white collar guys.

Meals at the facility are heavy on carbs. He may be on an 1800 calorie per day diet that is extremely low in protein.

Once a week, he may get a hamburger; once a week, spaghetti with sauce [no meatballs]. The rest of week it will be rice, pasta or potatoes plus something – but always heavy on carbs and low on protein.

There is, of course, the commissary. With money from the outside, Keith can buy food there. The most common food item is packets of tuna and mackerel. “Macks” are also the currency that is used to trade for services in prison. For instance, two Macks will buy a haircut or get your laundry done for the week.

MDC and MCC have no rehabilitation or educational programs beyond a GED program. They are grim, smelly places. There is no outdoor space – meaning that most inmates never get any direct sunlight or fresh air – and have no access to a gym (The inmates who work in the warehouse get a couple of hours outside as the unload supply trucks. In sum, MDC and MCC are like  “maximum security” facilities.

Florescent lights remain on 24 hours per day. Inmates have to learn how to sleep with that condition because “eye-shades” are not permitted.

So, Keith may have to share bathrooms with excrement in the showers and rats roaming freely. One inmate wrote that laundry dryers vent directly into the sleeping, eating, and living space forcing inmates to breathe in a mass quantity of particulate matter. Mold is omnipresent on ducts, shower areas, ceilings, and walls.

Another description reads: “Cadres sleep, shower, use the bathroom and EAT all in a single overcrowded dorm-room, containing 110-cadre men who share six-toilets, six-sinks, six-showers, one-ice machine, five-telephones and three-email computers. Non-antibacterial cleaning supplies are used on all surfaces although the overcrowded conditions” make cleanliness impossible.

Some of the other conditions at MDC include the following:

– Four televisions are shared by 110-cadres; two-washing machines for 110-cadres, equating to 55 people per washer; 55 cadres per dryer (2-dryers total), and 55-cadres per microwave (2 microwaves total). Free supplies at other federal prisons are sold to MDC cadres;

– Overhead ceiling lights stay on 24-hours a day, at daylight levels;

– “Pre-trial”/”Pre-sentence” prisoners and cadre prisoners work side-by-side in food service, which is also one of the only locations with knives, other makeshift weapons, and no video/surveillance cameras;

– MDC meals are cooked 3-5 days in advance and never fresh. Food is cooked, cooled, frozen, packaged, transported, refrigerated, reheated and then served to all prisoners;

– The kitchen facility is overrun with rats and cockroaches – and cockroaches have been found in the food by the inmates. The chicken arrives in packaging with the following marking: “Not for human consumption”. That same chicken is served at every Thursday lunch and sometimes on Tuesday as well; and

– Although prone to various infectious illnesses because of the poor hygiene and poor food, cadre prisoners are forced to work in all areas of the MDC high-rise facility to include food services – even when they have been diagnosed with diseases such as chicken pox, ringworm, MRSA, and HIV (per policy).

Gorilla convict presents a story of what it might be like for Keith:

The first thing I noticed upon arriving at the detention center for the second time was that the staff was predominantly black and predominantly female. And all the female correctional officers were thick. I’m talking baby got back. They were like boom- all ass, you know. And it wasn’t just like one of them. It was all of them. From R and D to the block. I kept thinking of all the rap songs talking about a big butt and a smile. Well, it seemed like all the girls they rapped about in those songs worked at MDC Brooklyn. … . But all the dudes on the block were lusting after those chicks. … I don’t know where they found all those women at but they could have formed the cast of a Lil’ John video. And it wasn’t like they were pretty. They were just thick. It must be a Brooklyn thing. There was this one little gorilla mami chick who was just ugly as hell but she had all the dudes sweating her because her ass was phat as shit. Dudes would be standing around her like bodyguards and all that. Pressing her like she was their girl. These dudes were crazy. And the little gorilla mami chick loved it too. Big butt and a smile and all that.

… I tried to stay active by walking laps around the tiers for an hour a day. I did push-ups and sit-ups trying to tire myself out so I could sleep the days away. It was kind of like being in the hole except you weren’t locked in a cell 23 hours a day. You were locked on the block 24 hours a day instead. The unit was in constant flux … no mail, no routine to make the hours go by, awful food, and complete and utter boredom. …   And my only relief was a book to read, the chance to buy something from the commissary, which was only once every two weeks, or using the phone and burning up my 300 minutes.

I burned my BOP allotted 300 minutes of phone time in a week and then had to wait two more weeks to get more minutes. It was mainly out of boredom. I called everybody on my BOP approved phone list. I scoured the unit for interesting books to read and waited a week for the chance to go to commissary when I first got there. Starving the whole time with the bullshit food and ecstatic just to be able buy some junk food and to get a radio.

…At first, I was in radio heaven because being in New York there were a lot of Radio options …  but eventually I burned out on the repetition. Listening to the radio 10 hours a day will do that.

There were two English language TV’s and two Spanish ones but the block was full of corny-ass dudes who wanted to watch Gone in 60 Seconds or the Mask of Zorro on TNT five times a day. …  Watching Charmed and Law and Order and shit. Dudes all up in the block with hot breath, rank, sleeping all day. Rolling out of bed for chow and then starving all night…

During my stay, the toilet in my cell broke, got clogged up, and the C/0 didn’t even care. I told her about and she kept bullshitting me about the emergency plumber coming up. I had the plunger all up in my cell plunging the toilet after every use so it wouldn’t flood. After a week, the emergency plumber finally showed up and fixed the problem. The showers were some shit too. Bugs all up in the shower. Cold water most of the time and I mean ice cold. If you got a hot shower then it was a good day, you know….

…. 10 percent of the unit consisted of special inmates. These dudes worked as orderlies and food servers. Most of them hadn’t even been sentenced yet. A lot of them … had rackets going on with the food. They would steal the orange juice and other food that was meant for the dudes on the block and then try to sell it to dudes later. They would give out small portions so there was more for them. …

It is still unknown whether Keith Raniere will be indicted, and, if he is, whether he will surrender or not, or whether he will get bail. But few believe he left Clifton Park just to build up Mexico ESP.  If fate takes the road toward justice, Keith Raniere is spending his last few days in the sunlight in Monterrey, followed by years of incarceration in facilities where his victims will finally be safe from him and the Bronfman millions used to torture and haunt them.

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The following is a photo-shopped picture that represents the author’s internal representation of Keith Raniere’s idea when he says “He who has the most joy, wins.”

Frank Parlato