You might think a politician who’s been indicted on federal corruption charges and convicted of fraud would want to keep a low profile, but you would not be thinking like former Rep. Corrine Brown.
Brown, who used to represent Florida’s 5th Congressional District, was sentenced last month to five years in federal prison after being found guilty of taking nearly a million dollars allotted for low-income students and spending the money on herself. As the Orlando Sentinel reports, Brown took approximately $800,000 and spent it on “Bahama vacations and a Beyoncé concert and to pad her own bank accounts.”
True to scammer form, Brown showed up Monday to the Coleman federal correctional complex in a “limousine-style minibus”—the kind of vehicle associated with frat excursions, bachelorette parties and prom-bound suburban teens getting wasted off Smirnoff Ice.
The Sentinel spoke to Larry Levine, director of Wall Street Prison Consultants, an actual organization that “helps incoming prisoners adjust to their new confinement,” about Brown’s new digs:
Levine, who did not work with Brown, said he is certain inmates will be wary of their new politically connected prisoner.
“I was locked up with politicians—they have entitlement issues; they think they’re entitled to things, and people resent that,” he said. “They’re going to think she’s rich—she can claim she doesn’t have any money.”
Brown will wake at 6 a.m. on weekdays to wait in line for the bathroom and then for breakfast. Afterward, she will tidy her room and the small locker “that is her existence,” where she keeps all her possessions, said Levine.
Brown likely will do clerical or janitorial work during her days at the prison camp, where she will be held with 391 other female inmates, he said.
“When they get high-profile inmates like her, they like to treat them like [expletive],” said Levine, who did time at 11 prisons over 10 years for racketeering and narcotics traffic, among other charges. “Seriously, she’s got a rough road ahead of her.”
Not so rough that she won’t be able to lead an organization dedicated to inmate consultancy once she gets out, apparently.
Previously, Brown had served 24 years in Congress. The disgraced Democratic politician worked to secure local spending during her time in office and, following the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin, met with Justice Department officials to investigate his death, which she called a hate crime.
She is currently appealing her conviction.