NEW YORK — Bernard Madoff’s new Manhattan home is the size of a walk-in closet, with cinder-block walls, linoleum floors and a bunk bed.
Breakfast will be served before sunrise, and the disgraced financier can stretch his legs outside, but only every other day — in a cage.
The Metropolitan Correctional Center welcomed the 70-year-old Madoff on Thursday after he pleaded guilty and a judge revoked his bail. The federal jail in lower Manhattan holds inmates awaiting trial or serving short sentences.
Since his arrest in December, Madoff had been confined to his $7 million penthouse apartment.
When inmates first arrive at the jail, they are given physical and psychological exams and are instructed on the rules. They are issued a baggy brown uniform and assigned to cells measuring 7 1/2 by 8 feet, each fitted with a sink and toilet.
It wasn’t clear Thursday whether Madoff would have a cellmate, but many inmates do.
There is a strict schedule: Lights on at 6 a.m., breakfast at 6:30 a.m., lunch at 11 a.m., dinner at 5 p.m., lights out at 11 p.m. During the day, inmates can watch television, play pingpong, work on their cases in a legal library or volunteer for janitorial duty. On alternate days, they are allowed up on the caged roof, where from courthouse windows they can be seen playing basketball.
The facility allots three hours a week for visits by family or lawyers. Inmates also can spend up to 300 minutes per month making phone calls, which can be monitored.
Those who misbehave or present a risk of violence are thrown into a separate unit where they spend nearly all day locked in their cells and must endure strip searches and constant monitoring by cameras.
Current inmates include former Florida hedge-fund manager Arthur Nadel, who is accused of bilking investors out of up to $350 million.
