That’s the sound of the men working on the gold-chain gang.
White-collar criminals and crooked pols are banging down the door to get into Otisville federal prison. The reason? It’s a walled Shangri-la.
“You could do about anything you wanted there,” said former inmate John Altman. “It’s not just good. It’s sweet. That’s why you request to go there.”
Disgraced former state Sen. Carl Kruger will serve out his seven-year corruption sentence in the suburban Orange County lockup. His boyfriend, Michael Turano, has requested to stay there too.
And why wouldn’t they want to go?
The prison’s store doubles as a delicatessen, serving up such favorites as rib steak, gefilte fish, kugel, salmon, chorizo and smoked oysters.
It’s only a 90-minute drive for visitors from the city, and it has boccie courts, horseshoe pits and enough room to play soccer.
Altman, who has spent time in six prisons since his 1989 conviction for running an interstate prostitution ring, says convicts could stay up until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights watching HBO, Showtime and Cinemax.
The low-security camp that’s connected with Otisville’s 1,200-inmate medium-security complex is exclusive too, housing only about 125 felons, two to a cell.
Memorial Day and the Fourth of July are celebrated with cookouts serving hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon and potato salad.
“The food is right. The commissary is right. The officers don’t bother you. There are a lot of courses you can take. You had weights inside and outside, free weights and machines,” Altman said.
“Food, activities, TV and movies, and visitations are the four things you judge a facility by,” he said. “Things were good.”
Even Forbes magazine ranked Otisville one of America’s “10 Cushiest Prisons,” calling it the only one of 115 federal joints where “Bernie [Madoff] wanted to spend the rest of his life.”
Madoff was sent to Butner federal prison in North Carolina instead. But some high-profile cons who have luxuriated at Otisville include “Crazy Eddie” Antar, the electronics mogul convicted for stock fraud; Harlem heroin kingpin Leroy “Nicky” Barnes; Sam Waksal, the insider trader tied to Martha Stewart; and George Jung, the drug trafficker from the movie “Blow.”