Media baron Conrad Black is spending his last weekend of freedom throwing dinner parties at his elegant waterfront mansion in Palm Beach, Fla., just a short drive to the sprawling Coleman Federal Prison near DisneyWorld in Orlando.
Black, his glamorous wife Barbara Amiel and a stream of guests sipped fine wines and champagne, snacked on expensive gourmet fare and basked in the deposed mogul’s last taste of elegance before he starts a 6½ year sentence behind bars tomorrow.
In July, the 63-year-old Black was convicted in a federal court of looting $6 million from his media company, the former Hollinger International, and trying to cover up the crime by sneaking boxes of documents out of his Toronto office.
Brian Stewart, a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation journalist and friend, told The Times of London that Black is surprisingly upbeat, despite his future as prisoner No. 18330-424.
“I went down worried how it might be, but I found him in good spirits,” Stewart said. “A lot of the time we spent talking politics or joking about old times as if he had not a care in the world.
“He does have this remarkable ability to compartmentalize. We did talk about the possibility of prison. He think he can handle it. He thinks he has come through a lot of stress and adversity in his life.”
As for Barbara Amiel, who is writing a book about the experience, Stewart added, “She has bought a dog, which is a big thing in her life. They were both getting on fabulously well. She has probably been prepared for a bad ending longer than he has. She tends to be more pessimistic.”
Instead of Black’s favorites of roast veal and exotic purées at four-star restaurants, he’ll share prison cafeteria meals of fried chicken and macaroni served with warm soda pop.
His finely tailored suits will be replaced by prison jumpsuits or jogging gear, and he’ll have to find engaging conversation from about 1,950 motley inmates instead of his beloved inner-circle literati.
He won’t have much privacy in his dorm- room styled lockup, in which he’ll share space with one other inmate.
With lights out at 10 p.m., he won’t be able to use much free time to write more books – at least not on a laptop or via the Internet.
Black will spend full work weeks performing menial jobs – anything from cutting grass at the military-style, low-security prison, to scrubbing toilets.
His pay starts as rookie inmate at 12 cents an hour, and he can move up the four- level pay scale to the top rate of 40 cents an hour, but only after years of climbing up the prison job ladder.
Black, accustomed to spending $5 million in a single shopping trip, will be limited to a maximum of $290 a month, spent through a debit card in the prison commissary.