Barely two months into his two-year gun-possession sentence, Plaxico Burress is already angling to get out of prison — and to shop for a lucrative NFL contract.
The disgraced former Giant superstar has applied for a work furlough that would let him spend anywhere from one to seven nights a week home with his wife, 3-year-old son and newborn daughter, state Department of Corrections officials confirm.
If his request is granted, Burress could also immediately start looking for a new team while on furlough time — sitting down for negotiations face to face rather than via prison phone calls or visits.
Burress is currently in protective custody at Oneida Correctional Facility in upstate Rome, where visitors to other inmates tell The Post that Burress appears depressed and isolated.
A decision on the furlough will likely come sometime in January, said state Corrections spokeswoman Linda Foglia.
“If Mr. Burress is eligible for work release under the Department of Corrections’ guidelines, then he should get it,” said the player’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman. “And my hope is that his celebrity status does not prevent him from getting a break that every other inmate with the same facts would be entitled to.”
In November 2008, Burress fired the shot heard ’round the NFL, accidentally blasting himself in the thigh at the Latin Quarter nightclub in Midtown while grasping at his unlicensed Glock as it slipped from his waistband and down his pants.
Burress was indicted on two counts of gun possession, under two theories of possession. The first count charged that he possessed a loaded gun with intent to use it unlawfully. The second count charged that he merely possessed the loaded gun and wasn’t in his home or business.
Fast forward to last August: Burress pleaded down to a lesser charge of attempted gun possession — but only under the second theory, that he merely possessed the gun and wasn’t home or at work.
That plea let Burress take advantage of a Corrections loophole — courtesy of Executive Order 9, signed by then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2007 — that lets gun-possession convicts apply for furloughs providing they didn’t possess the gun with intent to use.
Corrections rules are rife with such arcane loopholes.
“If you’re savvy and know how to work the rules, the minimum is not the minimum, in spite of what looks like an iron-clad sentence,” one senior law-enforcement official complained.
Burress’ furlough application is still a Hail Mary pass, at least statistically. According to Corrections stats, out of 31,598 inmate applications for work release last year, only 1,413 were approved.