Bernie Madoff Might Want to Read This

Want to know what Bernie Madoff faces in jail?

Jennifer Wilkov will tell you. Accused of being involved in a small real-estate scam, she spent four months in New York City's notoriously violent Rikers Island prison, even though she tells Marie Claire magazine this month that she's innocent.

Wilkov, a Brooklyn-based financial planner who had referred investors to a real-estate deal in California that turned out to be a fraud -- which she reported to authorities herself -- survived prison life by doing her homework beforehand. She hired self-defense experts and enlisted friends to shout obscenities and insults in her face, so she could practice reacting in a calm, controlled fashion. Then she cut off her hair so no one could yank it. The preparations paid off. When inevitable confrontations arose in jail -- such as a woman who wanted to rape her in the communal showers -- she knew what to do.

Not that it was easy. "I feel like I'm in a foreign country where I don't know the language or the rules, and no one wants to help," Wilkov tells Marie Claire, describing her first night at Rikers, surrounded by drug dealers and prostitutes. "Anything I say can be misinterpreted. I'm afraid to ask even the simplest questions."

Who knows where Madoff will end up cooling his heels. He's a busy man, and might not have time to read and absorb Wilkov's advice before he goes to the big house. But the rest of us can.

Comments

[BeeKayBee]

Awesome. Good luck in jail, Mr. Madoff.