#College admissions scandal CEO whines upstate prison is ‘torture,’ wants release

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Douglas Hodge, the former CEO of the investment firm Pimco.
REUTERS/Katherine Taylor

An ex-financial firm CEO who was sent to an upstate New York prison for his role in the college admissions scandal is asking to be set free — because life behind bars is “torture.”

Ex-Pimco honcho Douglas Hodge —  who paid more than $850,000 in bribes to get his kids into elite universities — is demanding to be allowed to serve the remainder of his 9-month sentence at home, the Boston Herald reported.

In his bid for “compassionate release,” Hodge, 62, argues that being locked up amid the pandemic is “torture under United Nations guidelines,” according to according to court documents cited by the paper.

Hodge checked into federal prison in Otisville on June 23 — and claims he was forced to suffer through 29 days of solitary quarantine, according to the report. He claims his sentence should either be reduced, or that he should be allowed to do time at his personal pad.

“The government essentially argues that Mr. Hodge deserves this harsh sentence and the consequences for his family because he is unrepentant. The government is wrong; Mr. Hodge has taken complete and sole responsibility for his conduct. The government’s arguments to the contrary are misconceived,” his lawyers say in the appeals documents.

But federal prosecutors say prisoners at the medium-security lockup where Hodge is incarcerated — which up until recently housed President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen — are treated humanely. They say conditions are sanitary, and that prisoners area  permitted to shower three times a week.

“They are also permitted to get fresh clothing, fill water jugs, and get ice” and have access to books, TV, papers, mail and the commissary, the feds responded. “Hodge’s hyperbolic claim that his initial quarantine period was 29 days of ‘sensory isolation’ amounting to torture under United Nation standards is false.”

The solitary quarantine was taken to “minimize risk” of COVID-19, and wasn’t punishment, they added. “Hodge has sought to evade the consequences of his crimes at every turn.”

The request for compassionate release comes as the coronavirus crisis has forced US prisons to clamp down on outbreaks, and as other well-heeled parents involved in the college admissions have been allowed to delay trials until February.

Later this month, a federal judge in Boston will also rule on whether to accept a plea deal from disgraced actress Lori Loughlin and her husband Husband Mossimo Giannulli.