Until sentencing, Milan at federal detention center

By RICHARD PEARSALL
Courier-Post Staff
PHILADELPHIA

Former Camden Mayor Milton Milan will spend Christmas across the Delaware River in this city, a block from Independence Mall and just four miles from his home in East Camden.

But it will be in a world apart: the Federal Detention Center at 7th and Arch streets, the eight-story concrete building where Milan was taken Thursday shortly after being convicted on 14 counts of criminal activity ranging from accepting kickbacks to laundering drug profits.

Milan, who was convicted in U.S. District Court in Camden, is being held in a two-man cell, approximately 9 feet-by-12 feet, containing only bunk beds, a sink and a toilet.

He is one of approximately 1,000 inmates in the facility, which opened just nine months ago.

Most of the inmates here are awaiting trial. These ``pre- trial'' inmates wear pickle green jumpsuits. But `` holdovers'' - those like Milan, who are awaiting sentencing or assignment to a more permanent facility - wear khaki slacks and shirts.

Like all inmates, Milan underwent a series of interviews and examinations upon entering the jail, including a physical exam, an evaluation of his mental condition and what a jail spokesman called a "social" interview to assess his background and help determine where he will be transferred after sentencing.

Florentino Morlote, an an executive assistant at the detention center, declined to provide any specific information on Milan but said that inmates rise at 5:30 a. m. and have a continental breakfast, which generally includes fruit, some kind of roll, juice and coffee, served in their cells.

Lunch is at 11 a.m., dinner at 5 p.m., both served in a common cafeteria, and inmates are locked in their cells for the night at 10 p.m.

During the day they are free to move about their floors ( there are approximately 240 inmates per floor) and to use the common room, the reference library and the outdoor recreation deck, where they can play basketball or handball.

Morlote said there will be services for Christians on Christmas Day, as there are for inmates of different religions on their holy days, but no special observances or events other than that.

A spokeswoman for the regional office of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, also located in Philadelphia, said inmates at the Center City detention center stand charged or have been convicted of an array of federal offenses, ranging from white collar crime to major drug dealing and bank robbery.