So the reason white-collar criminals get sent to cushy “camp Fed” minimum security prisons - yeah some of it’s that they have strings to pull and favors to call in (and better lawyers, hoo boy). And some of it’s that they can be trusted not to spend 20 hours sharpening a toothbrush handle to stab the guy who looked at them wrong.

But a lot of it isn’t the system corruptly looking out for their interests but protecting its own. The kind of guys who end up in, uh, “Thug Jail” may be violent but they often lack the discipline or cooperation to accomplish anything large-scale or long-term. Their only weapon is brutality and that can be countered by prison guards armed with brutality AND teamwork. (And guns.)

Though, you take those guys and add an executive type who’s used to exercising leadership in a world of big dick/egos, or a lawyer type who actually knows how to format and file a motion, or what the appealable flaws are in a prosecutor’s case, or where the *actual* power in the prison grievance system resides…

It’s like how judges will dismiss tickets and charges for cops and lawyers, or prioritize their cases so they can finish and leave - if the legal system tries to fuck with them, they know how to fuck right back.

And yes, holding them to the same expectations as everyone else DOES count as fucking with them - that’s what the legal system is, a mechanism for fucking with people that’s been mythologized as legitimate.