Robert J. Mellow is now officially inmate No. 70626-067.
The former state Senate Democratic leader turned himself in at a federal correctional institution in Williamsburg, S.C., on Friday, a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman said.
Mr. Mellow, 70, pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and filing a false tax return. He will serve out his 16-month sentence at the federal prison's minimum security camp, BOP spokesman Chris Burke said Friday.
There he will join about 140 other male inmates.
The satellite camp is stationed outside Federal Correctional Institution-Williamsburg's medium security facility, which at last count held 1,674 male inmates, Mr. Burke said.
The camp is a typical facility within the massive federal prison system, with no special mission or services, Mr. Burke said. It is about an 80-mile drive from Myrtle Beach.
Mr. Mellow was court-ordered to surrender himself no later than 2 p.m. on Friday. He did so sometime Friday morning, Mr. Burke said.
On his first day, Mr. Mellow will turn over all of his clothing in exchange for official prison garb, Mr. Burke said.
Within the next few weeks, he will undergo a mental and physical health evaluation. If prison officials determine he is capable of working, he will be assigned to do one of the dozens of jobs inmates perform in the federal prison system.
"Everyone gets a job," Mr. Burke said.
That may be cutting grass, washing clothes and dishes, sweeping floors, preparing food, or perhaps another specialty job suited to Mr. Mellow's skill set, Mr. Burke said. His pay begins at 12 cents an hour and tops out at 40 cents an hour, according to the prison's admissions manual.
At any time, Mr. Mellow could be subjected to a "shakedown" - BOP staff searching him and his space.
Mr. Mellow began his ascent to the heights of state politics by knocking on doors when he was just a 27-year-old accountant in 1970, trying despite his age and inexperience to win a Senate seat to represent Northeast Pennsylvania.
The young Democrat rose above becoming a mere rank-and-file member: Senate Democratic leader for more than 20 years and Senate president for 15 months in the early 1990s.
His name adorns several buildings and landmarks in the area, a nod to the power he accumulated in Harrisburg and his ability to funnel millions of dollars of state money to the communities he represented. Under investigation by a federal grand jury, Mr. Mellow retired in 2010, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.
He was sentenced in federal court in Scranton on Nov. 30.
U.S. District Judge Joel H. Slomsky ordered Mr. Mellow to pay a $40,000 fine, a $100 special assessment and the $79,806.17 in state taxpayer money that federal prosecutors determined he spent to have Senate staffers do his political bidding.
In a plea agreement, federal prosecutors secured Mr. Mellow's admission to the crimes while avoiding a grand jury indictment and possible jury trial, which could have exposed a wider scope of the government's investigation of him through witness testimony and presentation of evidence.
He faced a maximum five-year prison sentence. Sentencing guidelines, however, called for him to be incarcerated from anywhere between 18 to 24 months.
Mr. Mellow's guilty plea also resulted in his being stripped of his $139,858 annual state pension. His attorneys, Sal Cognetti Jr. and Daniel T. Brier, had asked that Mr. Mellow be allowed to serve his sentence at the federal prison in Canaan Twp. in Wayne County, so he could be close to his daughter, Melissa, who suffers from extensive medical problems.
Efforts to reach Mr. Cognetti on Friday were unsuccessful.
Judge Slomsky issued an order recommending that Mr. Mellow serve his time at the federal prison near Waymart, but the BOP made the final determination to send him to South Carolina.
Contact the writer: smcconnell@ timesshamrock.com @smcconnellTT on Twitter