Madoff's New Home: Cell The Size Of Walk-in Closet

By TOM HAYS

NEW YORK (AP) — Bernard Madoff's new Manhattan home is the size of a walk-in closet, with cinderblock walls, linoleum floors and a bunk bed.

Breakfast will be served before sunrise, and the disgraced financier can stretch his legs outside, but only every other day — in a cage.

The Metropolitan Correctional Center, which has housed accused terrorists and reputed mobsters, welcomed the 70-year-old Madoff on Thursday after he pleaded guilty in one of Wall Street's biggest investment swindles and a judge revoked his bail.

The federal jail in lower Manhattan stands between a courthouse and a church and holds inmates awaiting trial or serving short sentences. Currently, about 750 men and women are behind bars there.

Since his arrest in December, Madoff has been confined to his $7 million penthouse apartment.

When inmates first arrive at the jail, they are given physical and psychological exams and instructed on the rules. If cleared to enter the general population, they are issued a baggy brown uniform and assigned to cells measuring 7½-by-8 feet (2.2-by-2.4 meters), each fitted with a sink and toilet.