"We believe that Mr. Cianci's designation to FCI Fort Dix . . . will
help him maintain family ties and assist with his daughter's recovery."
KATHLEEN HAWK SAWYER
Federal Bureau of Prisons
Former Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. has been reassigned to a
federal prison in Fort Dix, N.J., so he can be closer to his daughter,
Nicole, who is in a one-year residential treatment program for drug
abusers.
U.S. Rep. James R. Langevin received a letter yesterday from federal
Bureau of Prisons Director Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, who said that Cianci --
originally assigned to a federal prison in eastern Ohio -- has been
reassigned to the Federal Correctional Institution at Fort Dix, N.J.
Unless a federal appeals court in Boston stays his sentence pending the
outcome of his appeal, Cianci, 61, is scheduled to report to prison Dec.
6 to begin serving a five-year, four-month term for running a
racketeering enterprise from his office in Providence City Hall.
He was convicted in June of one count of RICO conspiracy and has been
free on bail since then, working as a radio talk-show host and living in
the Presidential Suite at the Biltmore hotel.
Sawyer, the federal Bureau of Prisons chief, said in her letter to
Langevin that the change in prison assignments for Providence's
longest-serving mayor was made because of the mayor's family problems.
"We believe that Mr. Cianci's designation to FCI Fort Dix, which is much
closer to Rhode Island than FCI Elkton, Ohio, will help him maintain
family ties and assist with his daughter's recovery."
The Lisbon, Ohio, prison is about 575 miles west of Providence and
houses a total of 2,443 inmates, almost 400 more than capacity; nearly
70 percent are drug offenders.
The prison at Fort Dix is 209 miles from Providence. The nearest major
city to Fort Dix is Philadelphia, which is about 40 miles away.
While the Fort Dix facility is on an Army base, it is similar in inmate
makeup to the Ohio facility where Cianci was originally assigned.
It is classified as low-level security but its two compounds are
surrounded by two lines of fencing and razor wire. Each compound has six
housing units. There are 4,458 inmates at Fort Dix, and like Elkton 70
percent of them are serving time for drug offenses. There are also
several inmates serving time at Fort Dix for weapons, explosives and
arson (7.9 percent); immigration offenses (5.8 percent); and bribery and
extortion (4.2 percent).
According to T.K. Cozza-Rhodes, acting executive assistant to the warden
at Fort Dix, most inmates at the New Jersey facility are assigned to
12-man rooms. There are some two-man rooms, she said, but those are
assigned based on seniority at Fort Dix.
Cozza-Rhodes said that the median sentence being served at her prison is
87 months; 51.2 percent of the inmates are white and 46.8 percent black,
she said.
She said all inmates at Fort Dix are expected to work -- in jobs ranging
from orderly to barbershop worker to landscaping crew member.
No inmate is allowed to wear a hairpiece, she said, so Cianci will have
to surrender his upon entering the facility.
Cianci did not return a phone call yesterday from The Providence
Journal. In a faxed news release sent to the local media later in the
afternoon, he said he was pleased that he would be serving his time
closer to home and thanked Langevin and U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy for
writing letters to the Bureau of Prisons on his behalf.
"I am pleased that the Bureau of Prisons has honored the request to have
my sentence transferred from Elkton, Ohio, to a facility closer to my
family in Rhode Island," Cianci said in the news release. "My daughter
and I appreciate the efforts made on our behalf by Congressman Patrick
Kennedy, Congressman James Langevin, family members, friends and
colleagues who supported the request for redesignation. My daughter and
I would like to extend our deepest gratitude to all of those involved
for their compassionate understanding of our request and assistance in
its outcome," Cianci wrote.
Kennedy said yesterday: "This wasn't for the mayor. This was for Nicole
Cianci and her two children. Mayor Cianci will be serving his time, but
at least it won't have as adverse an impact on his children or his
grandchildren."
Langevin press spokesman Michael K. Guilfoyle said Langevin hopes
Cianci's reassignment to New Jersey "will help promote the recovery of
his daughter, Nicole, and the well-being of his grandchildren."
Nicole B. Cianci, 28, is currently enrolled in a drug treatment center
in Exeter. Providence police found her disoriented and wandering on
Branch Avenue a few days after Cianci was sentenced in September. Her
two children, ages 5 and 8, are living with Cianci's former wife, Sheila
Bentley.
In recent days, several community leaders as well as Rhode Island's two
congressmen have written to federal prison authorities on behalf of
Cianci and his daughter. The former mayor and his daughter had written
to the congressmen earlier this month seeking their assistance in a
prison reassignment for Cianci.
Radio talk-show host Arlene Violet, a former nun and state attorney
general, has accused Cianci in recent days of exploiting his daughter's
drug addiction to get a more advantageous prison assignment. Her
comments have sparked a war of words between Violet and Cianci, who has
been cohosting a radio talk show on a rival station.
Violet is a friend of Cianci's ex-wife and has represented Nicole in
past legal matters. She claims the former mayor is a disinterested
father and grandfather -- so disinterested, she said that he got the
ages of his grandchildren wrong in his letters to Kennedy and Langevin
-- and that he once sent an aide to Nicole's house to tell her to go on
welfare. Cianci has denied the claims and says he has paid his
daughter's rent, health insurance, utilities and bought her a car. He
said he has set up a living trust for his daughter and grandchildren
that will provide for them in the event that he dies or is sent to
prison. But, he said, she must successfully complete her rehabilitation.
Violet contends that Cianci was not truthful in the Nov. 14 letter he
wrote to Kennedy and Langevin when he said he had adopted prime
financial responsibility for Nicole and her children.
At the time he wrote that representation, "the State of Rhode Island's
taxpayers had that responsibility," Violet said.
Violet said on her afternoon show yesterday that she believes that
public officials, such as Kennedy and Langevin, should never have
learned about or weighed in on Nicole Cianci's plight. Violet said the
only people who should have written to federal officials on Nicole
Cianci's behalf were her substance-abuse counselors, who could have done
so confidentially.
"I have no desire to absolutely discuss this matter ever again," Violet
said, beyond countering any "untrue" statements made by the former mayor.
"The ball is in his court," she said.
Violet then proceeded to take calls on the subject for the better part
of the next three hours.
With reports from staff writer Liz Anderson
