Keith Alan Raniere was whisked out of the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center [MDC] in the early morning hours of January 6, and presumably put on a prisoners’ bus to parts unknown.
None of our sources knew exactly where he was headed, at least not immediately, but we were told his final destination was the United States Penitentiary Tucson and that there might be a stop in Oklahoma City.
Where Is Keith Raniere Now?
By the evening of the 6th, he arrived at the United States Penitentiary at Lewisburg, a high-security prison in Pennsylvania for male inmates, and he bedded down there for the night.
He remained there the next night as well, and we recently learned he is to remain there, according to a source at the Bureau of Prisons, for a total of 14 days for Covid-19 quarantine. He has been there now for three days.
We have no definite knowledge of where Keith Raniere goes next.
According to our source at Lewisburg, Raniere may remain there for a little while beyond his quarantine period. Presently, the MDC is undergoing renovations and reportedly Lewisburg is taking on some MDC inmates, such as Raniere. He remains within 500 miles of the Brooklyn Court. The theory is that he may possibly go back to MDC or remain in Lewisburg until his court proceedings are over, which is expected within the next three months.
However, another Bureau of Prisons (BOP) source from Grand Prairie itself, the administrative headquarters of the BOP, said that Raniere is off to Tucson next.
YSP Tucson is expected to be the retirement home of Keith Raniere, at least for the next 100 years or so.
This sounds more plausible to us since MDC is a holding center for pre-trial and pre-sentencing detainees. Raniere has been sentenced and evidently assigned to Tucson. MDC would want to ship him out and not linger at MDC.
At MDC, they don’t want guys with 120-year sentences. Those kinds of guys have nothing to lose. At MDC, most of the detainees there are on their best behavior while waiting for trial or waiting for sentencing. They try to move people already sentenced out as quickly as possible.
Though Keith Raniere made a reasonable argument to remain at MDC for a few months at least.
Raniere’s new attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, asked Judge Nicholas Garaufis to recommend Raniere remain at MDC, so he could be near at hand for his appeal and for the restitution hearings that he might need to take an active role in, which are expected to take place in February.
Ironically, the BOP moved Raniere out within hours of her filing her request to the judge.
If they moved him hastily to avoid a possible recommendation by the judge to keep him here, it was unnecessary. Judge Garaufis has steadfastly refused to get involved in Raniere’s prison assignment.
His reply to Bonjean’s request was in the negative: “ORDER re Defendant’s [989] letter: As previously stated at the time of sentencing, the court again respectfully declines to make a recommendation to the Bureau of Prisons regarding the designation of the Defendant. Ordered by Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis on 1/8/2021.”
Keith Raniere
What’s Life Like at Lewisburg Penitentiary?
If he remains at Lewisburg after his quarantine, Raniere, because of his notoriety and his designation as a sex offender, will not likely be comfortable there. He may have to remain in solitary for his own safety.
Lewisburg is all ganged up. There are gangs there such as the Bloods, Crips, MS 13, Nietas, Rat Hunters, Zulu Nation, Latin Kings, Aryan Nation, etc. – and Raniere will not easily be able to navigate in that highly segregated environment where everyone is either a member of something or he is nothing.
Raniere, being known to be a CHOMO, or child molester, will not have a ghost of a chance at living any kind of a normal prison life there since inmates target sex offenders and particularly child molesters for violence and other abuses.
This is why he was assigned to USP Tucson since that facility is comprised of mostly sex offenders and, hence, he won’t be singled out because he is a sex offender. He will be but one among the herd.
Raniere is nearing completion of his third year of a 120-year sentence.
However, if he does remain in Lewisburg to serve any portion of his sentence, he might be qualified to work at an off-site work location where inmates labor in a furniture-manufacturing factory. Prisoners get about $2 per hour for the factory work, which is substantially better than the 25 cents per hour that prison workers get while laboring inside prison.
Oddly, according to one Society of Protectors recruitment video, at one time, Raniere made as much as $100,000 per hour consulting with some of the top executives in the world.
Still, I would not expect Raniere to remain at Lewisburg [or go back to MDC]. We think he will be motoring west, by bus, in handcuffs and shackles, a belly chain and the black box, and wind up in Tucson, where he will be prepared for the long haul, unless of course he wins on appeal.
If he gets a reversal on appeal, he may get a new trial and be brought back to Brooklyn. That won’t likely happen before 2022, if it happens at all.
In succeeding posts we will explore the life Raniere will lead in Tucson and the odds of his winning on appeal in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
