How the prison system will handle Girardi\u2019s cognitive problems<\/a> during his seven-year sentence for stealing<\/a> from clients is unclear. In addition to regular prisons and minimum security camps, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has six medical centers that care for ill inmates. One in Massachusetts operates a small, overburdened dementia unit.<\/p>\n The process of evaluating a new inmate for mental or physical illness and selecting an appropriate location can take weeks or months, and the agency said it could not comment on where Girardi might end up.<\/p>\n A BOP forensic psychologist testified at a June hearing,<\/a> during which a federal judge in Los Angeles heard evidence about whether Girardi should be sentenced to prison or a suitable medical facility and about how prisons can safely house people with dementia by, among other things, assigning them \u201cinmate companions\u201d to guide them through their days.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bureau of Prisons does make accommodations for individuals who are aging and have significant medical issues,\u201d said Brianna Grover, who works at a prison medical center in Butner, N.C.<\/p>\n Pressed on whether Girardi might end up living with violent, younger offenders or in \u201ca concrete cell with a bunk bed,\u201d Grover said it was possible \u2014 depending on what officials determined was the most appropriate facility for him.<\/p>\n Girardi exits federal court in August with Natalie Degrati, an investigator with the Federal Public Defender\u2019s office.<\/p>\n (Brian van der Brug \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Girardi\u2019s lawyers have repeatedly predicted the worst.<\/p>\n \u201cI have not seen an instance where I thought someone got good mental health care\u201d in prison, J. Alejandro Barrientos, who was part of the team that represented Girardi during his trial<\/a>, told The Times. He added: \u201cIf you\u2019re elderly and serving a prison sentence, I think it\u2019s kind of harsh in a way that it\u2019s not harsh for someone who\u2019s a lot younger.\u201d<\/p>\n Until he was sentenced last month, Girardi\u2019s defense team was imploring the trial judge to let him serve his prison term in the Orange County nursing home where he has spent the last four years. Incarceration, they contended, was a de facto death sentence given his age and ill health, and his lack of short-term memory meant he would have no understanding of why he was behind bars.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Tom Girardi, there can be no meaningful punishment,\u201d Deputy Federal Public Defender Samuel Cross said at the sentencing hearing. <\/p>\n The judge rebuffed the argument after reviewing reports from Grover and a BOP neuropsychologist, both of whom examined Girardi earlier this year.<\/p>\n \u201cThey determined that he still possesses a baseline ability to function on a day-to-day basis, that he currently retains his independence as to his activities of daily living,\u201d U.S. Dist. Judge Josephine L. Staton said from the bench in Los Angeles in June, ruling that prison was an appropriate punishment site. <\/p>\n State and federal prisons are increasingly confronting dementia among their inmates. Due to longer sentences from tough-on-crime initiatives of the past, the prison population is graying. More than 1 in 5 federal prisoners is older than 50, according to population data published by the Department of Justice. The number of prisoners suffering from dementia is difficult to determine, criminal justice experts say, as there are few research studies on inmates and little concrete data.<\/p>\n California has opened memory care operations in two correctional facilities, a 30-bed unit at the prison hospital in Stockton and a 35-bed unit in Vacaville. The federal BOP launched a 36-bed \u201cmemory disorder unit\u201d in 2019 at the prison medical center in Devens, Mass.<\/p>\n Prior to Girardi, another disgraced figure in Southern California power circles, former L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, cited concerns about dementia care<\/a> behind bars in trying to avoid prison. Baca was diagnosed<\/a> with early stage Alzheimer\u2019s in 2016 before he was sentenced to three years in prison<\/a> for obstruction of justice and lying to FBI agents. Baca\u2019s lawyers suggested his cognitive decline was a sentence of its own, but the judge presiding over his case rejected the argument.<\/p>\n \u201cAs awful as Alzheimer\u2019s is, it is not a criminal penalty,\u201d U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson told Baca at his sentencing, adding, \u201cAlzheimer\u2019s disease is not a get-out-of-jail card.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, center, in 2017 stands with his wife and defense attorneys, including, right, current L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman.<\/p>\n (Damian Dovarganes \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n The extent of Girardi\u2019s cognitive decline has been the subject of dispute since 2020, when his firm imploded amid allegations of misappropriated funds. With clients demanding their money, Girardi\u2019s brother had him placed in a conservatorship, citing as evidence a diagnosis of Alzheimer\u2019s disease from a Long Beach psychiatrist.<\/p>\n The State Bar of California, which was going after Girardi\u2019s law license, quickly cast doubt on the diagnosis, suggesting possible malingering, a refrain later picked up by federal prosecutors pursuing wire fraud charges. Experts in dementia retained by the government acknowledged that he had some cognitive decline, but found evidence he was exaggerating his symptoms.<\/p>\n Staton, who presided over his trial, embraced the view that Girardi was suffering from dementia but also malingering. She found him competent to stand trial.<\/p>\n After his August conviction, Girardi was sent to the Butner prison hospital for six weeks of observation. Tracy O\u2019Connor Pennuto, a neuropsychologist for the federal prison system, determined he was not malingering and contributed to a report that concluded Girardi had \u201cmoderately advanced dementia\u201d with \u201csome features of Alzheimer\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHis remote memory \u2014 or his long-term memory \u2014 was pretty well intact. It was more recent information that he had difficulty with,\u201d Pennuto testified at the June hearing where evidence of his fitness for prison was presented to the judge.<\/p>\n That dynamic was on display when Girardi was called to the witness stand as part of the hearing last month. Though he had only left his nursing home to attend court, he maintained under oath that he had been crisscrossing the country.<\/p>\n \u201cThe International Academy had a meeting in New York. Then I had a case \u2026 in Oklahoma,\u201d he testified, before mentioning stops in San Francisco, Las Vegas and Buffalo.<\/p>\n On the witness stand, Girardi claimed he lived in Pasadena, the location of his former mansion, which was sold in 2022 to pay creditors. As he walked back to his seat at the defense table, his pants began to fall down. When his lawyers tried to make an official record of the wardrobe malfunction, Staton, the judge, noted that Girardi \u201crealized that that was happening, and reached down to pull them up and then maintained hold on them.\u201d<\/p>\n In the Seal Beach dementia ward, Girardi has spent most days sitting alone at a table scribbling \u201chundreds of pages of unintelligible notes\u201d on a pad, according to a letter his brother, Robert, wrote the judge. He added that Girardi believes he is still practicing as a lawyer.<\/p>\n Robert Girardi has covered the cost of his brother\u2019s nursing home care, nearly $750,000 since 2021, according to his letter. If Girardi is sent to a prison hospital facility, the estimated cost to taxpayers will be at least $102,857 annually, according to government figures from 2022.<\/p>\n BOP officials have discussed sending Girardi to the agency\u2019s Massachusetts dementia unit. It has aspects of a nursing home memory care ward with pink walls, festive decorations, music therapy, art classes and bocce ball, according to published reports<\/a>. Other inmates act as caretakers for the unit\u2019s residents.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n