Harvey Weinstein wants to serve his 23-year prison sentence in a medical unit close to New York City — but may wind up at an infamous, maximum-security prison near the Canadian border, an ex-con who advised him on life in the slammer told The Post on Wednesday.
Weinstein’s lawyers filed sealed court papers asking Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James Burke to recommend that Weinstein, 67, be sent to a Regional Medical Unit at either the Fishkill Correctional Facility in Beacon or the Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome, prison consultant Craig Rothfeld said.
But Burke declined to act on the request, leaving the decision up to the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, he said.
Weinstein won’t be eligible for conditional release with good behavior in the New York case until around 2039, legal experts said.
If he’s denied placement in a medical unit, he’ll likely wind up in the protective-custody wing of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, where the 2015 escape aided by “Shawskank” prison seamstress Joyce Mitchell took place, Rothfeld said.
Jennifer Scaife, executive director of the nonprofit Correctional Association of New York, said prison medical units were generally reserved for inmates who are recovering from surgery or near the end of their lives.
“If he’s able to get placed directly into a regional unit, it will be frankly because of his wealth and influence,” she said of Weinstein.
“I’ve seen sicker people in average prison cells. There are people with grave illnesses in general population.”
But Weinstein, temporarily jailed now in a Rikers Island infirmary, could have a long wait. Los Angeles prosecutors said Wednesday that they started the process of extraditing him for trial in two 2013 sex attacks.