Wesley Snipes Begins Serving 3-Year Prison Stint

By PopEater / Wire Services Posted Dec 9th 2010 01:00PM

Wesley Snipes began serving a three-year sentence at a federal prison in Pennsylvania on Thursday for failure to file income tax returns. Snipes, 48, arrived shortly before noon at the Federal Correctional Institution McKean in the tiny northwestern Pennsylvania town of Lewis Run, federal prisons spokesman Ed Ross said. He had been ordered to surrender by noon.

The minimum security prison camp is worlds away from the harsh prison fortresses depicted in the Snipes' films 'Undisputed' and 'Brooklyn's Finest.' The minimum-security camp doesn't have fences around its perimeter.

The 300 nonviolent inmates live in barracks that feature two-man rooms, daily showers and double-feature movie showings Friday through Sunday. Alas, no NC-17, R or X ratings allowed, which knocks out much of Snipes' action-heavy repertoire.

The most jarring aspect of the celebrity's stay might be the five daily head counts, three during the overnight hours. And Snipes, who earned a reported $13 million for the 'Blade: Trinity' sequel, will have to adjust to earning just pennies an hour handling kitchen, laundry or other campus chores. He can spend just $290 a month at the prison commissary.

Snipes has appeared in dozens of studio films, from 'White Men Can't Jump' and 'Demolition Man' in the early 1990s to the blockbuster Blade trilogy.

None of which will score him any points at McKean, officials insist.

"We recognize that he is high profile, but we treat all our inmates the same," spokeswoman Shirley White told The Associated Press last week.

According to U.S. prosecutors, the actor failed to file any tax returns for at least a decade, and owed $2.7 million in taxes on $13.8 million in income from 1999 to 2001 alone.

Snipes, a dues-paying member of a tax-protest group that challenges the government's right to collect taxes, described himself at his 2008 sentencing as a naive truth-seeker.

"I am an idealistic, naive, passionate, truth-seeking, spiritually motivated artist, unschooled in the science of law and finance," said Snipes, who had pursued theater and dance from an early age, attending the vaunted High School for the Performing Arts in New York City.

Tuesday night, he told CNN's "Larry King Live" that he was not nervous about reporting to prison.

On Wednesday, he made a last-minute request for a new trial. In the emergency motion, Snipes said that the judge erred by not allowing defense attorneys to interview jurors about misconduct allegations.

At McKean, if he reports as scheduled, he can pursue his spirituality at weekly meetings of nearly any religious group imaginable, from Wiccans to Jehovah's Witnesses to Spanish-speaking Evangelical Catholics.

The martial-arts enthusiast can get his exercise playing sand volleyball or indoor basketball, or work out on an elliptical machine or stair climber. And he can tap into his fun side through badminton, bocci or bridge.

Should he pull a muscle in a pickup game, the infirmary copay is just $2.

But it's not all fun and games.

The daily wake-up call is at 6:35 a.m. The mundane jobs run seven hours a day. There's little fashion flair to the prison-issued khakis. And contact in the visitors room is limited to "a kiss," according to the prison handbook.

Snipes has tried to delay his arrival while he takes his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. But the trial judge said he had gotten a fair trial.

U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges saw in Snipes "a history of contempt" for U.S. tax laws, the judge said at sentencing.

Never mind that the actor, changing course, had delivered $5 million in checks to the IRS that day. Hodges imposed consecutive one-year terms for the three misdemeanor convictions.

"Someday, every fighter loses," says the prison boxer Monroe Hutchens, played by Snipes, in 2002's "Undisputed." "In the end, everybody gets beaten. The most you can hope for is that you stay on top a while."

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Tags: Wesley Snipes

Comments

(137)

Thursday 09 December

By miriam

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Snipes go to jail he should but I dont think he is too much money for that you know what they say money talks he should if we have to file why not him too what so special his money

By Katie

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I couldn't understand this mumbo jumbo. Perhaps you should go back to school?

By barb

Can you speak and type english now? Look at what you wrote and you want people to think you have a few brain cells?

By bob

Why don't you learn to speak proper english??

By Leslie

You people should back off of Miriam. At least what she wrote was spelled correctly given that English doesn't seem to be her native tongue whereas I see the language slaughtered in print every day by natural born bloggers and columnists. If you stick some punctuation in there, her points are plain.

By English 101

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Hey Bob, by the way the sentance should read "why don't you speak English properly" just in case you care.

By Carlos

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Madam, you are a moron.

By wontspeakspanish

wesley...a few words of advice...don' drop your soap!!

Monday 03 January

By Angel

@ English101:

I just wanted to point out that I found it amusing that you spelled
'sentence' 'sentance."

:P

By Carol

Miriam, I couldn't understand a word you said. Do you speak English? I can't believe you people that defend this pompous tax evader. He pleaded ignorant. Give me a break. if he's so ignorant, what made him think he could rise above the law. I'm sick of these Hollywood diz brains thinking they can buy their way out of anything. Maybe if he had not been so contentious and arrogant, he would have gotten an easier sentence. Stop appealing Wesley and man up; you can't buy your way out this time!!!

By John

Amen. I think perhaps that "Miriam" is Rainman's nom de plume...

By Nobama

Wow- guess his Race Card ploy didn't work !

By Mrs. E

..this is not about race...but because you have nothing educated to say, that is your only recourse.

By ALLEN

don't think this man played a race card don't believe he's a racist and only a racist would think of that kinda stuff

By JohnL

I guess that if he was in congress he would've gotten a slap on the wrist or an appointment to head the US Treasury.
justice is not only not blind it is also retarded

Mirian, I could read the words but I had a real tough time making any sense of them.

By Bob

So, he's going to jail but Tim Geitner is still out and working for the dip and chief? WTF?

By ikkoryu37

It's really simple folks. The IRS goes after high profile tax evaders to scare everyone else.
You can't put millions of tax evaders in jail so...when a celebrity gets caught in the crosshairs they do their best to make an example out of them.

By terryhighlander

what do you mean? he will fit right in!!!!!!!

By Mike

Now Snipes will cost the tax payer about a million dollars a year to jail him ! i'm not saying he doesn't deserve to be punished but I think 6 months jail time and a very very large fine and garnishing his paycheck for the next few years would serve the American public much better ! Snipes earns more money that most of us blogging on this site will ever earn. So let him go earn and let us take it away. That would hurt HIM more than it would hurt US by him sitting in jail and US paying the tab. Get it ?????? Do the Math!!!!!!

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