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 Crazy Chris

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He started shooting today! *White Men Can't Jump While Wesley Snipes Can't Pay His Taxes*

By Joey

I think this is an outrage and a racially targeted attack. His "offense" is so clearly non premeditated and non violent he deseved probation of a typical first offender and not prison time.

He was a person I a white man and many black men looked up to as a role model. Who will be my role model now that my role model is gone, down some dark alley with a roly poly little bat faced jerk.

I hope the judge is in an elective position and will be drummed out of office. And, I hope his attorney continues to appeal for everything from the Supreme Court to a Presidential Pardon.

JT

Sunday 12 December

By Martin

Joey please quite your crying!!He is a where he belongs!!

By Clifton Alexander

Joey, my statement to you is no way a spiritual admonition, but MAN will most of the time disappoint you.

By ALLEN

i hate that wesley had to do time but being the gentleman he is he realizes that in this case if ya don't pay ya have ta pay. i will continue to watch your movies and say that you are a good guy.

By mdlow1866

Mrs.E you sure have that one right!!That race card stuff sure gets old!!

By Wolf

Hope they don't show "To Wong Foo Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar" at the double-feature this weekend. THAT ONE would make him especially popular in prison...

By Julymoon

What kind of punishment is this? Bocciball !tennis just throw in a swimming pool and women and you have a resort retreat. WHATS IS GOING ON HERE.

By tony

HAHAHA COULDN'T HAPPEN TO A BETTER GUY ,, HE IS A NO GOOD FOR NOTHING RACIST WHO JUST SO HAPPENS NOT TO PAY HIS TAXES,,, ROFLMAO YOU GOT CAUGHT,,, OHHH BTW ,, MEET BUBBA HES BEEN WAITING TO SEE YOU HEHEHEHE

By gtfoo

So tax cheat TurboTax poster boy Timothy Geithner gets appointed Secretary of the US Treasury, and Wesley Snipes goes to prison???? And people are sitting still for this????? WTF!!!!

By Thesby D Tolbert

no nino!they finally got nino brown!

se you and wouldn't want to be you wesley!

By bob

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Snipes is a good actor, but must be pretty stupid to not pay taxes for 10 years. He got what he deserved. It is good to see some rich people go to prison for their crimes. Poor people can steal a thousand dollars and go to jail for the same time, and not in a posh federal barracks without fences!!!!

Most of us who work pay our taxes. If everybody paid their fair share of taxes, the government could waste more money than they do now, and pay for more lazy people's health insurance and food stamps!!!

By Janice

As the old saying goes, "You pay to play."

By goatcars2

I can't believe the judge didn't buy Snipes' excuse that he's simply a naive victim of others. I mean, who would think you have to pay taxes if you don't want to!!!!!

By gary

HE'S A TOOL!

By Ricky

Should have made him pay and go back to work so he could pay more taxs. lock him up so us tax payers have to feed him. just think three years could have been two or three more million in taxs. now we get nothing but a Bill.

By Joebudgie

Maybe you missed the point of the article? He is in jail because "he didn't pay his taxes".

By Mickey6816

It would be better for the country if the man was given 3 Years Probation, 90 Days in a Half-Way House, then was forced to pay 2 or 3 times what he owed. He'd learn more, the government would get more, and we'd save a prison bed for a really deserving criminal.

Not very imaginative sentencing.

And I'm white.