Former Pa. Congressman Chaka Fattah Begins 10-Year Prison Term
PHILADELPHIA (CBS/AP) — A longtime Pennsylvania congressman convicted of racketeering has reported to a federal prison to begin his 10-year sentence.
Officials said former U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah was logged in just after 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Federal Correctional Institution-McKean in Lewis Run, in western Pennsylvania, near the New York border. He will be in the minimum-security camp adjacent to the medium-security prison.
CBS 3 got a picture of a cell in the pod where Fattah is staying.
Fattah is staying in the lowest security part of the prison.
He is in the "Camp" area with 262 other inmates. The prison told CBS 3 that the most notable former inmate was actor Wesley Snipes.
The 60-year-old Philadelphia Democrat spent 20 years in Congress before his June conviction of taking an illegal $1 million campaign loan, then using government and nonprofit funds to repay it. Four co-defendants were also convicted.
Fattah lost his bid to stay out of prison while he appeals.
His son, Chaka "Chip" Fattah Jr., is serving five years in an overlapping bank fraud case at a prison in Michigan.
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