White-collar cons ask the pros : Prison Prep for up to 20K

USA Today reports:

Wealthy, first-time convicts are turning to a novel cottage industry: prison coaches with advice on what it's like inside the big house.

Feeding off of notorious financial scandals, consultants school anxious inmates for fees of up to $20,000. White-collar convicts such as Martha Stewart and Bernard Madoff sought their help to learn about inmate life.

"After all, it's not like planning your vacation," Ira Sorkin, Madoff's lawyer, says of the service that the Wall Street swindler used to prepare for his 150-year prison term.

Madoff and Stewart got their penitentiary insight from the Baltimore-based National Center for Institutions and Alternatives. Herbert Hoelter, its co-founder, says the firm waived its fee for Madoff because his assets were frozen.

No word yet on this one from Democratic party money man Robert Creamer.