CHICAGO — Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan reported to a West Virginia federal prison on Monday to begin his 7 ½-year sentence for public corruption — nearly 600 miles away from his native Chicago and the state he spent decades shaping as its most influential power broker.
Madigan, who turned 83 a couple months after his marathon four-month trial ended in February, had asked to remain free while his newly hired high-profile team of appellate lawyers work on overturning his conviction. But earlier this month, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the bid, sealing the former speaker’s fate as federal inmate number 90368-509.
The federal prison camp in Morgantown, a minimum-security facility on the outskirts of the mountainous home of West Virginia University, has incarcerated other disgraced politicians. But none had been sentenced to quite so long a term as Madigan, nor had their political careers been nearly as sustained.
Before resigning in early 2021 after the feds closed in on some of his closest allies, Madigan spent 50 years in the General Assembly, including 36 as House speaker. His stunning political fall was punctuated by nearly two-dozen corruption charges in 2022, followed by a lengthy trial in which he was accused of trading legislative action for jobs and contracts for his allies along with introductions to potential clients for his property tax appeal law firm.
A jury convicted the ex-speaker on 10 of the 23 counts, acquitted him on seven and deadlocked on another six, including the feds’ marquee racketeering charge.
At his June sentencing hearing, Madigan asked the judge to give him probation along with a year of home confinement, wrapping up his short speech with a plea to “let me take care of Shirley and … let me spend my final days with my family.” Madigan’s wife, Shirley, has been in poor health for several years, and in a video submitted to the court before sentencing, said she likely wouldn’t be able to live independently without her husband living in their home on Chicago’s Southwest Side.
But while U.S. District Judge John Blakey got emotional when weighing aloud Shirley Madigan’s medical needs and said that often “what you can do” for loved ones is “hold their hand in the end,” he still settled on a 90-month sentence. Federal inmates generally have to serve 85% of their sentences, which works out to a little over six years, though it’s possible the former speaker would be released to home confinement sooner than that.
Madigan’s lawyers had asked he serve out his sentence at a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, a request the Federal Bureau of Prisons had been prepared to honor until about a month ago, according to Prison Consultants of America Executive Director Michael Sabo, who has connections within the BOP.
Sabo, a former federal inmate and an expert on prisons, told Capitol News Illinois that he was surprised a person of Madigan’s age would be assigned to a prison camp, where inmates are typically given a somewhat physical job.
The Morgantown facility was one of several prisons designated for permanent closure in a late December memo, though it’s since been taken off the BOP’s shutdown list. Still, Sabo said the Morgantown prison camp is “deteriorated” and its small size means inmates don’t have access to many programs.
Decades ago, Morgantown was one of a few federal minimum security prisons jokingly referred to as “Club Fed” due to the activities offered. But Sabo said it’s been 50 years since the Morgantown facility’s pool was decommissioned amid public outcry in the 1970s and noted its long-dilapidated tennis courts are likely now shuttered too.
“They might show a movie on the weekends in the gym and maybe have popcorn,” he said. “But it’s not like ‘Club Fed’ years ago. He’s not going to a fancy place … I guarantee it.”
Madigan’s June hearing kicked off a series of related sentencings this summer for the “ComEd Four.” In a 2023 trial, the group of former executives and lobbyists for electric utility Commonwealth Edison were found guilty of bribing Madigan in exchange for legislation favorable to the utility.
Though the judge overseeing that case threw out many of the bribery convictions earlier this year, he ruled there was evidence of bribery and handed down sentences to each of them this summer ranging from one to two years.
Former contract lobbyist Jay Doherty reported to prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, late last month, which Sabo said is likely the reason for Madigan’s reassignment.
Prison assignments haven’t yet been made public for the other three, including longtime ComEd executive John Hooker, who is set to report on Tuesday. Former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore’s surrender date isn’t until Dec. 1.
Longtime Springfield lobbyist Mike McClain, Madigan’s close friend and advisor, will begin his two-year sentence on Oct. 30. McClain was also Madigan’s co-defendant in the former speaker’s trial, but the jury deadlocked on all six counts involving him. In August, the judge dismissed those charges at the request of prosecutors.
Madigan, whose $40 million net worth was revealed in legal back-and-forth prior to sentencing, has continued to spend on legal fees, hiring a high-profile team of experienced appellate attorneys this summer. One of his new lawyers successfully argued to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of a Northwest Indiana mayor whose corruption case spurred the high court’s conservative majority to narrow the federal bribery statute in a 2024 decision.
Initial briefs for Madigan’s appeal are due in early November.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
