Traficant to remain in prison

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Former Rep. James Traficant Jr. is to finish out his sentence in federal prison, the director of an Ohio halfway house said.

Traficant, now an inmate at the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minn., had asked the Bureau of Prisons to assign him to a halfway house other than Community Corrections Association in Youngstown, The Youngstown Vindicator said. He said that he would not feel safe in CCA, apparently because the director, Richard Billak, testified at his federal trial about deals Traficant made to get associates transferred to CCA.

Billak said that the bureau e-mailed him Monday to tell him that Traficant would not be placed there.

The nine-term Democrat was sentenced to eight years in prison after his conviction on charges that included racketeering, bribery and tax evasion. He is scheduled for release Sept. 2.

Billak said that Traficant might find prison easier than the halfway house, where he would be required to find a job and submit to daily urine tests, the newspaper reported.