Blagojevich's First Prison Interview: 5 Things You Need To Know

JEFFERSON COUNTY, CO — It's been more than five years since disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich waved at reporters as he left his home in Chicago headed to a federal prison in Colorado. Late Monday, Chicago magazine released its exclusive interview with the man who's now most famous for his expletive-laden wiretapped call as he attempted to sell former President Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder, calling the coveted appointment "f---ing golden" and insisting, "I'm just not giving it up for f----n' nothing." Not quite halfway through his 14-year sentence on corruption charges, the Chicago magazine interview was his first from behind bars.

The interview was released online late Monday, but those who want a hard copy can get their hands on one when it hits newsstands next month. In the call, the former governor was upbeat but honest about his situation. “My jurisdiction was once all of Illinois," he told writer David Bernstein. "Now I have two hallways to clean.”

Here are Patch's five biggest takeaways from the interview, which you can read in full here. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for your neighborhood. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

1. Everyone's got a nickname in prison. Blagojevich's — and we should have seen this coming — is "Gov."

2. He's kept his sense of humor. Blagojevich says he's received hundreds of letters since entering prison in 2012, and he reads them. While most of them are supportive, one former state employee — fired by Blagovich along with his predecessor's other political appointees in 2003 — was a little vengeful. “She basically waits about 13 years to write me, and I’m in this deep, dark valley, and she says, ‘I hope you’re somebody’s you-know-what’ in prison jargon," Blagojevich said. "It was kind of funny."

• Hard Time for Ex-Gov's Hairdo

3. Blagojevich picked his prison. While disputing that the Colorado institution is a "Club Fed" ("It's really a prison," he told Bernstein), the ex-gov said he chose Federal Correctional Institution, Englewood near Littleton, Colorado, because it's relatively safe, for a prison. He told Bernstein Forbes magazine once ranked it among the “12 Best Places to Go to Prison” because it's among the least violent (and crowded) federal prisons.

4. The soonest he'll get out is Christmas 2023. Even then, he'd be in a halfway house. Blagojevich, who unsuccessfully sought a commutation during Obama's last days as president, said he the reality of the long stretch ahead of him hit home when his case manager said she had good news — she planned to recommend he be allowed to serve the last six months of his sentence in a halfway house. "So I’m calculating in my mind, OK, I can be home by Christmas 2023 — maybe not home, but to the halfway house," Blagojevich said, noting that he'll be 68 by then. He's 60 now.

5. He and a fellow inmate tackled prison segregation ... but nobody really cared. Blagojevich related a tale of how, early on, he befriended an African-American inmate in FCI Englewood's low-security facility. Despite warnings from the prison guard captain and corrections officers to stay in a segregated clique, Blagojevich said, he and his friend hatched a plan “in the spirit of Dr. King and his efforts to end segregation." He and the other inmate, nicknamed "Mr. B," would have lunch together, alternating between sitting in the black and white sections of the prison cafeteria. "It turned out to be no big deal," the ex-governor said. "No one really cared. No one complained ... We were mini civil rights activists with neither a following or a cause anyone cared about."

Blagojevich also granted an interview to NBC-5, noting that he's a hard worker in his current position, where he's assigned to sweep and mop two floors. “So my jurisdiction has shrunk from the fifth biggest state in America, to these two floors," he said. "But I don’t care what anybody says, I believe in clean government, and I believe in clean floors."

Blagojevich — who points out that he got a longer sentence than notorious gangster Al Capone — said he's still working on an appeal that he hopes would get him out of prison sooner.

In 2015, a judge tossed out five of the 18 counts of public corruption against the former governor. In March 2016, prosecutors asked a judge to re-sentence him. Blagojevich wanted a new sentence of five years, but a judge instead gave him the same sentence: 14 years. Earlier this year, an appeals court also upheld the 14-year sentence.

In this March 15, 2012 file photo, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich waves as he departs his Chicago home for Littleton, Colo., to begin his 14-year prison sentence on corruption charges./AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File