What Will Prison Life Hold For Cunningham?

SAN DIEGO -- March 3 was Randy "Duke" Cunningham's final day of freedom. The Vietnam war hero was a defeated man as he entered the federal courthouse to face sentencing for tax evasion and conspiracy to commit bribery.

The Rolls Royce, yacht, & a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe were gone. The former Congressman was looking at eight years, four months behind bars. He was being placed behind bars at the low security prison at Taft, Calif.

"It's dorm living, two or three to a room, bathroom's down the hall," former federal prison inmate Barry Minkow told 10news.

Barry Minkow was there in the late 80s and early 90s. A Hollywood con man, he turned a carpet cleaning business into a $26 million fraud. Now a minister in San Diego, he remembers prison life well.

Everything is regimented, from early wake-up through the day's job and into evening.

"You can only move five minutes before the hour and five after. So if your at the library, you're there 'till the hour is over, then you move from the library to the gym or the gym to the yard. Controlled movement means a lot more security, towers, armed patrols around razor-wire fences," said Minkow.

Minkow warns there is violence behind prison walls, but he thinks the other inmates will give Cunningham room.

"He's in for white collar crime, tax evasion, violation of trust. They're not gonna beat him up because he's an asset. He can help people 'cause his heart has changed. Not gonna be abused, especially an older man," said Minkow.

Cunningham will stay at MCC downtown until Friday, then be moved to Taft Prison.