What’s Next for Jared Fogle
The nation knows Jared Fogle is going to prison. When, exactly, isn’t quite as certain.
Right now, the U.S. Attorney’s Office is conducting its pre-sentencing investigation while Fogle remains on home detention on federal charges related to child pornography. The office’s probation department submits a report on Fogle’s life so U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt can factor in his background when considering his sentence, which, per Fogle’s deal with the feds, should land between five and 12-and-a-half years. Tim Horty, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Indianapolis, says the investigation covers family history, upbringing, education, employee history, and more: “Does he have a criminal history, how many children does he have, raised in a foster home or not, did he have two supportive parents, was he a product of drug-ridden, prostitution-infested household, was he a silver-spooner? It’s a snapshot of who this person is, and it gives the judge a better picture of what sentence is appropriate.” The process also collects statements from Fogle’s family and friends, acting as character witnesses, and input from victims or their representatives. Those materials will be sealed and not available to the public.
The report will be completed before Fogle’s sentencing hearing on November 19 in Indianapolis. At that time, Judge Pratt is expected to accept Fogle’s guilty plea and announce his sentence. “In three months,” Horty says, “he will know his fate.”
Fogle should arrive at the sentencing hearing prepared to go straight to prison, but sometimes the judge allows the defendant to return home for a few weeks before self-reporting to the assigned penitentiary. If the person is deemed a flight risk or a danger to society, he or she might go directly into custody, as Tim Durham did. But Fogle may be allowed to return home and get his affairs in order before beginning his sentence.
Where he will serve is up to the Bureau of Prisons, and it can be anywhere in the country. Fogle can make a request, and Horty says it wouldn’t be surprising if Fogle asks to be assigned to the federal prison in Elkton, Ohio, which houses a large population of sex-crime felons and specializes in therapy for those offenders.
