Former Sports, Parks and Recreation Commissioner Calvert White. Photo: V.I. Legislature

Last week, Mr. White was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted in 2025 on charges of honest services wire fraud and bribery. On Saturday, counsel for Mr. White submitted an emergency motion to the court asking that he be ordered to surrender to the Federal Prison Camp in Maxwell Airforce Base in Montgomery, Alabama on March 2. “The requested facility would allow him to be closer to his family during imprisonment.”

The response from Judge Mark Kearney came the next day. The motion was denied, but without prejudice. The question can be raised again after a “meaningful meet and confer with all counsel,” said Judge Kearney, reminding defendants and their attorneys that “we do not direct the Bureau of Prisons as to custodial designations.” The court, said the judge, “can only recommend a designation for good cause.”

Minimum-security federal prison less restrictive

The facility White asked to self-surrender to, the Federal Prison Camp in Montgomery, Alabama, is a minimum-security federal prison for male inmates operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and located on the grounds of Maxwell Air Force Base. As a minimum-security camp, it typically houses non-violent offenders with lower custody classifications, often serving shorter sentences, and features dormitory-style housing rather than traditional cells, along with work assignments and base-support duties. Such facilities are generally considered less restrictive than higher-security prisons and are often sought by defendants because they can offer closer proximity to family and a more open institutional environment, factors cited in White’s request.

The district court judge has not yet set a date for that conference ahead of Mr. White's scheduled date for self-surrender – March 2, 2026.

Apart from his prison term, Mr. White will also have to forfeit $5000, the sum of the bribe prosecutors say he was given. A further special assessment of $200 is also due. After his release from prison, the former commissioner of the Department of Sports, Parks and Recreation will spend an additional three years on supervised release. His co-defendant, Benjamin Hendricks, faces a sentence very similar to that of Mr. White, except he will serve an extra eight months in prison.