Michael Vick to be released from prison this week

Disgraced NFL star Michael Vick is scheduled to be released from federal prison soon, and many expect his release to come either overnight or sometime tomorrow. 

The Federal Bureau of Prisons is being deliberately vague about the timing of Vick's release, ESPN reports, because of concerns over his security.  He'll serve the remainder of his sentence at home due to lack of space in a halfway house.

The former Atlanta Falcons quarterback will return to his five-bedroom, 3,538-square-foot home in Hampton, Va. -- certainly a far cry from his current digs at the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth.  ESPN reports on the conditions of his home confinement:

For two months, the suspended NFL star will be largely confined to his home and will wear an electronic monitor that allows federal probation officials to track his movements. He is expected to be released from federal custody July 20.

Vick will be allowed to go to his full-time construction job and will probably be allowed about five hours a week for other court-approved activities, according to Ed Bales, managing director of Federal Prison Consultants, an inmate rehabilitation advocacy group.

Permissible activities for inmates on home confinement typically include medical appointments, religious obligations and meetings with probation officials. No dinners out. No chilling at a friend's house.

Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison for his role in the operation and financing of the Bad Newz Kennels dogfighting ring. He also was suspended from play in the NFL, with Commissioner Roger Goodell writing that Vick's conduct in the dogfighting operation was "not only illegal, but also cruel and reprehensible. Your team, the NFL, and NFL fans have all been hurt by your actions."

Football teams have thus far seemed reluctant to hire Vick. "Indeed, right now a team would have to be desperate for a quarterback to risk the ire of animal lovers everywhere by signing him," Associated Press sports columnist Tim Dahlberg writes.

But some in the sports community have begun to call for his reinstatement in the league.  (Dahlberg calls such a move "inevitable.")  For his part, Goodell hasn't ruled out reinstating Vick but says he'll refrain from making a decision until Vick's prison term is officially over.  Once that hurdle is cleared, Goodell told ESPN, Vick must demonstrate remorse for his actions.

One way to do that might have been to star in public service announcements denouncing dogfighting.  In fact, Vick was apparently in talks with PETA to do just that last year.  The animal rights group later rescinded its offer to produce the PSAs after learning, as a result of a U.S. Department of Agriculture report on Bad Newz Kennels' operations, that Vick had "enjoyed placing family pets in the ring with fighting pit bulls and that he laughed as dogs ripped each other apart."  (PETA later called on the NFL to subject Vick to "a psychological test as well as an MRI brain scan ... in order to look for evidence of clinical psychopathy or antisocial personality disorder.")

RELATED:
Sports Illustrated features Michael Vick's pit bulls
Oakland couple rescues Vick's pit bulls

--Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Vick leaves federal court in Richmond, Va., Aug. 27, 2007.  Credit: Steve Helber/Associated Press.

Comments

[Rosie]

Why would the Humane Society allow this piece of dirt to abuse more animals by working there.?

[Detective:orlando]

let vick live his life he has done his bid .thanks truely your Detective.

[frankie]

I didnt like the 23 months that M V got to start with and I'm so happy he got a 2nd chance something that happens a lot here in the US.

[Reader]

Michael Vick, although he pled guilty to every charge, has never publicly acknowledged or apologized for what he REALLY did. He apologized for fighting dogs. He called it "immature acts."

He personally killed, and conspired to kill, at least thirteen dogs. He didn't shoot them quickly and painlessly. He and his co-conspirators wet one dog down and electrocuted her. Other dogs were hanged, drowned, shot -- and one dog was killed by having its body slammed into the ground.

A USDA report also found that Vick and his friends put dogs who were family pets into the ring with Vick's trained fighting dogs.

The report stated that they "thought it was funny to watch the pit bull dogs belonging to [Vick’s] Bad Newz Kennels injure or kill the other dogs."

Did you hear Michael Vick admit and apologize for these things? No, you did not. Vick hopes very much that people think he only fought a couple of Pit Bulls, dogs many people believe are throwaway beings. But two of Vick's dogs have been certified as therapy dogs. They didn't commit any crime, but still they contribute to society.

Vick on the other hand deliberately committed premeditated violent act after violent act. He thought the pain, fear and death of living beings was funny. He has never expressed the slightest remorse for those acts. Those are the hallmarks of a sociopath.

No one denies Vick has a right to a job. We deny that he should be allowed millions and glory at a job that gave him the means to abuse and kill dogs.

The notion that people who believe Vick should be banned for life from the NFL value animals more than people is untrue. If Vick had killed thirteen people and tortured many more the question of his returning to the NFL would be moot. No one would be arguing
that he deserved a second chance to make millions at a highly desireable and lauded job. No one would argue that he wasn't a bad person.

If you want to see Vick play and you think that desire is more important than the torture and killing of dogs, that's fine, that's who you want to be, and the moral structure you have. But please don't say that Vick "apologized" and "paid his debt." He's never even admitted publicly the full extent of what he did, much less apologized.

And how do you apologize to a dog who's dead?

[LA24]

This will be a brief response to, reader's comments.

First and foremost, for the record, I'm against dog fighting or any criminal activity. I've been listening to all the propaganda surrounding Michael Vick situation and I must say there's some pretty EVIL people here in the US.
Let me get this straight, according to reader and the propaganda machine, the radio and big sports networks Michael Vick shouldn't be allowed to work again or he should change his profession so he can work a real job and get paid like the rest of us, and any sane person knows that there are no second changes giving to people in this society. Seriously, in my opinion, the people who actually believe this are in a real battle with denial about the reality of our society today. If the entire work force in America weren't given a second chance then at least half the working class would be employed.
Michael Vick did something wrong he got caught and then punished, that my friends are the facts. I'll talk more on future blogs about if he should play the same position since the rhetoric suggest he should change positions. What a joke! Also, should he be chastised by the NFL and much more...