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"This is a small break for Madoff. Most defendants with sentences of 30 years or more are assigned to high security prisons," former prosecutor William Devaney told AFP.
Sources close to the Madoff family told the ABC News network on Monday that the 71-year-old swindler and his wife Ruth had feared he would spend the rest of his years in a much harsher maximum-security prison.
"She will be greatly relieved," someone close to Ruth said, according to ABC. Madoff's lawyer Ira Sorkin confirmed to AFP earlier that they had asked for Madoff to be moved to a jail in the northeast of the country.
Butner holds about 3,500 prisoners, including the "blind sheikh" Omar Abdel Rahman, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center attacks, who was sentenced in life imprisonment.
"Medium security institutions like Butner, although they still have walls and fences, afford a somewhat better standard of living than high security facilities," said Devaney.
"Assigning him to a medium security prison likely came about in recognition of the non-violent nature of the offense and Madoff's age."
Last month's sentence came some six months after the biting economic downturn forced Madoff to unmask himself as behind one of the biggest financial scams, known as a Ponzi scheme, in history.
Prosecutors say about 13 billion dollars was handed to Madoff, but the former Nasdaq chairman has talked about losing some 50 billion dollars, which is believed to be the amount that would have been paid out had the funds been properly invested.
Madoff told the court in March that of the billions of dollars that passed through his hands during the three-decade scam, he never invested one cent in the market.
Instead he stashed the funds in a Chase Manhattan bank account. The funds were then used to pay out "dividends" to investors in what is known as a "Ponzi," or pyramid scheme.
Among Madoff's victims were Hollywood and international celebrities, several of the world's best-known banks and Jewish charities, some of which were forced to close after the scheme unraveled.
ABC also reported on Monday that Madoff's sentence had already been reduced by 20 years, citing federal prison records that listed the release date as November 12, 2139.
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Sources close to the Madoff family told the ABC News network on Monday that the 71-year-old swindler and his wife Ruth had feared he would spend the rest of his years in a much harsher maximum-security prison.
"She will be greatly relieved," someone close to Ruth said, according to ABC. Madoff's lawyer Ira Sorkin confirmed to AFP earlier that they had asked for Madoff to be moved to a jail in the northeast of the country.
Butner holds about 3,500 prisoners, including the "blind sheikh" Omar Abdel Rahman, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center attacks, who was sentenced in life imprisonment.
"Medium security institutions like Butner, although they still have walls and fences, afford a somewhat better standard of living than high security facilities," said Devaney.
"Assigning him to a medium security prison likely came about in recognition of the non-violent nature of the offense and Madoff's age."
Last month's sentence came some six months after the biting economic downturn forced Madoff to unmask himself as behind one of the biggest financial scams, known as a Ponzi scheme, in history.
Prosecutors say about 13 billion dollars was handed to Madoff, but the former Nasdaq chairman has talked about losing some 50 billion dollars, which is believed to be the amount that would have been paid out had the funds been properly invested.
Madoff told the court in March that of the billions of dollars that passed through his hands during the three-decade scam, he never invested one cent in the market.
Instead he stashed the funds in a Chase Manhattan bank account. The funds were then used to pay out "dividends" to investors in what is known as a "Ponzi," or pyramid scheme.
Among Madoff's victims were Hollywood and international celebrities, several of the world's best-known banks and Jewish charities, some of which were forced to close after the scheme unraveled.
ABC also reported on Monday that Madoff's sentence had already been reduced by 20 years, citing federal prison records that listed the release date as November 12, 2139.
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