TORONTO - If Conrad Black decides to pen another book to while away the time in a U.S. prison cell, he may have to contend with writer's cramp.
The former media magnate, who has written well-regarded biographies on former U.S. presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, won't be tapping out any new tales on a keyboard as computers are not available to prisoners, said Mike Truman, information specialist at the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington.
"There is no access to the Internet,'' he said. But Black will have access to the prison library, he added.
While the prison library has typewriters for prisoners to use for legal correspondence, Truman said it would be unlikely Black could use those typewriters for turning out a draft for a book.
But some feel the lack of modern tools that most writers take for granted today may not be too onerous for an imprisoned Black.
Richard Siklos, who documented Black's changing fortunes in the book Shades of Black: Conrad Black -- His Rise and Fall, recalled the former media mogul wrote out his memoirs in longhand.
But Black confirmed in an email to The Canadian Press that he has moved on to a keyboard.
"I write on a computer. I could complete a book about these travails very quickly,'' Black wrote about his legal battles.
A Chicago court last Monday gave Black until March 3 to report to a federal prison to start serving the 6 1/2 year prison sentence he received for fraud and obstruction of justice charges over the siphoning of millions of dollars from the Hollinger media empire.
There have been suggestions that Black could be sent to the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex, close to his Florida home.
Marc Mauer, executive director of Washington-based Sentencing Project, a non-governmental organization devoted to inmate rights, said Black would probably be able to cope without modern conveniences like computers.
"He's old enough that he does remember a time when he had to write in longhand without a computer, and possibly without a typewriter, when he was young. This skills can come back if he wants to do a lot of writing certainly,'' he said.
Douglas Pepper is the president of publishing house McClelland & Stewart, which published Black's latest book, The Invincible Quest:The Life of Richard Milhous Nixon. He said the manuscript he received from Black was a meticulously written and edited -- on a computer disk. He had no idea if it was originally written in longhand and then inputed into software.
Still he said if Black wants to write a book in prison it will happen.
"I don't think the American justice system is going to prevent him from doing that. He will find a way... I'm not privy to his method of getting his books done ... I would have to think that Conrad will find a way to do it no matter.''
It isn't only Black's writing habits that will be modified while in prison.
If he is incarcerated at the Coleman facility, his time will be nothing like that of the inmates depicted in television shows such as "Prison Break,'' neither will it be the Club Fed many people associate with federal digs of white collar criminals.
There will be no steam baths, marble tile, or soothing soaks in a private bathtub. The low-security facility will have a one-man shower. But the half door that keeps the stall short of private will serve as a daily reminder of the many indignities Lord Black of Crossharbour will endure in prison.
Instead of being the man who dictates the detailed minutiae of many peoples' lives, Black will be told when to wake up, eat, sleep and what menial task to perform on a daily basis.
His hefty six-figure salary will be replaced with a wage starting at twelve cents an hour.
His days will consist of waking up at 6 a.m., breakfast at 6:30 a.m. and then working until 11 a.m. at which time the prisoners break for lunch.
Prison work consists of an array of laborious tasks including washing pots and pans, polishing floors and scrubbing toilets, said Truman.
After lunch the prisoners must work again until quitting time at 4 p.m.
While other prisoners will have an hour before dinner to watch television or peruse the facility's library offerings, this and the time before lights out at 11 p.m. might be the only down time when Black can put pen to paper in the privacy of the 150-bed dormitory.
Despite Black's status as a senior citizen, he will not be exempt from work without a doctor's note, Truman said.
Meals at the sprawling, four facility complex appear to be nourishing and varied: cereal, fruit and muffins for breakfast, fish sandwiches with vegetables and fruit for lunch and dinners of soup, vegetables and chicken.
The international haute cuisine Black has been accustomed to for most of his life -- and events such as dining with billionaire Donald Trump -- will become a fond memory.
Black, whose bail restricts him to Florida and Chicago, is expected to return to his Palm Beach home until March and is working on an appeal.
