Disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar is one of the most notorious criminals of the 21st century,
and his time in prison has already been marked by violent incidents.
On July 9, 2023, Larry Nassar was assaulted in federal prison. He hadn't yet begun to serve his
40- to 175-year state sentence after sexually abusing more than 500 women and girl gymnasts,
including several Olympians. At the time, he was already serving
a 60-year federal prison sentence for child pornography. Meanwhile,
he was also failing to adequately pay the court-ordered restitution to his abuse victims.
Nassar began serving his federal sentence in December 2017 after pleading guilty to
three counts of child pornography earlier that year. He's been in
federal custody since his December 2016 arrest. After his sentencing,
his attorney reportedly said that he was working towards redemption by helping
his fellow inmates and attending Bible classes while in custody. In 2017, Nassar told a judge,
"I hope one day I can be forgiven,
and I’m going to take every day of your sentence to try to better myself."
The stabbing of Nassar in July 2023 was actually the second time he was attacked
while incarcerated. The first time happened back in 2018 when he was being held at the
United States Penitentiary in Tucson, Arizona, when he was assaulted by a
fellow inmate after prison officials released him into the general population. His lawyers
claimed that the attack was spurred on by the remarks of Michigan Judge Rosemarie Aquilina.
During Nassar's sentencing on the sexual assault charges, Aquilina called him a "monster" and said
that if the Constitution allowed it, she would let someone, quote, "do to him what he did to
others." Nassar was sentenced to federal prison in Michigan but then transferred to Arizona,
the only high-security federal prison facility with a sex-offender-management program
After the attack in Arizona, Nassar was held for a time at Oklahoma City's Federal Transfer
Center before he was finally transferred to the Coleman II U.S. Penitentiary in Sumterville,
Florida. In the 2023 assault, he was stabbed 10 times in the neck, back, and chest. The
Florida facility holds 1,400 inmates total, all male, and it was reportedly understaffed
when Nassar was attacked. Approximately 1,200 inmates were imprisoned there at the time.
"Until we get us properly staffed, properly within our safety confines,
this will happen over and over again."
In Nassar's federal case, the court ordered him to pay restitution totaling nearly
$60,000. At one point, he had more than $12,825 in his prison account,
but he was only paying about $8 a month in restitution. An investigation revealed that
there was only about $2,000 in his account. In August 2021, a federal judge ordered that the
money in his account be confiscated and put toward his outstanding restitution.
When officials discovered that more than $10,000 was unaccounted for, they looked
into the discrepancy but have thus far been unable to determine what happened to the missing
funds. John Manly, a lawyer for many of Nassar's victims, reacted to this revelation by stating,
"The notion that anybody in the Justice Department would let this happen is just revolting. The
timing of this, with my client being unable to compete because of what happened to her,
couldn't be more upsetting [...] Something is completely broken and needs to be fixed."
In 2016, Nate Lindell, a former inmate at Coleman II, offered some insight into what life might be
like for Nassar at the correctional site. As he wrote in an article for The Marshall Project,
"I knew Coleman II as a so-called special-needs prison — a 'safe' facility where informants,
former cops, ex-gang members, check-ins, homosexuals and sex offenders can all,
supposedly, walk the yard freely. At regular [Federal Bureau of Prisons] lockups,
these types of men are in danger of being beaten, stabbed, or strangled to death."
Nassar will turn 60 in August 2023. Should he live to see the end of his 60-year sentence for
child pornography in 2069, he would then return to Michigan to begin serving his
up to 175-year state prison sentence on seven counts of criminal sexual conduct.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual
assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network
website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).