Jim Black moves closer to home

Former House Speaker Jim Black is being moved to a prison closer to home. Black, a Mecklenburg County Democrat, was transferred late Friday to a federal prison in Jesup, GA, 300 miles south of Charlotte, according to Park Helms, a former Mecklenburg commissioners chairman and a friend of Black. That's more than 200 miles closer to home than his former prison in Lewisburg, PA. An official at the prison said Saturday that a "James Black" is an inmate there but would provide no further details. Last month, more than 150 friends of Black -- including Helms, Matthews Mayor Lee Myers and former Republican Gov. Jim Martin -- wrote to federal prison officials asking for leniency because of the failing health of Black, 74, and his wife. They also wrote letters to President Barack Obama, asking that Black's sentence be commuted. Helms said he fears that nothing short of commuting Black's sentence will allow his ailing wife to see him. Black's wife, Betty, has degenerative Lou Gherig's disease and Helms said he feels the move doesn't get Black close enough to her. "It doesn't matter whether it's a hundred miles or 200," Helms said. "She's just actually got limited time. ... I think a commutation now is really teh only thing that can give her and probably [Black] some relief." Black was sentenced for accepting thousands of dollars in illegal payments while speaker of the House. Black has been locked up since July 2007 in Lewisburg. He's scheduled for release in 2012. (Cleve R. Wootson, Jr., THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 7/12/09).