NBCSandiego.com - News - Cunningham's Life About To Change Again

SAN DIEGO -- Life for Randy "Duke" Cunningham has changed, of course, and it is about to change again.

The corrupt former congressman, who was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison for bribery, is currently staying at San Diego's Metropolitan Correctional Facility.

There are modest amenities provided to Cunningham at the facility, but he is not able to move around, and he has only the basics available to him in his cell.

"Toilet and a bed," attorney Knut Johnson told NBC 7/39. "There'll be other prisoners in that little quad, and sometimes they'll communicate by shouting back and forth to each other."

Because Cunningham's meals are brought to him, he does not go to a common dining area. He has already had a medical checkup and talked with a psychologist.

The disgraced congressman's stay in San Diego will be over soon. At some point in the next three days, he will be sent to a federal facility for a medical evaluation, and when those results are determined, he will be sent to a federal prison, possibly one in Taft, Calif..

If that destination is Taft, which his attorneys requested, he will be incarcerated with people who have been convicted of -- among other things -- fraud and possibly alien smuggling. Some prisoners at Taft have been transferred from higher-security prisons because of good behavior.

Johnson has provided advice and information to people headed to federal prison.

"You have to take a breath and relax, and understand that -- particularly someone in Duke Cunningham's position -- they're not going into a prison with a lot of violent and dangerous prisoners," said Johnson.

With good behavior, Cunningham could be out of custody in seven years and one month.