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In the hate crime trial for the murderers of Ahmaud Arbery, the plea deal was rejected because Arbery's family didn't want the defendants to serve time in a federal facility.

This NBC article states

But Arbery's family balked at the deals, particularly an agreement allowing the men to serve their hate crime sentences first in a federal penitentiary.

Why would a federal penitentiary be preferable to a state penitentiary? They were recently convicted on federal hate crime charges, which means they will still have a federal sentence to serve if my understanding is correct. How is the outcome of a conviction different than a plea deal?

What is the advantage of serving a sentence in a federal prison? Are the advantages really so great the family would reject a 30-year plea bargain and admission of guilt for it?

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  • Clarification question, this is a plea deal for the Federal charges, not the state charges which they plead not guilty to?
    – Pete B.
    Mar 3, 2022 at 14:06
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    @PeteB. - yes. They pled not guilty at the murder at a state trial earlier. They were convicted and 2 are serving life with no possibility of parole, one is eligible for parole at 72. This is concerning the federal hate crimes trial, where their plea deal was rejected.
    – sevensevens
    Mar 3, 2022 at 14:53

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What is the advantage of serving a sentence in a federal prison? Are the advantages really so great the family would reject a 30-year plea bargain and admission of guilt for it?

Conditions in federal prisons are, on average, much better than in state prisons. This is mostly due to the mix of fellow prisoners.

State prisons are mostly filled with "blue collar" criminals convicted of serious violent crimes and more serious property crimes like burglary. As a result, the risk of suffering from violent attacks from fellow prisoners is high. The conditions in Georgia prisons, in particular, tend to be worse than "best practices" for state prison administration would strive to establish.

Federal prisons have a large proportion of white collar criminals, non-violent drug offenders, older felons serving time for possession of firearms who are not as violent as they used to be as younger men, and immigration offenders. The most serious offenders, moreover, are often segregated in maximum security prisons where middle aged first time offenders are unlikely to serve their sentences. Federal prisoners are mostly much better behaved in prison than state prisoners.

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