Robert Hanssen's New Home

Sefl-confessed FBI spy Robert P. Hanssen appears to have lost his bid to serve out his life sentence in the relative comfort of Allenwood federal penitentiary in White Deer, Pa.

Sources say that Justice Department officials have informed Plato Cacheris, Hanssen's lawyer, that the Bureau of Prisons can't closely restrict Hanssen's communications, as required by the plea agreement, if he is assigned to Allenwood, the low-security prison that CIA traitor Aldrich Ames calls home. Hanssen wanted to be posted to Allenwood in hopes that he might be visited frequently by his wife Bonnie and their six children.

FBI and CIA personnel who debriefed Hanssen about his 21 years as a spy for Moscow found him a prickly, uncooperative character and won't be sorry to see him pulling hard time in a distant lock-up. They may get their wish: rumors are circulating that he may be sent to the dreaded "supermax" prison in Florence, Colorado, usually reserved for uncontrollably violent inmates who try to kill guards and other prisoners.

BOP spokesperson Judy Garrett will say only that Hanssen's fate hasn't been decided. "We'll make a designation based on where we think we can best manage him," Garrett says.