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In custody for being a "flight risk" since his conviction in January for tax evasion, America's favorite gay nudist/Machiavellian strategist Richard Hatch has been kept away from the rest of the prison population as he awaits his sentencing later this month:

Hatch, 45, asked to be put in protective custody shortly after he was detained, his attorney, Michael Minns, said Monday. Hatch is being held at a jail in Plymouth, Mass., until his sentencing April 25.

Charles Wyant, a supervisory deputy U.S. marshal, said Hatch was placed in protective custody because he's a celebrity. Any prisoner can make such a request.

"The situation he's in is the best possible position for him to be in at this point in time, the safest and most secure," Wyant said.

While officials claim it was Hatch's own request, we can't help but wonder if perhaps it was the prison that was protecting itself but not letting Hatch mix in with the rest of the population. The wily sociological manipulator could quickly establish authority by integrating his own complex system of alliances and backstabbing to the highly stratified prison culture. Within weeks, representatives from every race gang would be exchanging cartons of cigarettes and sexual favors for some Hatch-enforced "island immunity."