Believe it or not, Richard Hatch is having a tough time adjusting to prison life.
The original Survivor winner is currently doing time at a minimum security prison in West Virginia after he was found guilty of neglecting to pay taxes on his reality winnings and other sources of income and sentenced to 51 months behind bars.
Hatch arrived at the Robert F. Kennedy Federal Correctional Institution on July 25, after beginning his sentence at a prison camp in Massachusetts, then being transferred to a federal lockup in Oklahoma.
Though he'll go so far as to call the food "very good" in comparison to other prison cuisine he's experienced, Hatch is nonetheless finding it hard to get used to his new surroundings.
"I don't think I will adjust to any of this until I can prove I was unethically prosecuted," he told the Morgantown, West Virginia Dominion Post.
The Rhode Island native is working on an appeal and maintains that he is innocent of the charges against him.
"I don't regret having done what I've done because I didn't do anything wrong," he told the Dominion Post. "This has been four years of a terrible battle."
At his trial, Hatch attempted to convince a jury of his peers that he believed CBS would foot his income tax bill after awarding him his million-dollar prize.
His attorney, Michael Minns, called his client "the world's worst bookkeeper," and claimed that Hatch's failure to pay his taxes was merely an oversight.
But a jury of his peers saw the situation differently, as did the judge, who handed Hatch a harsher sentence than expected, after finding that he had perjured himself repeatedly on the stand.
Hatch is spending his time behind bars chronicling his life's experiences, beginning from the time he applied to be on Survivor.
"I'm focused on writing what has gone so terribly wrong," he told the Dominion Post. "I'm not sure what conclusions I will draw. That will happen when I'm acquitted."
He is also planning to work as a tutor to his fellow inmates, many of whom he says recognize him from his Survivor days.
"There are 1,300-plus inmates who think they know me, so it's an interesting experience," he said. "They all have questions--want to know what this experience is like and what Survivor was about."
Quite a change from the solitary confinement of his early prison days.
Minns said he thought there was a good chance that Hatch's case would be turned over on appeal.
"I'm guardedly optimistic--we have some excellent points," he told the Dominion Post.
As of now, Hatch is scheduled to be released on Oct. 7, 2009--unless, of course, he finds a way to outwit, outplay and outlast the system.