Former Toms River Superintendent goes from federal prison to confinement

Former Toms River Regional Schools Superintendent Michael Ritacco who was sentenced in September of 2012 for corruption and tax evasion charges has been released from federal prison in Cumberland County and into home confinement under the supervision of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The 72-year old Ritacco, who is serving a 135 month sentence (a little more than 11-years) for Scheme to Defraud the Public, and Conspiracy to Impede and Impair the Functions of the IRS, will go from the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, New Jersey to the supervision of the Bureau of Prisons' Philadedlphia Residential Reentry Management Office, BOP spokeswoman Emery Nelson confirms to WOBM News.

Ritacco's projected date of release from the custody of the BOP is May 25, 2022.

The RRM field office in Philadelphia oversea nearly 11,000 federal offenders who are juveniles, short-term jail sentences, long-term boarders, residential reentry centers and home confinement cases.

While Nelson confirmed that Ritacco is now under the supervision of the BOP, it's not known where exactly he will be going to serve the remainder of his sentence just that it will be in Home Confinement.

RRM oversees community confinement facilities known as "Halfway Houses" or Home Confinement.

Nelson explains that Residential Reentry Centers provide transitional services to inmates who are returning to the community from a prison setting.

"For privacy, safety, and security reasons, we do not release information on an individual inmate's conditions of confinement, or release method," Nelson said.

The Asbury Park Press, who was first to report Ritacco's release from federal prison, cited sources saying Ritacco will likely be returning to Toms River.

Ritacco, who was accused of taking $2.5-million in bribes involving broker Francis Gartland and others, plead guilty to corruption and tax evasion charges on April 5, 2012.

"Today's sentence is a just punishment for Ritacco, a public official who enriched himself at the expense of Toms River citizens," U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said on the day of sentencing on September 14, 2012. "By accpeting bribes of more than a million dollars and cheating on his taxes , he betrayed the trust of the taxpayers, students, parents and teachers of that school district."

The U.S. Attorney's office described Ritacco at the time as a"mastermind" at hiding money while Ritacco's lawyers said he was a good man who gave into the temptation of money.

U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano said at the time that this is "the worst case of corruption" he had ever seen and he shamed Ritacco for "stealing" upwards of $2-million from Toms River residents.

Previous reporting by Dan Alexander, Tom Mongelli and Ilya Hemlin was used in this report.

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