So Bernard Madoff is now in jail after pleading guilty to 11 charges including securities fraud. And he has apologised to the investors he scammed, claiming he was "painfully aware" that he had "deeply hurt many, many people, including the members of my family, my closest friends, business associates and the thousands of clients who gave me their money." You can read his court statement here.

Attorney Alan Ellis has told The Wall Street Journal that if have more than 30 years to be served - and Madoff is facing a life sentence - you would typically you go to a federal penitentiary but he says in this case, the authorities are more likely to stick him in a low security jail. "As someone once told me, at low-security facilities, you get punched; at medium-security facilities, you get knifed,'' Ellis said. "He'll probably have to contend with bad things, but as a practical matter, high-profile inmates typically don't get assaulted. They're generally treated pretty well. In my experience, you generally have two types of white collar inmates. The first are the 'Masters of Universe' type. These are folks who aren't used to taking orders and go into prison with an attitude and an arrogance that not only alienates other inmates, but staff too. These folks can have trouble. On the other hand, many white-collar convicts have good people skills, people skills that have helped them get to the top of their field. Those people often can use those people skills to good effect in prison. Other inmates will find themselves going to them for advice, etc. Those folks tend not to have as much of a problem."

Still, that doesn't stop Fox News gleefully pointing out that Madoff is one lucky man. He'd be missing more than his freedom if he was in Saudi Arabia or China.

The thing that many seem to forget is that questions still remain unanswered. By pleading guilty, prosecutors and investors don't get to hear how he perpetrated the world's biggest fraud to date. That's a pity because there are other lingering questions. Did his wife Ruth, brother Peter, sons Mark and Andrew, or for that matter his niece and legal adviser Shana play any role in the fraud. We have to wait and see how the investigations pan out. It certainly won't come out in his testimony.

And then there is the issue of the US Securities and Exchange Commission which stuffed up badly by failing to do its duty and protecting investors. As the Chicago Tribune points out, Madoff might be in jail but the SEC is going to be in the dog house for some time.

Tom Incantalupo at Newsday says Madoff's plea is likely to result in a major shake-up at the SEC. Let's just see. The kind of culture that produced that sort of neglect will be hard to change.