Larry Nassar Prison Life: Stabbing, Restitution, and Oversight Law

Larry Nassar’s life in prison has centered on a high-security federal penitentiary in Florida, where he is serving what functions as a life sentence, survived a near-fatal stabbing in July 2023, was forced by a federal judge to hand over money from his inmate account toward victim restitution, and has lost every appeal he filed.

Sentences and Where He Is Held

Three separate sentencings put Nassar away for the rest of his life. In December 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan gave him 60 years on federal child pornography charges.¹ In January 2018, Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina sentenced him to 40 to 175 years for sexual assault, telling him, “I just signed your death warrant.”² A neighboring Michigan county added 40 to 125 years for further sexual assault convictions.³

He is in federal custody, most notably at United States Penitentiary Coleman II in Sumterville, Florida, a high-security facility. A 2024 inspection report by the District of Columbia Corrections Information Council described specialty housing at Coleman II including a Reintegration Housing Unit for inmates who have requested protective custody, where residents are fully segregated from the general population, movement outside the housing area is limited, and outdoor recreation is offered only one day a week.⁴ The Federal Bureau of Prisons treats sex offenders as a “vulnerable population within a prison setting” and concentrates them in specific facilities to improve safety and support treatment.⁵ Reporting on the 2023 attack indicated Nassar was housed in what is sometimes called a “dropout yard,” a section that keeps certain inmates separated from the general population.⁶

The 2023 Stabbing at Coleman II

On July 9, 2023, another inmate stabbed Nassar approximately ten times with a makeshift weapon.⁷⁸⁹

The attack reportedly followed a lewd comment Nassar made while watching a Wimbledon match. Other inmates stepped in to stop the assault before correctional officers arrived. The attack occurred in an area not covered by surveillance cameras.⁶⁹

The Bureau of Prisons initially declined to name the attacker. He was later identified as Shane McMillan, an inmate with prior convictions for assaulting a federal prison officer and attempting to stab another inmate to death.⁶ McMillan was charged with assault with intent to commit murder and possession of a prohibited object by a federal inmate. A jury convicted him on both counts, and on December 5, 2024, a federal judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison.⁷

Fight Over His Prison Account and Restitution

At federal sentencing, Nassar was ordered to pay $57,488.52 in restitution to five victims and a $5,000 special assessment under the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act. In July 2021, federal prosecutors disclosed that he had spent more than $10,500 from his prison commissary account on items, phone calls, and email while paying only $300 toward restitution, the bare minimum quarterly installment of $25, or roughly $8.33 a month.¹⁰

Since February 2018, Nassar had received $12,825 in deposits to his inmate account, including two COVID-relief stimulus checks totaling $2,000. Third parties sent him money each month via Western Union or MoneyGram, typically $200 or more at a time.¹⁰ Prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Janet Neff to freeze the account, which held $2,041.57 at the time, and to order the Bureau of Prisons to turn over funds up to the full $62,488.52 owed.¹¹

Judge Neff granted the motion in August 2021, ruling that the inmate trust account was not “property that is exempt from collection in a criminal case” and ordering the BOP to seize the funds.¹²¹³ She rejected Nassar’s argument that he should keep the money because he had been complying with BOP policy on minimum payments.¹⁴ The case exposed a wider issue: the Bureau of Prisons had been letting inmates hold unlimited funds in trust accounts, effectively shielding that money from collection on court-ordered debts.¹⁰

Failed Appeals

Nassar has lost every appeal. In August 2018, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals denied his challenge to the 60-year federal sentence. His attorneys had argued that Judge Neff improperly used his state sexual assault convictions in calculating the federal sentencing range and that the consecutive sentences were “procedurally unreasonable.”¹

On June 17, 2022, the Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal of the 40-to-175-year state sentence. His lawyers had argued that Judge Aquilina was biased and should have been disqualified, citing her “vengeful remarks” during sentencing. The court wrote that it did not want to “expend additional judicial resources and further subject the victims in this case to additional trauma where the questions at hand present nothing more than an academic exercise.” All seven justices noted concerns about the sentencing judge’s conduct but concluded she had followed the sentencing agreement negotiated by the parties.³ Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Nassar’s sentence had been upheld on “multiple occasions.”¹⁵

The Federal Prison Oversight Law His Stabbing Helped Prompt

The Nassar stabbing, along with high-profile incidents involving Derek Chauvin and the death of Ted Kaczynski in federal custody, helped push Congress to act on prison safety. On July 25, 2024, President Biden signed the Federal Prison Oversight Act into law. It creates an independent ombudsman to investigate complaints from inmates and staff, requires the DOJ Inspector General to conduct risk-based inspections of all 122 federal prison facilities, and requires the Bureau of Prisons to submit corrective action plans within 60 days of receiving inspection findings.¹⁶ An earlier law signed in December 2022 had already required the BOP to repair broken surveillance cameras and install new ones, a deficiency underscored by the fact that Nassar’s attack occurred in an area with no camera coverage.⁹

As of September 2025, the ombudsman office required by the law had not yet been established. Congressional appropriations committees have directed the Bureau of Prisons to fully implement the statute, and the agency has said it needs tens of millions of dollars in additional funding to do so.¹⁷

1
Lansing State Journal. Larry Nassar Federal Sentence Appeal Child Porn Convictions
2
The New York Times. Larry Nassar Sentencing
3
ESPN. Larry Nassar Loses Last Appeal Sexual Assault Scandal
4
District of Columbia Corrections Information Council. USP Coleman II Inspection Report
5
Federal Bureau of Prisons. Sex Offenders
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MPR News. Derek Chauvin, Larry Nassar Attacks Put Spotlight on Violence in Federal Prisons
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U.S. Department of Justice, Middle District of Florida. Federal Inmate Convicted at Trial Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Assault With Intent to Commit Murder
8
NPR. Larry Nassar Stabbed Florida Prison
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NY1. Larry Nassar Was Stabbed in Prison Cell Attack Not Seen by Surveillance Cameras
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NBC News. Larry Nassar Has Spent Thousands in Prison, Still Owes Victims
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The Washington Post. Larry Nassar Prison Bank Account
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CNN. Larry Nassar Prison Funds Restitution
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Prison Legal News. Federal Courts Order Seizure of Canteen Funds for Restitution Owed by High-Profile Prisoners
14
The Washington Post. Larry Nassar Prison Money
15
CNN. Larry Nassar Appeal Rejected
16
PBS NewsHour. Bill Strengthening Oversight of Crisis-Plagued Federal Prisons Signed Into Law
17
Brennan Center for Justice. Federal Prison Oversight Act Explained