Damage from a 2003 bombing outside C&S Coin Operated Amusements in Berwyn. (U.S. attorney's office)

       Outlaws motorcycle gang member Mark Polchan says the decade he’s spent behind bars for his role in a violent, mob-connected crew has left him a changed man.

       The once-feared gang leader has taken up knitting in prison. He’s graduated from classes such as “Math Made Simple” and “Wellness: Body Composition.” He’s been so well-behaved, in fact, he was transferred recently to a medium security penitentiary, where he currently works as a unit orderly.

       Polchan’s renaissance was a key reason his lawyers asked a federal judge to drastically reduce his original 60-year sentence, which was thrown out last year on a legal technicality.

       On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman said he agreed that Polchan’s impressive record in prison “stands in his favor.”

       But in sentencing Polchan to 30 years — half of his original term — the judge said he was concerned more with “the law of diminishing returns” when it comes to lengthy sentences, particularly for a defendant separated from his life of crime by age and experience.

       “It leads me to believe that there is a basis for giving (Polchan) an opportunity to start over again while he is still young enough to do so,” Guzman said.

       The ruling means that Polchan, 54, could be released in about 13 years. He previously had not been slated for release until September 2059, prison records show.

       Prior to learning his new sentence, Polchan apologized to the court, his family, and his victims for his crimes, saying in a gruff, halting voice that his time behind bars has given him a chance to “see things how they really are.”

       “Everything wasn’t good. There was a lot of bad involved,” he said. “But I’ve done everything possible since you sentenced me in 2011 to better myself.”

       Prosecutors, however, weren’t so impressed.

       In a filing last month, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu said that Polchan was for years at the center of an organized criminal enterprise that “robbed, shot, stabbed, stole, and preyed upon the citizens of this and other communities.”

       At the resentencing hearing Wednesday, Bhachu said Polchan’s good record in prison would be “cold comfort” to his many victims, including jewelry store owners who had guns shoved in their faces, wives who were hogtied and threatened, businessmen shot and homeowners stabbed.

       “I don’t think the victims of the defendant’s rampages will be heartened by the fact that while in prison he picked up some new skills that are going to help him, like knitting and the like,” Bhachu said.

       Polchan was convicted by a federal jury in December 2010 along with reputed mob boss Michael “The Large Guy” Sarno and three others of running a lucrative illegal video poker racket, pulling off a string of armed robberies and planting a pipe bomb in front of a rival business cutting into their gambling turf.

       Sarno, 63, was sentenced to 25 years in prison and is currently set for release in May 2032.

       Prosecutors allege the ring netted more than $1.2 million in jewelry that was then fenced at a Cicero pawnshop owned by Polchan, who also helped authorize the robberies, prosecutors said.

       Polchan was paid to plan the bombing outside C & S Coin Operated Amusements, a video poker business targeted by Sarno to protect his illegal gaming operations. No one was injured, but the late-night blast blew out windows and caused extensive damage.

       It was that bombing that led to Polchan’s resentencing after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an arson involving only property damage should not have been sentenced as a crime of violence.

       Much of the resentencing focused on legal calculations of the federal sentencing guidelines given the high court’s ruling.

       But in asking for a reduced sentence of as little as 20 years, Polchan’s attorney, William Hardwicke, highlighted the former biker’s stellar prison record, filing with the court copies of certificates Polchan received for Beginning Crochet and other classes.

       “Beyond simply avoiding trouble, Mr. Polchan has actively engaged in the educational and rehabilitative opportunities provided by the BOP,” Hardwicke wrote.

       Polchan even served as a mentor to other inmates, Hardwicke said, particularly at the federal penitentiary in Oxford, Wisconsin, where he oversaw a group program called “Maintaining a Positive Sense of Self.”

       Guzman, however, said nothing Polchan has done in prison can change the seriousness of his crimes, which the judge called “the stuff of dark movies.”

       “The victims of these criminal actions were shot, stabbed, threatened, restrained and terrorized for many years,” Guzman said.

       jmeisner@chicagotribune.com

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