New York, Mar. 19 : Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff is being treated like a `lab rat’ in the super-max wing of the Manhattan federal lockup.

The unit is said to be so tough that it drives hardened criminals mad, the New York Daily News reports.

The unit is known as 10 South as it is located on the 10th floor of the lockup and houses the city''s toughest mobsters and most bloodthirsty terrorists.

Madoff, 70, has had to forget that he was once a vaunted Wall Street financier entrusted with billions of investment dollars.

The lights in the block burn 24 hours a day, and an inmate''s every move is caught on video.

Madoff gets just 60 minutes a day outside his 8-by-8-foot cell - in wrist shackles.

Windows are blacked out so disoriented inmates can''t catch even a glimpse of the world outside.

What passes for food is slipped through a narrow slit in a stainless steel door that fronts a spartan cell - cold in winter, scorching hot in summer.

No interaction is permitted between inmates or guards. Only a ranking officer is allowed to remove a prisoner from his tiny cell.

Lawyer visits are few and far between. Reading material is almost nonexistent.

The squalid conditions are enough to make blood-stained tough guys cry - never mind a pampered ex-billionaire.

Several sources confirm his lawyers visited Madoff in 10 South since his 10 million dollar bail was revoked last week pending his June 16 sentencing.

When his lawyers hit court Thursday, asking an appeals panel to restore his bail, Madoff won''t accompany them. He''ll remain inside his grim new home.

Lawyers say this could just be a way station for Madoff while prison officials gauge his physical and mental well being. Or it could be his home away from home for the months to come before he''s shipped off to a faraway prison to serve a likely life sentence. (ANI)