Having served two years of his 150-year sentence, Bernard L. Madoff remains upset that Judge Denny Chin did not give him a shorter term, which might have allowed him the chance someday to regain his freedom, even as a very old man.

“Maybe the judge felt, ‘Well, he’s 70 years old, so even if I give him 20 years, he’s going to be 90 years old,’ ” Mr. Madoff said by phone from the federal prison in Butner, N.C.

“But quite frankly, there’s a big difference with dying in prison, you know, and dying outside with your family.”

Judge Chin has said in recent interviews that he considered a sentence that might have allowed Mr. Madoff to be freed when he is in his 90s. But he concluded that Mr. Madoff simply did not deserve it, and in court called his conduct “extraordinarily evil.”