Bill Cosby’s life in prison: What will it be like?

By Laura McCrystal / The Philadelphia Inquirer

PHILADELPHIA —Bill Cosby spent his first night behind bars Tuesday, marking the start of his three to 10 year prison sentence for sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.

After leaving the courthouse in Norristown, Pa., in handcuffs Tuesday afternoon, Cosby was transported to the Montgomery County Jail in Lower Providence Township. He stayed there briefly for booking, and by 6 p.m. was on his way to the State Correctional Institution Phoenix in Collegeville.

Cosby will remain at SCI Phoenix for the duration of his prison term, the Department of Corrections said Wednesday morning.

He was booked into Phoenix and was initially given a single cell with no cellmate “adjacent to the infirmary,” because he is a high-profile inmate, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Amy Worden.

Prison officials said they hope Cosby will eventually join the general population of inmates at Phoenix, which has nearly 4,000 beds.

Cosby will meet with staff from the prison’s medical, psychology, and records departments, as part of standard practice to assess new inmates, Worden said. That evaluation process can take several weeks.

“We are taking all of the necessary precautions to ensure Mr. Cosby’s safety and general welfare in our institution,” said Corrections Secretary John Wetzel. “The long-term goal is for him to be placed in the general population to receive the programming required during his incarceration.”

Because Cosby was designated as a “sexually violent predator,” he must attend sex offender counseling sessions while in prison. Judge Steven T. O’Neill said Cosby is “in need of correctional treatment” that can be provided in state prisons.

Cosby will be allowed phone calls, but visits in the first 10 days will be limited to lawyers and religious advisers. After that, Worden said, Cosby can submit a list of as many as 50 people to be approved as visitors.

SCI Phoenix is the state’s newest and most expensive prison. It opened earlier this year on the same campus as SCI Graterford.

Meals vary depending on the day, according to the Department of Corrections summer and fall 2018 menu. Inmates can choose between a meat or vegetarian entree for lunches and dinners. One dinner, for example, is roast pork with gravy, whipped potatoes, greens, bread and applesauce. Dessert is sometimes pudding; Cosby appeared on Jell-O Pudding commercials for years, but the prison menu does not specify the brand of pudding served.

District Attorney Kevin Steele had suggested during the sentencing hearing that SCI Laurel Highlands in Somerset County, 230 miles west of Philadelphia, which is equipped to care for elderly or sick inmates.

But the Department of Corrections has the final say, and announced Wednesday that Cosby would remain at Phoenix, a maximum-security facility.

Cosby’s lawyers had argued that he should stay out of prison because he is 81 and legally blind.

“I don’t remember anyone ever sentencing a blind octogenarian who is a first-time offender to state prison,” his lawyer Joseph Green told Judge Steven T. O’Neill.

Cosby is not the only octogenarian or blind inmate in the state prison system.

There are about a dozen inmates with visual impairments in Pennsylvania, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Susan McNaughton, and some of them have inmate guides to help lead them around.

McNaughton said the state prison system has 86 inmates who are age 80 and older. There are two inmates who are 91, she said —the oldest in the state.

Cosby’s lawyers, meanwhile have vowed to appeal his conviction.

“They persecuted Jesus and look what happened,” his publicist Andrew Wyatt said outside the courthouse Tuesday. “Not saying Mr. Cosby is Jesus, but we know what this country has done to black men for centuries.”

Kristen Feden, one of the Montgomery County prosecutors who worked on the case against Cosby, responded to his statement Wednesday morning on NBC’s “Today” show.

“To equivocate that man to Jesus is just offensive,” she said.

Feden said justice was finally served for Constand as Cosby went away to prison.

“I asked her is she happy with the sentence,” Feden said. “And she said yes.”