Cosby’s kids, wife haven’t seen him in prison

PHILADELPHIA — Bill Cosby has been moved to the general population but hasn’t had any visits from family four months after arriving at a Pennsylvania state prison.

The 81-year-old Cosby, who is legally blind, has been moved out of special housing where he spent time getting acclimated, a prison spokeswoman said. He still has inmates assigned to help him throughout the day, given his age and disability.

Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt said he doesn’t expect Camille Cosby or their daughters to visit the prison, which is about 32 kilometres from a family estate in the Philadelphia suburbs. Cosby is serving a three- to 10-year term for drugging and molesting a woman there in 2004.

“He doesn’t want to have them in that environment,” said Wyatt, who visits regularly. “Why put them in that position, to make it turn into some form of a circus?”

Camille Cosby made just one brief appearance at each of her husband’s two criminal trials, and their three surviving daughters stayed away. Cosby’s wife of more than 50 years did, however, file an ethics complaint against the trial judge last year, accusing him of bias in the case.

She continues to strategize on her husband’s behalf behind the scenes, Wyatt told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Cosby, after being moved last week, now has a single cell in a two-storey unit at the newlybuilt SCI-Phoenix in Montgomery County. Wyatt said he’s in a unit reserved for veterans, something the prison would not confirm. He had earlier been in a private cell and day room near the infirmary.

Cosby believes he is a “political prisoner,” targeted for his social and political views much like heroes Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, Wyatt said.

“He said, ‘They want to entrap me to say I’m remorseful, or to say I did something I didn’t do.’ I’m not going to fall for it,” Wyatt said.

Inmates at Phoenix are awakened at 6 a.m. and back in their cells by 8:45 p.m.

They can spend several hours a day in the gym or exercise yard, and other time in the library, classroom, day room or visiting area, state prison spokeswoman Amy Worden said.