Cosby moved to general prison population area
As he adjusted to incarceration, Bill Cosby spent his first four months in prison in a special unit, isolated from other inmates, out of concern for his safety at SCI Phoenix, a maximum-security facility outside Philadelphia.
But last week authorities moved him from so-called administrative segregation to join the general population in a wing that houses other inmates, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
Amy Worden, a spokeswoman for the corrections department, said Cosby, 81, made the move Jan. 28, although she would not specify the wing to which he was sent. Cosby’s spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, said that the former entertainer’s new single-person cell is in an area that houses only older inmates and that he did not view it as a “general population” unit. But Worden said that that was not the case and that the prison does not have an area reserved for older inmates.
Cosby — now inmate NN7687 — is among the most famous prisoners in America, and his movements have been closely watched since he was sentenced last year in the assault of Andrea Constand at his home in 2004.
“Being released into the general pop means he will have shared meal times, shared yard time, all outof-cell time will be among other individuals,” said Jennifer Storm, the state’s victim advocate who is familiar with the prison where Cosby is serving a three-to-10 year sentence for sexual assault.
Because Cosby is legally blind, he will continue to have another inmate assigned to him “to help him get around as other elderly and/or infirm inmates have as well,” Worden said in an email.
Cosby is appealing his conviction.