Bill Cosby has justly been whisked away to prison for the next three to ten years. Cosby–let’s just go ahead and assume his prison name will be Puddin’–is being shipped off to the Phoenix State Correctional Institution (SCI Phoenix) to serve his time. It’s not a nice place: according to The Root, the clink where Puddin’ will be spending his twilight years is rife with racism. Racial slurs, religious discrimination and other demeaning personal attacks are purportedly inflicted upon the prison’s population by the facility’s staff on a routine basis. Mind you, the staff aren’t one hell of a lot safer. It’s a high caliber shitshow.
From The Inquirer:
In letters and phone calls to family and reporters, and in official grievances, they’ve reported a raft of complaints about the conditions in the new prison and, especially, about loss, vandalism, or destruction of their personal property during the move. Several described racial slurs and graphic imagery drawn on photographs of their loved ones — acts the inmates describe as “hate crimes.”
One man, Malik Gilmore, provided copies of photographs he said were defaced by the DOC’s specially trained Corrections Emergency Response Team, which managed the move: one with a swastika inked on his brother’s forehead, another with a penis drawn over his son’s mouth. Another, Eugene Myrick, found “squeeze cheese” poured into a box containing the legal documents for his case, which is active in Philadelphia courts. And Carmen Calvanese said that during the move, he had inconsistent access to the insulin needed to regulate his Type 1 diabetes, and that he ended up in a hospital intensive-care unit as a result.
The story, which is worth a read, I assure you, continues by pointing out that sex offenders sent to the prison are often found, within days or weeks of their incarceration often die of “suicide.” As it’s the warden’s plan to eventually integrate Puddin’ into the general population of the prison, the prospects of his being able to fulfill all the days in the clink that the justice system says he has coming to him look pretty grim.
Image: by The World Affairs Council of Philadelphia – The World Affairs Council and Girard College present Bill Cosby, CC BY 2.0, Link