Bill Cosby is expected to spend the next three to 10 years of his life in a new Pennsylvania state prison while serving out his sentence for drugging and molesting a woman. Photos / AP
Bill Cosby is expected to spend the next three to 10 years of his life in a new Pennsylvania state prison while serving out his sentence for drugging and molesting a woman. Photos / AP
Bill Cosby has reportedly been spending his first week in prison making friends with staffers and touring the Pennsylvania facility with his personal guide.
The disgraced comedian was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison last Tuesday for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constrand in 2004.
According to TMZ, Cosby starts his day early with breakfast in his cell and often chats with his wife.
During the day, Cosby, who is legally blind, is escorted around the SCI Phoenix prison by a personal guide, according to the Daily Mail.
He has been using the prison's library, yard and other facilities, but he is still waiting entry into general population, according to TMZ.
Cosby eats his dinner and lunch either in his cell or an open room.
Bill Cosby is escorted out of the Montgomery County Correctional Facility. Photo / AP
The 81-year-old has reportedly spent a lot of time chatting with prison staff, whom he calls very respectful.
Although Cosby isn't allowed to have visitors yet, he does get daily calls from his wife Camille. According to the celebrity news site, the calls last for just a few minutes.
Cosby is also free to have a personal tablet for music or games but will not have internet access, corrections spokeswoman Amy Worden said.
Cosby and his wife usually speak about appealing his conviction, which is expected to focus on Montgomery County Judge Steven O'Neill's decision to allow several accusers to testify against him.
The first trial hinged largely on the credibility of Constand, who said he drugged and sexually assaulted her in 2004, and ended in a hung jury.
At his second trial in April, O'Neill allowed the jury to hear five other women with strikingly similar stories of sexual abuse. Cosby was found guilty.
His lawyers now face a difficult burden in convincing an appellate court to second-guess O'Neill's decision, experts claim.
A tour group entering block D in the west section of the State Correctional Institution at Phoenix in Collegeville. Photo / AP
"I don't think that they have any significant likelihood of winning this appeal," said Michelle Dempsey, a law professor at Villanova University in Philadelphia.
"The evidence was solid, and the standard in Pennsylvania is clear."
Other potential appeals grounds include the decade-plus gap between the crime and Cosby's arrest, claims of bias against the trial judge and an alleged promise by a former district attorney not to prosecute Cosby for the Constand incident.
Cosby, once known as 'America's Dad' for his role as the beloved patriarch of the Huxtable family on the 1980s television comedy The Cosby Show, has been accused by more than 50 women of sexual abuse dating back decades.
Only Constand's allegations were recent enough to lead to criminal prosecution.
Immediately after his sentencing, Cosby was escorted from the courthouse and into a dark SUV before being taken to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility before being transferred to the SCI Phoenix prison.
Authorities later released a grim mugshot of Cosby once he arrived at the $400million prison.
Cosby is being held in a single cell next to the infirmary. The prison system assigned him inmate number NN7687.
A cell is seen in a housing unit in the West section of the State Correctional Institution at Phoenix. Photo / AP
The SCI Phoenix is a maximum security, 3,830-bed, handicap-accessible prison which began operating earlier this year.
The prison is staffed by 1,200 full-time employees and features 164 acreage inside its double ring of razor wire fences and a 1.5mile perimeter.
Among the prison's program offerings are sex offender treatment, victim awareness and impact of crime classes.
