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The State Correctional Institution – Phoenix is a state prison in Skippack Township, Montgomery County,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
, with a Collegeville postal address,SCI Phoenix
"
Pennsylvania Department of Corrections The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PADOC) is the Pennsylvania state agency that is responsible for the confinement, care, and rehabilitation of approximately 37,000 inmates at state correctional facilities funded by the Commonwealth of ...
. Retrieved on September 26, 2018. "Facility Address: 1200 Mokychic Drive Collegeville, PA 19426"
in the
Philadelphia metropolitan area Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
. Operated by
Pennsylvania Department of Corrections The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PADOC) is the Pennsylvania state agency that is responsible for the confinement, care, and rehabilitation of approximately 37,000 inmates at state correctional facilities funded by the Commonwealth of ...
, it was named after the phoenix bird. It cost $400 million to build, making it the most expensive state prison to be constructed in Pennsylvania history. It has a capacity of 3,830 prisoners, and as of September 2018, its full time workforce numbered 1,200.
Heery International CBRE , Heery, formerly known as Heery International, Inc., was founded in 1952 by George T. Heery and his father C. Wilmer Heery Jr., and is a full-service architecture, interior design, engineering, construction management, program management, ...
designed the facility. It replaced SCI Graterford. Most prisoners are male, located in the East and West sub units, while it has a re-entry unit for female prisoners with a capacity of 192. The female unit is not in the main prison perimeter. SCI Phoenix is one of two prisons that share Pennsylvania's death row. The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections anticipated that most of the prisoners would be from the area of Philadelphia, and currently SCI Phoenix is the state prison closest to Philadelphia. - Se
the diagram which indicates the "capital unit"
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History

The SCI Phoenix buildings were built on the SCI Graterford land area, and the Phoenix and Graterford buildings are about apart, with SCI Phoenix fencing beginning about 1,100 feet east of SCI Graterford's fencing. The first bidding for construction of this prison occurred in the decade of the 2000s. The prison, originally to open in November 2014, opened late since Walsh Heery Joint Venture, the construction company, and
Hill International Hill International, Inc., a member of the Global Infrastructure Solutions, Inc., family of companies, is a global construction consulting firm. Founded in 1976, the company's corporate headquarters is in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, U.S. Hill pro ...
, a Philadelphia company representing the State of Pennsylvania, had a dispute over whether the prison was ready to open. , the prison's final cost was still not finalized. On June 1, 2018, its dedication ceremony was held, and the prison began operations on July 9, 2018. The state began moving Graterford prisoners there on July 11, 2018, and Graterford ended operations on July 15. Graterford's employees now were employees of Phoenix. Some inmates disliked the move as they feared they would be sharing cells with other inmates, while at Graterford they had single cells. The population of Graterford was to reduce to 2,588 inmates by June 2018, so that the transfer of inmates to Phoenix would not involve as many people, and Phoenix eventually opened, with 2,633 prisoners. Initially, prisoners with life sentences who had single cells at Graterford would continue to have single cells at Phoenix. At some point all of the death penalty prisoners at SCI Greene were moved to SCI Phoenix. In 2024 the state began moving some death row prisoners to SCI Somerset.


Composition

Many prisoners are two to a cell, and most cells have the dimensions by . Phoenix has 3,422 beds. It has inmates convicted of capital murder, many from the Philadelphia area and most of whom were sentenced to life imprisonment but with some under death sentences, housed in a dedicated section of the prison, called the "Capital Unit." That section is larger than the previous capital case section that was in Graterford. The PADOC stated that the prison hoped to move inmates with death sentences from SCI Greene, where most death row and capital murder inmates in Pennsylvania resided, to SCI Phoenix so that the prison system can more easily transport them to court proceedings.


Notable inmates

*
Cool C Christopher Douglas Roney (born December 15, 1969), known by the stage name Cool C, is an American former rapper active in the late 1980s. He is also known for his involvement in the murder of Philadelphia Police officer Lauretha Vaird during ...
, rapper and murderer. Sentenced to death. *
Danilo Cavalcante Danilo Souza Cavalcante (; born July 3, 1989) is a Brazilian national accused of murder in the Brazilian state of Tocantins and a convicted murderer in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. After originally being wanted by Brazilian authorities for hi ...
, escaped prisoner who led police on a 14-day manhunt throughout
Chester County Chester County may refer to: * Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States ** Chester County Council, boy scout council in Pennsylvania. * Chester County, South Carolina, United States * Chester County, Tennessee, United States * Cheshire ...
, imprisoned for killing his girlfriend. *
Bill Cosby William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American retired comedian, actor, and media personality. Often cited as a trailblazer for African Americans in the entertainment industry, Cosby was a film, television, and stand-up comedy ...
, actor, comedian, and formerly convicted sex offender who was released on June 30, 2021 after his conviction was vacated by the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It began in 1684 as the Provincial Court, and casual references to it as the "Supreme Court" of Pennsylvania were made offici ...
. *
Eric Frein Eric Matthew Frein (born May 3, 1983) is an American murderer, convicted and sentenced to death for the 2014 Pennsylvania State Police barracks attack in which he shot and killed one State Trooper, and seriously injured another. A letter to hi ...
, ambushed 2 Pennsylvania State Police, murdering Corporal Bryon K. Dickson Jr., in September 2014. Sentenced to death. * Melvin Knight, one of the murderers of Jennifer Daugherty. Sentenced to death. * Joshua Komisarjevsky, one of two perpetrators of the
Cheshire, Connecticut, home invasion murders On July 23, 2007, two home intruders entered the home of the Petit family in Cheshire, Connecticut, United States. The perpetrators, Linda Hayes (known as Steven Hayes at the time) and Joshua Andrew Komisarjevsky, initially planned only to ...
. Connecticut inmate incarcerated in Pennsylvania, originally sentenced to death commuted to life in prison after the death penalty was declared unconstitutional by the Connecticut Supreme Court. Currently incarcerated in SCI Mahanoy. * Joseph Ligon, America's oldest and longest-serving juvenile lifer. Originally sentenced to life in prison without parole, released on February 11, 2021, after the United States Supreme Court declared life sentences without parole for juveniles unconstitutional. * Harvey Miguel Robinson, serial killer. Sentenced to death. * Ricky Smyres, one of the murderers of Jennifer Daugherty. Sentenced to death. * Raghunandan Yandamuri, murderer and kidnapper, since moved to
State Correctional Institution – Somerset State Correctional Institution – Somerset is a medium-security, all-male correctional facility located outside Somerset, Pennsylvania, about southeast of Pittsburgh, and about off the Somerset Interchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. In March ...
. Sentenced to death.


References


External links


State Correctional Institution – Phoenix
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Pennsylvania Department of Corrections The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PADOC) is the Pennsylvania state agency that is responsible for the confinement, care, and rehabilitation of approximately 37,000 inmates at state correctional facilities funded by the Commonwealth of ...

SCI Phoenix
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Heery International CBRE , Heery, formerly known as Heery International, Inc., was founded in 1952 by George T. Heery and his father C. Wilmer Heery Jr., and is a full-service architecture, interior design, engineering, construction management, program management, ...
*
Tour Pennsylvania's newest prison: SCI Phoenix
" -
Pennlive ''The Patriot-News'' is the largest newspaper serving Harrisburg–Carlisle metropolitan statistical area in central Pennsylvania. In 2005, the newspaper was ranked in the top 100 in daily and Sunday circulation in the United States. It has bee ...
at
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:State Correctional Institution - Phoenix 2018 establishments in Pennsylvania Buildings and structures in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Capital punishment in Pennsylvania State prisons in Pennsylvania