Just days after Bill Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in his home 14 years ago, new details are emerging about the sex offender treatment he’ll receive while he’s behind bars.
Judge Steven O’Neill branded the disgraced comedian, 81, a “sexually violent predator” during his sentencing on Sept. 25 and ordered him to immediately be incarcerated in a Pennsylvania state prison.
During his first few weeks as inmate NN7687, prison officials confirm Cosby — who’s being housed in his own cell near the infirmary — will be meeting with medical, psychological and records staff as he’s evaluated so that, TMZ reports, they can “determine the extent of his sex offender treatment.”
The program he’ll be assigned to is called “Responsible Living: A Sex Offender Treatment Program,” TMZ explains, and while it’s something all convicted sex offenders must go through, how far into the program Cosby gets depends on how much of a danger experts decide he poses.
The program has seven phases, reports TMZ: Phase 1: Responsibility taking; Phase 2: Behavioral techniques; Phase 3: Emotional well-being; Phase 4: Victim empathy; Phase 5: Anger management; Phase 6: Sex education; Phase 7: Relapse prevention.
“According to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Cosby will go through an evaluation process to determine what category of risk he falls in and what sort of treatment is deemed fit in the state sex offender program,” TMZ writes, explaining that the comedian — who maintains his innocence despite dozens of women’s claims that he raped or sexually assaulted them over the decades, many say after he incapacitated them with drugs — could end up completing just a few steps.
“If he falls into a moderate-high or a high-risk category, he’ll have to complete all seven phases of the sex offender program,” TMZ explains. “If he falls into a low or low-moderate risk category, he’s just required to knock out ‘Responsibility taking,’ ‘Sex education’ and ‘Relapse prevention.'”
Cosby is so far serving his sentence at Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution Phoenix in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, a 3,830-bed facility that houses some of the state’s most violent offenders. The state-of-the-art prison is brand new and only opened in July. Officials could determine that he should be transferred to a different facility at a later date.
Though Cosby, who’s legally blind, is currently in a cell on his own, Corrections Secretary John Wetzel explained in a press release that “the long-term goal is for him to be placed in the general population to receive the programming required during his incarceration.”
Cosby was convicted in an April retrial of three counts of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand.
Main image credit: WW
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