Murderer Danelo Cavalcante, who escaped from a Pennsylvania county jail last month, has been moved to S.C.I. Phoenix, a maximum-security facility in Montgomery County, Pa., the New York Times reports. S.C.I. Phoenix, described as a “state-of-the-art facility” by the state’s Department of Corrections, is a maximum-security prison that opened five years ago. The prison has been deemed the state’s most modern and expensive correctional facility and is equipped with high-tech security features. The facility’s perimeter is lined with two rows of razor-wire fence and is equipped with a system that officials say can detect anyone who is trying to scale or cut the fence. Between the two concentric fences, a system is installed that detects weight, so an alarm would sound if an inmate were to make it into the space between the fences.
The Phoenix prison, built at a cost of $400 million, replaced the 1929-era Graterford prison. The new prison, on 164 acres of land 30 miles west of Philadelphia, houses just under 3,000 inmates — less than its capacity. There has been one reported escape attempt since the facility opened; it occurred last year. Maria Bivens, a spokeswoman for the corrections department, said prison managers will review Cavalcante's records as part of the intake process and determine which areas he may access. Typically, once inmates have completed classification and placement, they get the same privileges as other inmates in their unit.
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