Solitary Confinement

A federal appeals court in Philadelphia yesterday said it can't fault with Pennsylvania prison officials for keeping convicted cop-killer and escape artist Russell Shoats in solitary confinement for nearly nine straight years. Shoats contended he's been kept in the so-called "hole" since June 1991 because of his past crimes, which include the 1970 murder of Fairmount Park Police Sgt. Frank Von Colln, two prison escapes, kidnapping and assault. His continued solitary confinement while serving life for the Von Colln murder can't be justified, he argued.

Murder suspect Thomas J. Capano described himself as a broken man yesterday, and his appearance and demeanor during a brief discussion in Superior Court here fit the image. He has lost 30 to 40 pounds since his arrest and imprisonment back in November. His hair, cropped close, has begun to turn gray. His complexion is chalky white. He walked with the shuffle of a man nearly twice his age. And when he spoke, he appeared to be struggling to sustain his train of thought.

Reputed mob boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino was sprung from solitary confinement yesterday just as his lawyer was about to argue that prison officials were violating his civil rights by holding him in isolation at the Federal Detention Center. Under the terms of an agreement hammered out before a hearing was to begin before U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno, Merlino, who is awaiting trial on racketeering charges, will be housed in the general population at the prison and will be allowed to meet regularly with six codefendants who are also in custody.

For 20 years, Ira Einhorn avoided the prying questions of law enforcement and others by living as a fugitive in Europe. Now almost two weeks into his life sentence for the 1977 murder of girlfriend Holly Maddux, Einhorn appears to have embarked on a self-imposed exile in solitary confinement behind bars in the imposing Graterford Prison. Prison officials said yesterday that Einhorn, 61, had said he preferred being housed in "administrative custody" - prison jargon for solitary confinement in a cell for 22 hours daily with no contact with other inmates.

Reputed Philadelphia mob boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino yesterday filed suit against the U.S. Justice Department and federal prison officials, arguing that his constitutional rights are being violated by keeping him in solitary confinement as he awaits trial on racketeering charges. The lawsuit filed in federal court in Philadelphia by Merlino's attorney Edwin J. Jacobs Jr. follows several months of letters and informal complaints by Merlino and his family over the circumstances of his confinement in the new Federal Detention Center at Seventh and Arch Streets across from the federal courthouse.

When Charles Dickens visited the United States, he wanted to see two things: Niagara Falls and Eastern State Penitentiary. The foreboding Gothic fortress opened in October 1829, months after The Inquirer began publication, the steel-and-stone representation of a new idea. No longer would people in prison be whipped, beaten and starved. At Eastern State, they would be given the time and means to become penitent, a Quaker-inspired solitary confinement allowing them to contemplate their sins and mend their ways.

OSLO, Norway - Confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik was ordered to remain in pretrial detention for eight weeks Monday during a closed court hearing in which he was cut off from making statements irrelevant to the case, a judge said. The right-wing extremist has confessed to setting off a bomb in downtown Oslo and massacring dozens at an island youth camp outside the city, killing 77 people on July 22. The Oslo District Court approved a police request to keep Breivik in custody on terror charges for another eight weeks - four in solitary confinement - as they prepare a formal indictment.

Some inmates who have become pregnant at Pennsylvania's only co-ed prison have attempted to conceal their pregnancies because of the prison's policy of punishing the women - and the inmate fathers - with up to 180 days in solitary confinement, according to inmates and other sources close to the prison. State corrections officials said this week that despite strict warnings against having sex, three inmates at the State Correctional Institution at Muncy had become pregnant in the last year.

Nicodemo S. Scarfo was denied bail Monday in a multimillion-dollar fraud case, but he may be released soon from solitary confinement while awaiting trial. Following a brief hearing in Camden, U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler accepted prosecution arguments that Scarfo, a made member of the Lucchese crime family, was a danger to the community and should remain behind bars while awaiting trial on racketeering, conspiracy, fraud, and money-laundering charges. But Kugler urged the U.S. Attorney's Office to lift a request that Scarfo remain in a Special Housing Unit at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia after Scarfo said he wanted to be in general prison population.

ALTHOUGH William "Billy" Panas, Jr., 21, had been dead for nearly 2 1/2 years, and the ex-cop who murdered him learned in February that he'd be receiving a mandatory life-without-parole prison sentence, Panas' parents on Wednesday appeared gripped with fresh pain and grief. "Our family is forever broken," Karen Panas said during the formal sentencing hearing for Frank Tepper, 46. "As a mother, I had the right to see my son grow up," "The greatest bond is between a mother and a son," she said, fighting back tears.

Nicodemo S. Scarfo was denied bail Monday in a multimillion-dollar fraud case, but he may be released soon from solitary confinement while awaiting trial. Following a brief hearing in Camden, U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler accepted prosecution arguments that Scarfo, a made member of the Lucchese crime family, was a danger to the community and should remain behind bars while awaiting trial on racketeering, conspiracy, fraud, and money-laundering charges. But Kugler urged the U.S. Attorney's Office to lift a request that Scarfo remain in a Special Housing Unit at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia after Scarfo said he wanted to be in general prison population.

Brenden Pierce, the Norristown man accused in the July shooting death of 16-year-old Dominique Devlin, will plead not guilty to murder, his attorney said Tuesday. While he stopped short of entering such a plea, defense attorney Rick Tompkins told a Montgomery County judge that Pierce would do so when he faces homicide charges in a jury trial set for April 23. The disclosure came during a routine arraignment before Judge Thomas C. Branca in Norristown. Pierce answered "Yes, sir," and "Yes, your honor," to queries from Branca about whether he understood his legal rights.

FEDERAL PRISONERS label as "diesel therapy" the long, stressful bus ride they are forced to take to court hearings while handcuffed. Disgraced former state Sen. Vince Fumo will face more than 10 hours of it in November, because his attorneys failed to persuade a federal judge yesterday to let him appear via closed-circuit television from a prison in Kentucky. U.S. District Judge Ronald M. Buckwalter scheduled the resentencing for Nov. 9 and said he wanted Fumo to appear in person.

OSLO, Norway - Confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik was ordered to remain in pretrial detention for eight weeks Monday during a closed court hearing in which he was cut off from making statements irrelevant to the case, a judge said. The right-wing extremist has confessed to setting off a bomb in downtown Oslo and massacring dozens at an island youth camp outside the city, killing 77 people on July 22. The Oslo District Court approved a police request to keep Breivik in custody on terror charges for another eight weeks - four in solitary confinement - as they prepare a formal indictment.

To understand Audenried High School teacher Hope Moffett, to understand why she stood up to challenge a plan to overhaul her school, to understand why she isn't bothered by spending days in "solitary confinement," one needs to know about both Hope Moffetts. There was the Hope Moffett before a November 2006 car accident near the Brigham Young University campus. And there is the Hope Moffett after it. "Before the accident, I did everything perfect, to be perceived as employable," said Moffett, 25. "I wanted to make sure I had stability in my life so I wouldn't have to worry about poverty, or the idea that I couldn't support myself.

AUDENRIED HIGH School teacher Hope Moffett was stuck in "solitary confinement" yesterday in the basement of an administrative office otherwise known as the Philadelphia School District's "teacher jail. " But that didn't stop her from contacting her students, who are upset that she's been removed from her classroom for nothing more than speaking her mind about controversial changes planned at the school where she has worked for three years. "I don't feel defeated," Moffett said. "Being in a rubber room is a disheartening experience.