The unfolding saga of murder defendant Luigi Mangione continues to fascinate people, including hundreds of inmates who temporarily shared prison accommodations with him in Pennsylvania.
Federal and state criminal cases against the suspected killer are in the early stages, with Mangione being held at a Brooklyn lockup after being charged in the Dec. 4 fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City.
Mangione’s brief hold at State Correctional Institution (SCI) in Huntingdon, Pa., following his capture still looms large with inmates there.
“Now, nearly 2,000 of us are part of that story,” incarcerated writer Vaughn Wright said in a column published online by the Prison Journalism Project. “No matter what, Mangione is and will forever be an SCI Huntingdon alumnus.”
The high-profile defendant was kept in a block that once housed death row inmates, Wright said. It was locked down whenever Mangione was escorted from his cell, and he wore the type of padded “turtle suit” that is meant to discourage inmate suicide attempts, he wrote.
Inmates briefly found themselves the focus of news coverage after media representatives camped out at the prison. In December, prisoners watching NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfield were able to communicate in real-time with her and correspondent Alex Caprariello by shouting and blinking their ceiling lights.
They also complained about bad conditions at the prison.
The fuss may be over with Mangione’s departure, but Wright said he and his fellow inmates will be watching intently as he gets his day in court.
“His brothers here will intently follow his case as it moves forward through the criminal justice system, all the while telling anyone who’ll listen, if it had been them, what they would have done to keep from getting arrested in the first place,” he wrote.
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