Phil Spector (California Dept. of Corrections / June 10, 2009)
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LOS ANGELES -- The decision to move Phil Spector to a different prison has been put on hold.
Spector, 69, along with a group of other prisoners, were scheduled to be moved to Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga to make room for inmates that require outpatient mental heath treatment, according to the California Department of Corrections.
But now Spector and his wife say they made special appeals based on his physical ailments to keep him from being moved to the new facility.
They believe prison officials heeded their pleas.
However, a prison spokesman says the action was business as usual and that the prison system moves its inmates around daily.
News of the impending move came just weeks after the former music producer wrote in a letter that he feared for his safety at Corcoran State Prison and wanted to be moved to "a better prison" -- far away from cult leader Charles Manson and RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan.
Spector wrote the letter to his friend Steve Escobar, a musician and journalist.
In it, he said he was working with his attorneys "to get a better prison with people more like myself in it during the appeal process instead of all these lowlife scumbags, gangsters and Manson types.... They'd kill you here for a 39-cent bag of soup!"
But prison officials say, "It's not about Spector," said California Department of Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton. It's about getting services to other inmates."
So for now at least, Spector will stay put.
Spector is currently serving a sentence of 15 years to life for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson.
Clarkson, 40, was found shot through the mouth at Spector's Alhambra mansion in February, 2003.
Spector, 69, along with a group of other prisoners, were scheduled to be moved to Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga to make room for inmates that require outpatient mental heath treatment, according to the California Department of Corrections.
But now Spector and his wife say they made special appeals based on his physical ailments to keep him from being moved to the new facility.
They believe prison officials heeded their pleas.
However, a prison spokesman says the action was business as usual and that the prison system moves its inmates around daily.
News of the impending move came just weeks after the former music producer wrote in a letter that he feared for his safety at Corcoran State Prison and wanted to be moved to "a better prison" -- far away from cult leader Charles Manson and RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan.
Spector wrote the letter to his friend Steve Escobar, a musician and journalist.
In it, he said he was working with his attorneys "to get a better prison with people more like myself in it during the appeal process instead of all these lowlife scumbags, gangsters and Manson types.... They'd kill you here for a 39-cent bag of soup!"
But prison officials say, "It's not about Spector," said California Department of Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton. It's about getting services to other inmates."
So for now at least, Spector will stay put.
Spector is currently serving a sentence of 15 years to life for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson.
Clarkson, 40, was found shot through the mouth at Spector's Alhambra mansion in February, 2003.
