A 37-year-old inmate at SCI Phoenix has accused a correctional officer of sexually assaulting him, according to Pennsylvania State Police, who say the alleged attack happened at the maximum-security prison on Mokychic Drive in Skippack Township on September 10 at approximately 2:25 p.m. State police have not named the officer accused, and officials have released no further details about the case.
The inmate is described as a 37-year-old male from Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, according to Perk Valley Now.
SCI Phoenix currently houses 3,209 prisoners, per the same account. The facility sits within a much larger complex — according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, SCI Phoenix opened in July 2018 as a 3,830-bed maximum-security prison built on 164 acres within a 1,700-acre state property, replacing the adjacent, 89-year-old SCI Graterford. It was built at a final cost of $400 million, making it the most expensive state prison construction project in Pennsylvania history, as reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer at the time of its opening.
How the Law Treats Guard-Inmate Contact
Pennsylvania law makes clear that incarcerated people cannot legally consent to sexual contact with facility staff. Under 18 Pa.C.S. § 3124.2, any sexual contact or intercourse between a prison employee and an inmate constitutes institutional sexual assault — a third-degree felony punishable by up to seven years in prison, according to information published by the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
Because Skippack Township has no municipal police department of its own, all local criminal investigations, including those inside SCI Phoenix, fall to Pennsylvania State Police Troop K out of the Skippack Barracks. Troop K Skippack handles police services for 10 Montgomery County municipalities totaling nearly 58,000 residents, according to a township planning document.
Federal Standards and a History of Litigation
The federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) is intended to address sexual abuse in correctional facilities.
Court records show Zamichieli has a history of federal litigation, including a 2020 civil rights lawsuit filed against the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and multiple prison personnel in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, which also shows he has been incarcerated at multiple state correctional facilities. Separately, federal court filings show that in June 2024, another inmate filed a civil rights lawsuit against SCI Phoenix officials in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, alleging staff failed to protect her following a sexual assault in July 2023; those filings indicated internal PREA reviews had been completed and turned over to state police before the litigation was filed.
National data offers some context for how often such allegations surface. A Bureau of Justice Statistics report found that 4.1% of adult prison inmates reported sexual victimization in 2023–2024, with 2.2% alleging sexual abuse specifically by facility staff.
State police say the investigation into the SCI Phoenix allegation remains active, and officials have released no additional details about the accused officer or the circumstances of the alleged assault.
