Melbourne, Australia, Mar 4, 2019 / 22:28 pm
Cardinal George Pell is incarcerated at the Melbourne Assessment Prison while he awaits the results of a sentencing hearing held last week. Pell was convicted last year of child sexual abuse.
The cardinal, 77, could be sentenced to as many as 50 years in prison, for five counts of sexual abuse stemming from charges that he sexually assaulted two choirboys while serving as Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996.
According to The Australian, Pell is remanded to solitary confinement, kept in isolation 23 hours each day, because, due to his age, high profile, and the nature of his crime, he has been designated an "at-risk" prisoner by corrections officials in the Australian state of Victoria.
Melbourne Assessment Prison is designated a maximum security facility, and is designed for prisoners awaiting sentencing, and as a point of entry for men into Victoria's prison system. Inmates are assessed and classified before being sent to other facilities. The prison's capacity is 256 prisoners.