Christopher Porco is now one of more than 63,000 prisoners in the state prison system in New York and one of the nearly 23,000 prisoners housed in the 16 maximum-security prisons for men in the state.
Those prisons include Attica, Sing Sing, Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, Clinton and Coxsackie correctional facilities and Five Points Prison in Seneca County.
He’ll be treated in the same manner as any other inmate on the state level, said Linda Foglia, spokeswoman for the State Department of Corrections.
Porco’s last day in Albany County jail was Wednesday, Dec. 13, the morning after he was sentenced to serve two consecutive sentences of 25 years to life in prison. Porco has to serve at least 21 years of his first 25-year sentence before he begins serving the next 25-year sentence issued by presiding Judge Jeffrey Berry.
Porco will receive a battery of medical, physical and mental tests and evaluations at the Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill in Dutchess County before a decision is made as to which prison he will serve his sentence in.
`It could take four to six weeks, depending on the completion of several tasks and evaluations including risk assessment and educational screening,` said Foglia.
During sentencing, Berry described Porco as a very intelligent young man.
`You come from a very close-knit family, and I look at that family now and I see it torn apart in many ways,` Berry said.
Porco in his first public statement in court since his arrest and trial defiantly stated during sentencing that authorities have the wrong man behind bars.
`Any possible chance the police had of catching the true perpetrators evaporated long ago,` said Porco.
As a prisoner in the state system, Porco will be able to leave the general confinement area daily for either outdoor or indoor recreational activity, work assignments, mess hall and to go the prison library.
According to information from the State Department of Corrections, Porco, like any other prisoner, will be paid an average of $1 a day to afford basic amenities of the commissary. Money for a crime victim fee will be taken from that stipend.
As for supervision, there is one correction officer for every three prisoners in maximum security. There are 19,576 total correction officers in the state for the 63,000-inmate population, a number that is twice the size of the population in the town of Bethlehem.
Friends and family will be able to visit Porco regularly.
`Prisoners begin to receive correspondence usually within a short period of time,` said Foglia.
Albany County Sheriff James Campbell said if Porco is anything like he was in Albany County jail, he should be able to acclimate easily.
`He was no problem at all,` Campbell said of Porco. `He followed directions and mingled with other inmates.`
Berry said during sentencing that the next several years is the time for Porco to right his wrongs against his family and society.
`You have an opportunity in state prison to rehabilitate yourself,` said Berry. `You have an opportunity in state prison to do positive things.“
