Two inmates stabbed inside Philadelphia jail
The stabbings, inside Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, come about a week after the man accused of fatally shooting Temple University Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald, was stabbed there.
Two inmates stabbed each other Friday night inside Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Northeast Philadelphia, law enforcement authorities said.
The stabbings occurred shortly before 7:30 p.m. A 30-year-old man was stabbed three times in the back, and a 31-year-old man was stabbed in the head, police said.
The men were not seriously injured, were treated at Jefferson Torresdale Hospital, and were returned to Curran-Fromhold, according to someone with knowledge of the situation. Weapons were recovered, police said, providing no additional information.
In an interview Saturday with attorney Michael Coard on WURD, Philadelphia Prisons Commissioner Michael R. Resnick said violence at the jails can be attributed to staffing issues.
“One of the reasons that we are in the condition that we’re in now is because we’re so short-staffed,” Resnick said. “We’re about 54% staffed.”
Resnick said 2024 has seen the strongest prison officer recruitment in several years, with 228 cadets going through the academy since January. He attributed the staffing shortage to labor dynamics caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and said law enforcement systems nationwide were experiencing similar problems.
Friday’s stabbings came just over a week after Miles Pfeffer, who is accused of shooting and killing Temple University Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald in 2023, was stabbed multiple times in Curran-Fromhold, where he has been held awaiting his murder trial.
Pfeffer, 19, was in a communal area for recreation around 6:40 p.m. Nov. 21 when another incarcerated man, Rafael Vanegas, ran out of his cell and attacked him, according to the jail incident report. Pfeffer suffered puncture injuries to his forehead, inner right hip, and right hand in the attack, the report said.
In early November, 100 people on pretrial detention were released from Philadelphia jails due to what advocates have called “dangerous” conditions and an ongoing staffing shortage.