CORCORAN, Calif. (Scripps News) “That ’70s Show” actor and convicted rapist Danny Masterson has been transferred to a maximum-security prison that once housed cult leader and murderer Charles Manson.
This mug shot provided by the California Department of Corrections on Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023, shows inmate Danny Masterson. “That ’70s Show” actor Masterson has been sent to a California state prison to serve his sentence for two rape convictions. (California Dept. of Corrections via AP)
Masterson was convicted last year of two rapes he committed in 2003, for which he received a prison sentence of 30 years to life.
California state prison records show the actor is being held at Corcoran State Prison, which was founded in 1988 and known for housing some of the nation’s most infamous criminals, such as Manson, who died in 2017. “Freeway Killer” William Bonin, who killed at least 21 young men and boys in Southern California in the late 1970s and 1980s, was also housed at the prison until his execution by lethal injection in 1996.
“Inmates at Corcoran State Prison live in small, cramped cells, often shared with one or more cellmates. Living conditions have been criticized for being overcrowded and unsanitary, with inadequate access to medical care and basic necessities,” Corcoran State Prison says on its website.
The prison says it has armed guards, surveillance cameras, razor-wire fences, and electrified barriers. It has been the subject of numerous lawsuits over the years, alleging neglect, abuse and violation of inmates’ rights.
Masterson’s transfer came a week after he was denied bail. In documents obtained by The Wrap, Judge Charlaine Olmedo wrote in her order that the actor was considered a flight risk.
“If defendant’s conviction and sentence are upheld on appeal, he will likely remain in custody for decades and perhaps the rest of his life,” Olmedo wrote.
“In light of the fact that defendant has no wife to go home to, defendant now has every incentive to flee and little reason to return to state prison to serve out the remainder of his lengthy sentence should his appeal be unsuccessful,” the judge said, referencing Masterson’s divorce proceedings with estranged wife Bijou Phillips.
Phillips filed for divorce shortly after the actor’s sentencing. The two share a daughter, Fianna.
This story was originally published by Scripps News, an E.W. Scripps Company.
