Phil Spector Struggles With Prison Life

30 July 2009

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Disgraced music mogul Phil Spector is struggling to adapt to life in prison and is "not doing great," according to his representative.

The 69 year old was sentenced to 19 years to life behind bars in May after he was found guilty of fatally shooting actress Lana Clarkson at his Alhambra, California home in 2003.

The producer is serving his time at California's largest state prison, Corcoran, and his publicist, Hal Lifson, is worried about his client's state of mind - because life inside has come as such a shock to Spector.

Lifson says, "He's doing fair, at best, if not worse than fair. He's not doing great. He's in a horrible situation with virtually nothing to do all day. Phil Spector was always a highly productive, creative person and now he's in a five by nine foot cell with no windows and maybe a half hour outside to walk around.

“It's essentially solitary confinement. He doesn't have computer access, he only recently got a little TV. It's a terrible existence for a millionaire record producer who lived in mansions and most recently in a castle, a 35-room home. It's a huge, huge change of life for Phil Spector and a devastating turn in his life."

Spector is set to appeal his sentence in 2010. If that fails, Lifson insists Spector will take his case to the federal court of appeal in Washington, D.C.