Pope to visit accused killers, rapists, robbers - and victims - at Curran-Fromhold

The men and women Pope Francis visits behind bars Sunday at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility are charged with sins grave and small.

Of the 95 inmates scheduled to attend (several dozen more have been cleared as alternates), nine are charged with murder, 15 with rape, five with robbery, and 12 with assault, according to a grouping obtained by The Inquirer but not publicly released. Eighteen face drug offenses and six prostitution charges, according to the briefing.

Those labels - mostly pretrial charges - did not factor into whether they would get a chance to meet His Holiness.

"We didn't vet for charges; we based it on behavior while folks have been here," said Shawn Hayes, spokeswoman for the city prisons. "It's a reflection of the population."

The inmates are male and female; white, black, Hispanic; Christian and Muslim.

Some will have family members join them, and others will see the pontiff on their own.

The inmates include some who made headlines - like Ronald Galati, an alleged Philadelphia mob associate sentenced in February to 22 years for putting a hit out on his daughter's boyfriend. Others are less known - like Farris Ravenell, charged with punching a SEPTA bus driver in 2013.

For Francis, the prison population is one of the often-neglected, downtrodden groups whom he has made a vital part of his ministry.

In a speech to Congress on Thursday, Francis denounced the death penalty and offered encouragement to all who are convicted.

"A just and necessary punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation," he said.

Limited access to prisoners made talking to them about the visit difficult, but their loved ones and the attorneys who work with them spoke about the significance of the meeting.

Ravenell, 23, has been at Curran-Fromhold 20 months on charges of simple aggravated assault.

He calls his mother, Elaine, of Northeast Philadelphia, every day, and the day he found out he might be meeting the pope was no different.

"He knows this doesn't just happen every day," Elaine Ravenell, 66, said Wednesday. "He was saying this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. He's excited because it's not only important for him, for America, but it's important for the world because the pope is trying to bring unity back to the world."

Ravenell is accused of hitting a bus driver in what his mother says is a case of mistaken identity. She and her daughter were both School District bus drivers.

The case is not Ravenell's first brush with the law - when he was 16, a cabdriver was held up on his block. A witness pegged Ravenell as the assailant and he was charged, but court records show Ravenell was found not guilty on all charges.

"He's the kind of person who hasn't really had anyone in his life to take him in, act as his guide, and direct him through school, college, and a life away from the idle situations that have made him a target for our criminal justice system," his attorney, Damian Montriece Sammons, said. "I'm hoping the pope may have a direct influence on him."

His mother said Ravenell, the youngest of her six children, graduated from high school and completed some college, but fell in with a troubled crowd.

"He's the baby and, you know, he still has growing up to do," Elaine Ravenell said. "He got involved with the wrong people, and sometimes young people, they don't want to hear it - they think everybody's their friend. That's kind of what happened."

Elaine Ravenell, a pastor herself at Gilead Praise and Worship Center, an Apostolic Christian church, said her son was raised in that faith. She said she hopes the papal visit makes an impression on him.

"Sometimes we have to, we have to get a revelation - 'OK, I need to do something a little bit different after this.' I have a positive outlook - he's going to go straight," she said.

Daniel Tejada, 55, is accused of fatally stabbing Leocadio Del-Orbe 57 times on a cold, snowy day in January 2014. Tejada, who is married with children, is on the approved list, as is his attorney, Nino V. Tinari. That's a coincidence, said Tinari, who wasn't aware of the connection.

Tinari, who is on the board of trustees for the prisons, maintained Tejada's innocence and said his client, a devout Catholic, is an ideal person to be in the presence of the pope.

"This is the kind of person who the pope would reach out to," Tinari said. "An immigrant, working hard, family oriented, spiritually attuned - the kind of person who is not earning the kind of money we'd consider to be putting him in the wealthy class."

Among the prisoners and officials gathered Sunday, there will be victims, too.

"Many of the prisoners and their families are also victims," prison spokeswoman Hayes said.

The families of Patrick Curran and Robert Fromhold - once warden and deputy warden at the old Holmesburg Prison - have also been invited, Hayes said, and are expected to attend.

Curran and Fromhold were stabbed to death by two inmates in 1973, the only city prison staff known to have been killed in the line of duty. The prison, built in 1995, bears their name.

David S. Owens Jr. was a lieutenant working in the central office at the Detention Center on State Road at the time.

"I remember it as vividly today as the day it happened. It stays with you throughout your life, to lose two good people that you served with. You never get over it throughout your career, and you think about it and it's not a good day when you do."

Owens had to tell Curran's mother that her son had been killed.

The experience didn't shake his interest in prison work. Owens went on to head the city and state prison systems and is now warden at the Camden County Jail. He was touched to hear Francis would visit inmates.

"We don't paint with a broad brush. These were bad individuals who had killed two policemen before and had created nothing but problems after," Owens said of the men convicted of killing Curran and Fromhold. "We can't say all inmates are like that."

Each of Jamal Muldrow's prison sentences has been the result of his drug addiction, according to his mother.

Muldrow, 43, of West Philadelphia, has been in and out of prison since he was in his 20s.

The charges he's facing now are for allegedly robbing a drug addict of $20, his attorney, Shawn K. Page, said.

"There's no violence in his background. His vice, the crux of his criminal conduct, has been things that stem out of drug abuse," Page said.

"He does present as a spiritual fellow, and this may be good for him and dealing with the demons that keep landing him in custody."

Since he's been in jail this time, Page said, Muldrow has gotten clean and put on weight.

Muldrow's mother, Brenda Cuffy, who recently retired and moved from Philadelphia to Georgia, said she was gearing up for a trip back north.

It's not for the pope, though. Cuffy's a Jehovah's Witness; her son is Muslim.

The trip is for his forthcoming court date next week on the robbery charge.

"I hope this is the time he turns things around. I'm glad he was selected. I guess he's an ideal prisoner. He doesn't cause any trouble or anything," she said, her voice breaking. "I am proud of him for that."

jterruso@phillynews.com

215-854-5506@juliaterruso