Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute
Encyclopedia
The Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute, is a federal prison
for adult males located at the intersection of State Road 63
and Springhill Drive, two miles (3 km) south of Terre Haute, Indiana
United States . It falls under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Prisons
.
There are two facilities at FCC Terre Haute: Federal Correctional Institution, Terre Haute; and United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute. USP Terre Haute is currently the home of the only death chamber for federal death penalty
recipients in the United States, where they receive lethal injection
. Among those most recently executed at USP Terre Haute were Timothy McVeigh
and Juan Raul Garza in 2001, and Louis Jones, Jr., in 2003. McVeigh, who was convicted for his responsibility for the Oklahoma City bombing
, was the first prisoner executed by the U.S. Government since the moratorium on the death penalty was lifted in 1976.
in 1938 and established in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1940 on 1126 acres (4.6 km²) of land. The opening of the prison in this city was partly due to heavy promotion by Terre Haute’s Chamber of Commerce, which eventually went on to raise $50,000 to pay for the property on which the prison was built. The residents of Terre Haute initially embraced the prison due to the impression that it would provide jobs to local residents in addition to helping Terre Haute’s economy while only housing non-violent offenders. E.B. Swope was the prison’s first warden.
The U.S. Public Works Administration
issued a $3 million grant to pay for construction of USP Terre Haute in 1938. Construction cost of the institution at the time that it was built was $2,150,000. The architectural design of the prison is a modified telephone pole design with all housing and other facilities opening onto a long central corridor. It was the first penitentiary for adult felons ever to be constructed without a wall. In 2004, the new USP was built on adjoining property, with the old penitentiary becoming a medium-security Federal Correctional Institution.
USP Terre Haute was one of the first federal prisons to emphasize rehabilitation by providing psychological and psychiatric treatment, referring to prisoners by names as opposed to numbers, and allowing prisoners to talk during meals instead of eating in silence. The institution initiated the use of the word "inmate" as opposed to other less-appealing labels such as "convict" or "criminal". It also became one of the first federal prisons to implement educational programs in prisons with sessions devoted to improving the inmates' skills in reading, writing, math, as well as trades.
USP Terre Haute is a Care Level 3 facility, which means that any inmate sent to Terre Haute who has serious health issues that are not major enough to warrant hospitalization is sent to the USP. This facility is also a tobacco-free institution. This part of the FCC contains six housing units. One of the six housing units is a faith-based unit that can house 125 inmates. When the inmates are not working, they are partaking in faith-based activities. All of the inmates in the USP are allotted seven visit-days a month and 300 minutes of telephone time, which they have to use in increments of 30 minutes or less. The inmates housed here can work at UNICOR, which is a prison industry that makes towels and other accessories for the military. Inmates employed here earn an average of $6.50 to $7.50 a day and some can make up to $12 a day if they are paid by piece as opposed to by the hour.
, ESL
, and drug education classes. Sports, cards, golf, and crafts are all different recreational activities in which the inmates may take part within the camp. A selected group of inmates at the camp take part in a community talk tour called "Choices", where these inmates visit schools and speak to children that are already involved in meth. The Federal Bureau of Prison’s National Bus Center is operated through this camp.
Among the most notorious inmates at the Camp is George Ryan
, former governor of Illinois, who arrived on February 29, 2008, to serve his sentence for racketeering and public corruption. Ryan has been assigned to work in the prison greenhouse.
Individuals on death row here include:
had quietly created a medium security Communication Management Unit
(CMU) housing 213 inmates in Terre Haute. The CMU monitors all telephone calls and mail, and requires that all inmate conversations occur in English unless special permission is arranged for conversations in other languages.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons
(FBP) created the CMU in response to criticism that it had not been adequately monitoring the communications of prisoners. It is one of two CMU, the other being the CMU at Marion. According to the FBP, "By concentrating resources in this fashion, it will greatly enhance the agency's capabilities for language translation, content analysis and intelligence sharing," according to the Bureau's summary of the CMU.
The CMU is located in the former death row, and was opened in December 2006. All but two of the inmates are Arab Muslims
, leading the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) to raise a concern about racial profiling
. The ACLU also charged that the communication restrictions are unduly harsh for prisoners who are not sufficiently serious security threats to warrant placement in ADX Florence
, the Supermax
facility in Colorado.
Current inmates include the Lackawanna Six, Randall "Ismail" Royer, Enaam Arnaout
, Rafil A. Dhafir
, "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh
, and Hal Turner
.
The Terre Haute Camp houses 429 inmates. The racial breakdown of the camp is as follows: 50% of inmates are white, 49% are black, and 1% are of other ethnicity. 71% of the inmates were sentenced for drug offenses, 14% for fraud/robbery/extortion, 9% for weapon-related offenses, and 6% for other offenses. The average sentencing length for the camp is 84 months, or 7 years.
The FCI Terre Haute total inmate population is 1,168. The racial breakdown of the FCI is as follows: 56% are black, 39% are white, and 5% are of other ethnicity. 43% of inmates were sentenced for drug-related offenses, 28% for weapon-related offenses, 13% for robbery offenses, and 16% for other offenses. The average sentencing length is 130 months, or 10.83 years. The median inmate age at the FCI is 36 years old.
, is reported to have been based on the design of a maximum security facility in Terre Haute.
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
for adult males located at the intersection of State Road 63
Indiana State Road 63
State Road 63 in the U. S. state of Indiana is a north–south route in the western portion of the state. Until mid-2008, it covered a distance of just over , but now is a discontinuous route. For , from the city of Terre Haute until it rejoins U.S. Route 41 near Carbondale, it is a four-lane...
and Springhill Drive, two miles (3 km) south of Terre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute is a city and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, near the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a population of 170,943. The city is the county seat of Vigo County and...
United States . It falls under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Prisons
Federal Bureau of Prisons
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is a federal law enforcement agency subdivision of the United States Department of Justice and is responsible for the administration of the federal prison system. The system also handles prisoners who committed acts considered felonies under the District of Columbia's...
.
There are two facilities at FCC Terre Haute: Federal Correctional Institution, Terre Haute; and United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute. USP Terre Haute is currently the home of the only death chamber for federal death penalty
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
recipients in the United States, where they receive lethal injection
Lethal injection
Lethal injection is the practice of injecting a person with a fatal dose of drugs for the express purpose of causing the immediate death of the subject. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but the term may also be applied in a broad sense to euthanasia and suicide...
. Among those most recently executed at USP Terre Haute were Timothy McVeigh
Timothy McVeigh
Timothy James McVeigh was a United States Army veteran and security guard who detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995...
and Juan Raul Garza in 2001, and Louis Jones, Jr., in 2003. McVeigh, who was convicted for his responsibility for the Oklahoma City bombing
Oklahoma City bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing was a terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. It was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Oklahoma blast claimed 168 lives, including 19...
, was the first prisoner executed by the U.S. Government since the moratorium on the death penalty was lifted in 1976.
United States Penitentiary
A new United States penitentiary was authorized by President Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
in 1938 and established in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1940 on 1126 acres (4.6 km²) of land. The opening of the prison in this city was partly due to heavy promotion by Terre Haute’s Chamber of Commerce, which eventually went on to raise $50,000 to pay for the property on which the prison was built. The residents of Terre Haute initially embraced the prison due to the impression that it would provide jobs to local residents in addition to helping Terre Haute’s economy while only housing non-violent offenders. E.B. Swope was the prison’s first warden.
The U.S. Public Works Administration
Public Works Administration
The Public Works Administration , part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 in response to the Great Depression...
issued a $3 million grant to pay for construction of USP Terre Haute in 1938. Construction cost of the institution at the time that it was built was $2,150,000. The architectural design of the prison is a modified telephone pole design with all housing and other facilities opening onto a long central corridor. It was the first penitentiary for adult felons ever to be constructed without a wall. In 2004, the new USP was built on adjoining property, with the old penitentiary becoming a medium-security Federal Correctional Institution.
USP Terre Haute was one of the first federal prisons to emphasize rehabilitation by providing psychological and psychiatric treatment, referring to prisoners by names as opposed to numbers, and allowing prisoners to talk during meals instead of eating in silence. The institution initiated the use of the word "inmate" as opposed to other less-appealing labels such as "convict" or "criminal". It also became one of the first federal prisons to implement educational programs in prisons with sessions devoted to improving the inmates' skills in reading, writing, math, as well as trades.
USP Terre Haute is a Care Level 3 facility, which means that any inmate sent to Terre Haute who has serious health issues that are not major enough to warrant hospitalization is sent to the USP. This facility is also a tobacco-free institution. This part of the FCC contains six housing units. One of the six housing units is a faith-based unit that can house 125 inmates. When the inmates are not working, they are partaking in faith-based activities. All of the inmates in the USP are allotted seven visit-days a month and 300 minutes of telephone time, which they have to use in increments of 30 minutes or less. The inmates housed here can work at UNICOR, which is a prison industry that makes towels and other accessories for the military. Inmates employed here earn an average of $6.50 to $7.50 a day and some can make up to $12 a day if they are paid by piece as opposed to by the hour.
Camp
The Terre Haute Camp was built in 1960 with the purpose of housing non-violent felons to perform farm and maintenance duties. The camp has two, eight, and twelve-person rooms. Programs provided for inmates in this facility include GEDGED
General Educational Development tests are a group of five subject tests which, when passed, certify that the taker has American or Canadian high school-level academic skills...
, ESL
English language learning and teaching
English as a second language , English for speakers of other languages and English as a foreign language all refer to the use or study of English by speakers with different native languages. The precise usage, including the different use of the terms ESL and ESOL in different countries, is...
, and drug education classes. Sports, cards, golf, and crafts are all different recreational activities in which the inmates may take part within the camp. A selected group of inmates at the camp take part in a community talk tour called "Choices", where these inmates visit schools and speak to children that are already involved in meth. The Federal Bureau of Prison’s National Bus Center is operated through this camp.
Among the most notorious inmates at the Camp is George Ryan
George Ryan
George Homer Ryan, Sr. was the 39th Governor of the U.S. state of Illinois from 1999 until 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. Ryan became nationally known when in 2000 he imposed a moratorium on executions and "raised the national debate on capital punishment"...
, former governor of Illinois, who arrived on February 29, 2008, to serve his sentence for racketeering and public corruption. Ryan has been assigned to work in the prison greenhouse.
Death row
On July 19, 1993, the federal government designated USP Terre Haute as the site where federal death sentences would be carried out, including the establishment of the "Special Confinement Unit," the federal death row for men. The BOP modified USP Terre Haute in 1995 and 1996 so it could house death row functions. On July 13, 1999, the Special Confinement Unit at USP Terre Haute opened, and the BOP transferred male federal death row inmates from other federal prisons and from state prisons to USP Terre Haute. As of May 14, 2010, 52 death row prisoners were housed at USP Terre Haute. The federal government chose Terre Haute as the location of the men's death row due to its central location within the United States.Individuals on death row here include:
- Joseph E. Duncan IIIJoseph E. Duncan IIIJoseph Edward Duncan III is an American convicted serial killer and sex offender who is currently serving multiple concurrent death sentences and life sentences in conjunction with the 2005 kidnapping and murders of members of the Groene family of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho...
Communication Management Unit
On February 25, 2007, the Washington Post reported that the Justice DepartmentUnited States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
had quietly created a medium security Communication Management Unit
Communication Management Unit
Communication Management Unit is a recent designation for a self-contained group within a facility in the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons that severely restricts, manages and monitors all outside communication of inmates in the unit.-Origins:As part of the Bush Administration's War on...
(CMU) housing 213 inmates in Terre Haute. The CMU monitors all telephone calls and mail, and requires that all inmate conversations occur in English unless special permission is arranged for conversations in other languages.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons
Federal Bureau of Prisons
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is a federal law enforcement agency subdivision of the United States Department of Justice and is responsible for the administration of the federal prison system. The system also handles prisoners who committed acts considered felonies under the District of Columbia's...
(FBP) created the CMU in response to criticism that it had not been adequately monitoring the communications of prisoners. It is one of two CMU, the other being the CMU at Marion. According to the FBP, "By concentrating resources in this fashion, it will greatly enhance the agency's capabilities for language translation, content analysis and intelligence sharing," according to the Bureau's summary of the CMU.
The CMU is located in the former death row, and was opened in December 2006. All but two of the inmates are Arab Muslims
Arab Muslims
Arab Muslims are adherents of the religion of Islam who identify linguistically, culturally, or genealogically as Arabs. They greatly outnumber other ethnic groups in the Middle East. Muslims who are not Arabs are called mawali by Arab Muslims....
, leading the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
(ACLU) to raise a concern about racial profiling
Racial profiling
Racial profiling refers to the use of an individual’s race or ethnicity by law enforcement personnel as a key factor in deciding whether to engage in enforcement...
. The ACLU also charged that the communication restrictions are unduly harsh for prisoners who are not sufficiently serious security threats to warrant placement in ADX Florence
ADX Florence
The United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility is a supermax prison for men that is located in unincorporated Fremont County, Colorado, United States, south of Florence. It is unofficially known as ADX Florence, Florence ADMAX, Supermax, or The Alcatraz of the Rockies...
, the Supermax
Supermax
Supermax is the name used to describe "control-unit" prisons, or units within prisons, which represent the most secure levels of custody in the prison systems of certain countries...
facility in Colorado.
Current inmates include the Lackawanna Six, Randall "Ismail" Royer, Enaam Arnaout
Enaam Arnaout
Enaam M. Arnaout is a Syrian-American who pleaded guilty to using charitable donations to support fighters in Bosnia without apprising the donors of this, during his tenure as a director of the charity Benevolence International Foundation . -Life:Arnaout was raised in Hamat, Syria...
, Rafil A. Dhafir
Rafil A. Dhafir
Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir is an American Iraqi-born physician, who was sentenced on October 28, 2005, to 22 years in prison for violating the Iraqi sanctions by sending money to Iraq through his charity front Help the Needy, and for fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, and a variety of other nonviolent...
, "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh
John Walker Lindh
John Phillip Walker Lindh is a United States citizen who was captured as an enemy combatant during the United States' 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. He is now serving a 20-year prison sentence in connection with his participation in Afghanistan's Taliban army...
, and Hal Turner
Hal Turner
Harold Charles "Hal" Turner is an American white nationalist, Holocaust denier and blogger from North Bergen, New Jersey. In August 2010, he was convicted for making threats against three federal judges with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...
.
Demographics
The USP Terre Haute total inmate population is 3,200. The racial breakdown of the USP is as follows: 57% of inmates are black, 39% are white, 4% are of other ethnicity. 26% of inmates were convicted for weapon violations, 25% for drug offenses, 25% for robbery charge, 10% for homicide offenses, and 14% for other offenses. The average sentencing length for the USP is 198 months, or 16.5 years. The median inmate age is 37 years old.The Terre Haute Camp houses 429 inmates. The racial breakdown of the camp is as follows: 50% of inmates are white, 49% are black, and 1% are of other ethnicity. 71% of the inmates were sentenced for drug offenses, 14% for fraud/robbery/extortion, 9% for weapon-related offenses, and 6% for other offenses. The average sentencing length for the camp is 84 months, or 7 years.
The FCI Terre Haute total inmate population is 1,168. The racial breakdown of the FCI is as follows: 56% are black, 39% are white, and 5% are of other ethnicity. 43% of inmates were sentenced for drug-related offenses, 28% for weapon-related offenses, 13% for robbery offenses, and 16% for other offenses. The average sentencing length is 130 months, or 10.83 years. The median inmate age at the FCI is 36 years old.
Guantanamo connection
Camp 5, part of the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in CubaCuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, is reported to have been based on the design of a maximum security facility in Terre Haute.
External links
- FCC Terre Haute Official Website