Mecklenburg Correctional Center
Encyclopedia
Mecklenburg Correctional Center is a medium security prison
operated by the Virginia Department of Corrections
in unincorporated
Mecklenburg County, Virginia
, United States
, near Boydton
. The 189 acres (76.5 ha) facility serves as a reception and classification facility. It formerly housed the State of Virginia's male death row.
It is located at 36°39′39"N 78°21′49"W (36.6607, -78.3636).
system – a maximum security prison. At the opening ceremony, Governor Mills E. Godwin Jr.
stated that the facility served as a "monument to failure", as the inmates to be housed there were viewed as the most incorrigible and likely unable to be returned to free society. The first warden at Mecklenburg was Gene Johnson. Johnson's assistant warden for operations and security was Fred L. Finkbeiner, who had served as the warden of the well-known Joliet
and Pontiac
maximum-security prisons in Illinois
.
The prison has features, such as numerous electronic cellhouse doors that required the continuous presence of a corrections officer (CO) around the clock. This put fewer than necessary officers on the floor to observe inmates. Additionally, the low pay led to numerous CO positions remaining unfilled and caused some COs to be susceptible to bribes from inmates to bring contraband into the facility. There were a high number of CO-on-inmate as well as inmate-on-CO assaults, leading to numerous lawsuits alleging human rights abuses against the corrections department.
On August 3, 1998, the male death row moved to its current location, the Sussex I State Prison, from the Mecklenburg Correctional Center.
(James and Linwood), Lem Tuggle, Earl Clanton, Derick Peterson, and Willie Jones, had observed how correctional officers were complacent in following procedures. While returning to the building from evening recreation time, the hulking Clanton hid in a CO station restroom, then charged out on cue from another inmate when the CO station door was open.
Clanton overpowered the CO and released all of the locks in the housing unit. Inmates took over the unit and stole the uniforms of COs who subsequently entered on rounds. They bluffed their way out of the unit by putting on riot helmets to conceal their faces as they carried a purported bomb, which was in actuality a cellhouse TV covered with a blanket. They carried the TV out of the unit on a stretcher spraying it with fire extinguishers and put it into a waiting van, which they then drove out of the prison.
Once the six men were free of the prison, they escaped across the nearby North Carolina
border. The men soon split up, unsure of what to do now they were back in free society. Earl Clanton and Derick Peterson were caught the following day when a patrol car driving past a laundromat spotted two men inside, one of them wearing what appeared to be a CO's jacket with the badges torn off. The two had stopped to eat some cheese and drink cheap convenience store wine.
Tuggle, Jones and the Briley Brothers stole a pickup truck with the vanity tag 'PEI-1' from the driveway of its owner. The Brileys were dropped off in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, where they went to work as mechanics for a friend of a local uncle. Tuggle and Jones got as far north as Vermont
, where Tuggle was apprehended at gunpoint by Vermont state troopers after robbing a souvenir shop for $80. Jones gave himself up the following day, just five miles south of the Canadian
border. He was cold, hungry, and bitten by flies, so he called his mother who convinced him to turn himself in. The Brileys were caught after the FBI
traced a phone call they made to a contact in New York
to the garage where they were working. All six men were returned to Virginia under heavy security. Upon their arrival, they were held on $10 million dollar bond each.
Much of what has been revealed about the escape came from fellow inmate, Dennis Stockton. Dennis Stockton was also on death row for murder and originally planned to escape with them; but backed out because he anticipated his case would be overturned on appeal. During the escape, he wrote down everything that happened minute by minute in his diaries, which were later published in a Norfolk, Virginia newspaper, the Virginian Pilot.
was running the prison".
In the years that followed the 1984 escape, many reforms occurred at Mecklenburg Correctional Center. There were educational programs introduced for inmates as well as work details. COs received better training, in which they were trained not to abuse inmates and use force only when emergency situations warranted it. A positive result of this change in philosophy – the number of inmate-on-CO assaults dropped significantly in the following years.
in 1997. Today, most inmates who come to Mecklenburg are newly convicted and spend a few months there before being classified based on their security risk and sent to another prison.
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...
operated by the Virginia Department of Corrections
Virginia Department of Corrections
The Virginia Department of Corrections is the government agency responsible for operating prisons and correctional facilities for the US Commonwealth of Virginia. The agency is fully accredited by the American Correctional Association and is one of the oldest functioning correctional agencies in...
in unincorporated
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
Mecklenburg County, Virginia
Mecklenburg County, Virginia
As of the census of 2010, there were 32,727 people, 12,951 households, and 8,962 families residing in the county. The population density was 52 people per square mile . There were 17,403 housing units at an average density of 28 per square mile...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, near Boydton
Boydton, Virginia
Boydton is a town in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, United States. The population was 454 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, and it is near the Mecklenburg Correctional Center.-Geography:...
. The 189 acres (76.5 ha) facility serves as a reception and classification facility. It formerly housed the State of Virginia's male death row.
It is located at 36°39′39"N 78°21′49"W (36.6607, -78.3636).
History
Opened in March 1977 at a cost of $20 million dollars, this 360 inmate facility was intended to serve as the facility for the "worst of the worst" among inmates in the Virginia Department of CorrectionsVirginia Department of Corrections
The Virginia Department of Corrections is the government agency responsible for operating prisons and correctional facilities for the US Commonwealth of Virginia. The agency is fully accredited by the American Correctional Association and is one of the oldest functioning correctional agencies in...
system – a maximum security prison. At the opening ceremony, Governor Mills E. Godwin Jr.
Mills E. Godwin Jr.
Mills Edwin Godwin, Jr. of Chuckatuck, Virginia, was an American politician who was the 60th and 62nd Governor of Virginia for two non-consecutive terms, from 1966 to 1970 and from 1974 to 1978....
stated that the facility served as a "monument to failure", as the inmates to be housed there were viewed as the most incorrigible and likely unable to be returned to free society. The first warden at Mecklenburg was Gene Johnson. Johnson's assistant warden for operations and security was Fred L. Finkbeiner, who had served as the warden of the well-known Joliet
Joliet Prison
Joliet Correctional Center was a prison in Joliet, Illinois, United States from 1858 to 2002. It is featured in the motion picture The Blues Brothers as the prison from which Jake Blues is released at the beginning of the movie...
and Pontiac
Pontiac Correctional Center
Pontiac Correctional Center, established in June 1871, is a Illinois Department of Corrections maximum security prison for adult males in Pontiac, Illinois. The prison also has a medium security unit that houses medium to minimum security inmates and is classified as Level 3...
maximum-security prisons in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
.
The prison has features, such as numerous electronic cellhouse doors that required the continuous presence of a corrections officer (CO) around the clock. This put fewer than necessary officers on the floor to observe inmates. Additionally, the low pay led to numerous CO positions remaining unfilled and caused some COs to be susceptible to bribes from inmates to bring contraband into the facility. There were a high number of CO-on-inmate as well as inmate-on-CO assaults, leading to numerous lawsuits alleging human rights abuses against the corrections department.
On August 3, 1998, the male death row moved to its current location, the Sussex I State Prison, from the Mecklenburg Correctional Center.
The 1984 escape from death row
Six inmates facing the Virginia electric chair made a daring escape from the facility on May 31, 1984. The inmates who escaped, two of the notorious Briley BrothersBriley Brothers
The Briley Brothers were responsible for a series of killings in Richmond, Virginia in 1979 that lasted seven months before their arrest.-Early lives:...
(James and Linwood), Lem Tuggle, Earl Clanton, Derick Peterson, and Willie Jones, had observed how correctional officers were complacent in following procedures. While returning to the building from evening recreation time, the hulking Clanton hid in a CO station restroom, then charged out on cue from another inmate when the CO station door was open.
Clanton overpowered the CO and released all of the locks in the housing unit. Inmates took over the unit and stole the uniforms of COs who subsequently entered on rounds. They bluffed their way out of the unit by putting on riot helmets to conceal their faces as they carried a purported bomb, which was in actuality a cellhouse TV covered with a blanket. They carried the TV out of the unit on a stretcher spraying it with fire extinguishers and put it into a waiting van, which they then drove out of the prison.
Once the six men were free of the prison, they escaped across the nearby North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
border. The men soon split up, unsure of what to do now they were back in free society. Earl Clanton and Derick Peterson were caught the following day when a patrol car driving past a laundromat spotted two men inside, one of them wearing what appeared to be a CO's jacket with the badges torn off. The two had stopped to eat some cheese and drink cheap convenience store wine.
Tuggle, Jones and the Briley Brothers stole a pickup truck with the vanity tag 'PEI-1' from the driveway of its owner. The Brileys were dropped off in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, where they went to work as mechanics for a friend of a local uncle. Tuggle and Jones got as far north as Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, where Tuggle was apprehended at gunpoint by Vermont state troopers after robbing a souvenir shop for $80. Jones gave himself up the following day, just five miles south of the Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
border. He was cold, hungry, and bitten by flies, so he called his mother who convinced him to turn himself in. The Brileys were caught after the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
traced a phone call they made to a contact in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to the garage where they were working. All six men were returned to Virginia under heavy security. Upon their arrival, they were held on $10 million dollar bond each.
Much of what has been revealed about the escape came from fellow inmate, Dennis Stockton. Dennis Stockton was also on death row for murder and originally planned to escape with them; but backed out because he anticipated his case would be overturned on appeal. During the escape, he wrote down everything that happened minute by minute in his diaries, which were later published in a Norfolk, Virginia newspaper, the Virginian Pilot.
Executions
- Linwood Briley - October 12, 1984
- James Briley - April 18, 1985
- Earl Clanton - April 14, 1988
- Derick Peterson - August 23, 1991
- Willie Jones - September 15, 1992
- Lem Tuggle - December 12, 1996
Aftermath of the escape
The impact of the 1984 escape had sweeping ramifications for the Virginia corrections system. The director of the Department of Corrections was forced to resign. The warden of the facility, Gary Bass, was transferred out of that position. In federal courtroom testimony in a case involving the prison on September 27, 1984, Bass stated that various lawsuits against the prison had weakened morale among corrections staff and left them feeling that the "ACLUAmerican 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...
was running the prison".
In the years that followed the 1984 escape, many reforms occurred at Mecklenburg Correctional Center. There were educational programs introduced for inmates as well as work details. COs received better training, in which they were trained not to abuse inmates and use force only when emergency situations warranted it. A positive result of this change in philosophy – the number of inmate-on-CO assaults dropped significantly in the following years.
Facility Reclassification
The prison was proposed for closure by Governor L. Douglas Wilder in 1993. However, the succeeding administration of Governor George F. Allen determined that Mecklenburg should remain open, reclassifying it from a maximum security to medium security 'intake' facility. Death row was moved from the facility to Sussex I State Prison near Waverly, VirginiaWaverly, Virginia
Waverly is an incorporated town in Sussex County, Virginia, United States. The population was 2,309 at the 2000 census.-History:Popular legend has it that William Mahone , builder of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad , and his cultured wife, Otelia Butler Mahone , traveled along the newly...
in 1997. Today, most inmates who come to Mecklenburg are newly convicted and spend a few months there before being classified based on their security risk and sent to another prison.
Further reading
- "Escape Taught Hard Lesson - Death Row Flight Saw Fear Wipe Out Security Illusion", Frank Green and Michael Hardy, Richmond Times-DispatchRichmond Times-DispatchThe Richmond Times-Dispatch is the primary daily newspaper in Richmond the capital of Virginia, United States, and is commonly considered the "newspaper of record" for events occurring in much of the state...
, May 29, 1994 - "Plot Warnings Were in Vain", Frank Green and Wes Allison, Richmond Times-DispatchRichmond Times-DispatchThe Richmond Times-Dispatch is the primary daily newspaper in Richmond the capital of Virginia, United States, and is commonly considered the "newspaper of record" for events occurring in much of the state...
, May 29, 1994 - "Five Years After 'Great Escape' - Bomb Set Off Prison Changes", Jim Mason, Richmond Times-DispatchRichmond Times-DispatchThe Richmond Times-Dispatch is the primary daily newspaper in Richmond the capital of Virginia, United States, and is commonly considered the "newspaper of record" for events occurring in much of the state...
, May 30, 1989
External links
- "Mecklenburg Correctional Center (male classification/intake institution)." Virginia Department of CorrectionsVirginia Department of CorrectionsThe Virginia Department of Corrections is the government agency responsible for operating prisons and correctional facilities for the US Commonwealth of Virginia. The agency is fully accredited by the American Correctional Association and is one of the oldest functioning correctional agencies in...
. Retrieved on August 22, 2010.