United States Penitentiary, Atlanta

USP Atlanta

Location	Benteen Park, Atlanta, Georgia
Coordinates	33°42′40″N 84°22′7″W
Status	Operational
Security class	Medium Security
Capacity	1,909 as of 2006
Opened	1902
Managed by	Federal Bureau of Prisons

USP Atlanta in 1910

United States Penitentiary, Atlanta is a medium-security federal prison for men in Atlanta, Georgia. It also has a detention center for pre-trial and holdover inmates and an adjacent camp for minimum security male inmates. The prison is located in the Benteen Park neighborhood of southeast Atlanta at the intersection of Boulevard and McDonough Boulevard.

History

Construction of the prison was authorized in 1899 and the project was completed in January 1902. It encompassed 300 acres (1.2 km²) to accommodate 1200 prisoners.

In the 1980s it was used as a detention center for Cuban refugees from the Mariel Boatlift who were ineligible for release into American society. Its population as of July 6, 2006 was 1909 in the penitentiary and 554 in the camp.

Then in November 1987, the Cuban detainees, tired of indefinite confinement, rioted for 11 days.

The prison is one of several (see FTC Oklahoma City) that are used to house prisoners who are being transferred between prisons. As of 2006 the prison was housing 3—5 in-transit prisoners in each approximately 56-square-foot (5.2 m²) isolation cell for up to eight weeks at a time.

The main prison building was designed by the St. Louis, Missouri architect firm of Eames and Young, which also designed the main building at the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth.

Notable inmates

Name	Number	Status	Details
Ignazio Lupo	2883	Died 1947	Gangster imprisoned for counterfeiting in 1910 and release on parole 1920, returned after conviction for racketeering 1936.
Willie Aikens			Former Major League Baseball player.
Frank Abagnale			Inspiration for the feature film Catch Me If You Can
James J. Bulger			Boston crime boss, he has committed 19 murders
Jimmy Burke			New York mobster on whom the fictional Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas was based.
George A. Caldwell			Louisiana contractor who supervised the construction of twenty-six public buildings; convicted for income tax evasion and accepting kickbacks in the Louisiana Hayride scandals of 1939-1940; in Atlanta, 1940–1941, when paroled.
Al Capone			Best known for other supposed offenses but imprisoned for tax evasion prior to being transferred to Alcatraz. Capone was escorted to Alcatraz by Atlanta Correctional Officer James D. Stephens.
Pedro Albizu Campos			Puerto Rican politician and advocate of Puerto Rican independence from the United States, as well as President of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party from 1930 until his death in 1965.
William Colbeck			St. Louis mobster and leader of Egan's Rats.
Eugene V. Debs			Socialist Party 1920 presidential candidate, received 919,799 votes while an inmate at the Atlanta Penitentiary.
Phil Driscoll			Gospel Entertainer, Trumpet player, now serving a year and a day at the camp.
Roy Gardner			Last notorious Western train robber, the warden described him as "the most dangerous inmate in the history of Atlanta Prison".
Marcus Garvey			Pan Africanist had been imprisoned here for offenses allegedly growing out of his operation of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and one of its businesses, the Black Star Line.
John Gotti			organized crime boss.
Harry Golden			Author of Only in America.
Charles Harrelson			father of actor Woody Harrelson - transferred to ADX Florence following an escape attempt
Julian Hawthorne			novelist and son of literary icon Nathaniel Hawthorne, convicted of mail fraud.
Kent Hovind	06452-017	Held at USP, Atlanta in August 2010 then moved to FCI, Tallahassee	Creationist, convicted tax evader
Ken Jenne			A former sheriff
Denny McLain			baseball pitcher , the last pitcher to win thirty games in a season, served a sentence there for fraud.
Ed Norris			Former Baltimore police commissioner.
Vincent Papa			Masterminding the theft of the French Connection heroin from the New York Police Department (NYPD) property office.
Carlo Ponzi			From Ponzi scheme fame.
Lou Pearlman	02775-093		Started Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync and others. Was convicted of fraud. Perpetrated one of the longest running Ponzi schemes in the United States. Stole $500 million from family, friends, strangers and banks. 25 year prison sentence.
Bernard Madoff	61727-054		Crooked financier convicted of orchestrating the world's largest Ponzi scheme.
Nicodemo Scarfo			Former boss of the Philadelphia crime family.
Nevin Shapiro	61311-050		Confessed to security fraud and money laundering in $930 million Ponzi scheme with some proceeds going to University of Miami sports programs.
Don Siegelman	24775-001		former governor of Alabama. Convicted of bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud.
Michael Vick	33765-183		NFL Quarterback convicted of Dog Fighting.
Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory	13037-078	Serving 30 years to life	Co-founder of the Black Mafia Family. Alleged to have made in excess of $270 million in cocaine drug trafficking. Plead guilty in 2007 to drug trafficking and continuing a criminal enterprise and was sentenced along with his brother in 2008 each to 30 years in prison.

External links

• United States Penitentiary, Atlanta
• National Archives and Records Administration Southeast Region, Morrow, GA
• Atlanta FBI Division, a brief history
• Atlanta Federal Penitentiary Inmate Case Files, 1902-1921 at the National Archives at Atlanta