United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute
Location | Vigo County, Indiana, U.S. |
---|---|
Coordinates | 39°24′45″N 87°27′15″W / 39.4126°N 87.4542°W |
Status | Operational |
Security class | High-security (with minimum-security prison camp) |
Population | 1,480 |
Opened | 1940 |
Managed by | Federal Bureau of Prisons |
The United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute (USP Terre Haute) is a high-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Terre Haute, Indiana. It is part of the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Complex (FCC Terre Haute) and is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. USP Terre Haute houses a Special Confinement Unit for male federal inmates who have been sentenced to death as well as the federal execution chamber. Most inmates sentenced to death by the U.S. Federal Government are housed in USP Terre Haute prior to execution, although there are some exceptions. FCC Terre Haute is located in the city of Terre Haute, 70 miles (110 km) west of Indianapolis.[1]
History
A new United States penitentiary was authorized by President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938 and established in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1940 on 1,126 acres (4.56 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.[2] 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.[2] Construction cost of the institution at the time that it was built was $2,150,000.[2] 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 the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution, Terre Haute.
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, maths, as well as trades.
Camp 5, part of the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba, is reported to have been based on the design of USP Terre Haute.[3]
Facility
USP Terre Haute is a Care Level 3 facility, which means that any inmate sent to Terre Haute who has serious health problems 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.
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 Bureau of Prisons 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.[4] There are currently 62 inmates on death row.[5][6] The federal government chose Terre Haute as the location of the men's death row due to its central location within the United States.[7]
Among those most recently executed at USP Terre Haute were Timothy McVeigh and Juan Raul Garza in 2001, Louis Jones, Jr., in 2003, and Daniel Lewis Lee in 2020. 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. The method of execution used by the federal government is lethal injection.
Notable inmates
The following lists contain the names of current and former notable inmates.
Executed
Inmate name | Register number | Photo | Execution date | Details |
---|---|---|---|---|
Timothy McVeigh | 12076-064 | June 11, 2001 | Convicted in 1997 of planning and carrying out the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people. | |
Juan Raul Garza | 62728-079 | June 19, 2001 | Drug kingpin; convicted in 1993 of murdering or ordering the murders of three rival drug traffickers, and of importing thousands of pounds of marijuana from Mexico and reselling it to dealers in Texas, Louisiana and Michigan.[8][9] | |
Louis Jones, Jr. | 27265-077 | March 18, 2003 | Convicted in 1995 of the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of US Army Private Tracie Joy McBride at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas.[10] | |
Daniel Lewis Lee | 21303-009 | July 14, 2020 | White supremacist co-defendant of Chevie Kehoe, who together kidnapped, tortured and murdered a gun dealer and his family in Tilly, Arkansas. The stolen property they obtained from the family was taken to Spokane, Washington in an attempt to begin a whites-only nation.[11] |
Death row
Inmate name | Register number | Status | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Dylann Storm Roof | 28509-171 | Sentenced to death on January 11, 2017 | White supremacist; convicted in 2016 of federal hate crimes and firearms charges for committing the Charleston church shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2015, during which 9 parishioners were killed.[12] |
Alfonso Rodriguez, Jr. | 08720-059 | Sentenced to death on September 22, 2006 | Sex offender; convicted in 2006 of interstate kidnapping resulting in death in connection with the 2003 kidnapping, sexual assault and fatal stabbing of university student Dru Sjodin.[13] |
Joseph Edward Duncan | 12561-023 | Sentenced to death on August 27, 2008 | Serial child molester and rapist; sentenced to death for a 2005 kidnapping and quadruple murder in Idaho; pleaded guilty in state court to one murder in California and suspected in two other murders in Washington State.[14][15] |
Marvin Gabrion | 09184-055 | Resentenced to death on May 28, 2013[16] | Convicted in 2002 of the 1997 kidnapping and murder of 19-year-old Rachel Timmerman, who had accused Gabrion of rape; Tried federally as victim's body was found on federal land. Gabrion was the first person to receive a federal death sentence in a non-death penalty state since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988.[17][18][19] |
Kenneth Lighty | 38205-037 | Sentenced to death on November 10, 2005 | On November 10, 2005, a federal jury in Maryland recommended a death sentence for Lighty for the kidnapping and murder of Eric Hayes, an alleged PCP dealer and son of a Washington DC police lieutenant, in 2001. The kidnapping occurred in Washington, DC and the murder was committed in Maryland. Co-defendants James Flood and Lorenzo Wilson received life sentences.[20] |
Azibo Aquart | 15750-014 | Sentenced to death on December 12, 2012 | Convicted of ordering a triple murder. |
Bruce Webster | 26177-077 | Sentenced to death in 1994 | Kidnapped a girl in Texas and murdered her in Arkansas. |
Orlando Hall | 26176-077 |
Sentenced to death in 1994 | Accomplice of Bruce Webster. |
Shannon Agofsky | 06267-045 | Sentenced to death in 1992 | Murdered an inmate at Beaumont Federal Penitentiary in Texas. |
Julius Robinson | 26190-177 | Sentenced to death in 2002 | Killed two men in drug-related incidents in Ft. Worth. |
Kenneth Barrett | 04342-063 | Sentenced to death in 2005 | Murdered an Oklahoma State Trooper during a drug bust. |
Brandon Basham | 98940-071 | Sentenced to death in 2004 | Kidnapped and murdered a 44-year-old woman during his co-defendant's escape from prison. |
Chadrick Fulks | 16617-074 | Sentenced to death in 2004 | Accomplice of Brandon Basham. |
Thomas Sanders | 15967-043 | Sentenced to death in 2014 | Murdered a 12-year-old girl in Las Vegas. |
David Paul Hammer | 24507-077 | Sentenced to death in 1993, died in 2019 of natural causes | Prisoner convicted of killing an inmate at USP Allenwood, sentenced to death in 1998, but re-sentenced to life in prison in 2014. Transferred to ADX Florence after re-sentencing, he died in 2019. |
Thomas Hager | 08596-007 | Sentenced to death in 2007 | Drug related murder. |
Odell Corley | 07303-027 | Sentenced to death in 2004 | Convicted for actions stemming from an attempted bank robbery committed with several others during which two bank employees were killed. |
Richard Jackson | 16669-058 | Sentenced to death in 2001 | Kidnap, rape and murdered of Karen Styles |
Edward Fields | 04136-063 | Sentenced to death in 2005 | Former prison guard convicted of killing two campers while wearing a homemade sniper suit. |
Mark Snarr
Edgar Garcia |
11093-081
28132-177 |
Sentenced to death in 2010 | Murdered an inmate in Beaumont Federal Prison. |
Brandon Bernard | 91908-080 | Sentenced to death in 1999 | Convicted at the age of 18 for carjacking and murdering a couple visiting Texas. |
Meier Brown | 11364-021 | Sentenced to death on Mar 13, 2006 | Murdered a postal worker. |
Wesley Coonce Jr. | 30011-039 | Sentenced to death in May 2014 | Killed an inmate while incarcerated in medical prison in Missouri. (Co-defendant of Charles Hall) |
Charles Hall | 03766-036 | Sentenced to death in May 2014 | Killed an inmate while at MCFP Springfield. (Co-defendant of Wesley Coonce Jr.) |
Jorge Torrez | 16054-084 | Sentenced to death in 2005 | Murdered a girl in a military base. |
Wesley Ira Purkey | 14679-045 | Sentenced to death in 2003 | Convicted of raping and killing a 16-year-old girl before dismembering, burning and then dumping the teen's body in a septic pond. Scheduled for execution in July 15 2020.[11] |
Brandon Council | 63961-056 | Sentenced to death on October 3, 2019 | Shooting and killing two employees during a robbery at the Conway, South Carolina, CresCom bank in 2017 |
Len Davis | 24325-034 | Sentenced to death on Apr 26, 1996 | Former New Orleans police officer who ordered the murder of a young woman who witnessed his beating of a witness. |
Joseph Ebron | 08655-007 | Sentenced to death in 2008 | Murdered a fellow inmate at USP Beaumont. |
Ronald Mikos | 20716-424 | Sentenced to death in 2005 | Podiatrist convicted of killing a former patient to stop her from testifying in an investigation of a Medicare fraud scheme. |
Sherman Fields | 15651-180 | Sentenced to death in 1998 | Shot and killed his girlfriend after he escaped from a detention center where he was being held on a federal weapons charge. |
Jeffery Paul | 10517-042 | Sentenced to death in 1995 | Murdered an 82-year-old hiker in a robbery at Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. |
Carlos Caro | 37786-079 | Sentenced to death in 2002 | Strangled an inmate to death at USP Lee. |
Alfred Bourgeois | 98911-079 | Sentenced to death in 2004 | Convicted and sentenced to death for abuse leading to the death of his daughter at a military base. |
Alejandro Umaña | 23077-058 | Sentenced to death in 2010 | High-ranking member of the international street gang MS-13; convicted of racketeering conspiracy and murder in connection with four gang-related killings; Umaña's story has been featured in several documentaries regarding MS-13. |
Christopher Cramer
Ricky Fackrell |
10422-081
12324-081 |
Both sentenced to death in 2018 | White supremacists who murdered another federal inmate while incarcerated at United States Penitentiary, Beaumont. |
Kieth Nelson | 07440-031 | Sentenced to death in 1999 | Kidnapped, raped, and murdered a teen in Kansas City. Scheduled for execution August 28 2020.[11] |
Aquilia Barnette | 12599-058 | Sentenced to death in 1997 | Murdered a motorist in Charlotte. |
Dustin Honken | 06951-029 | Sentenced to death in 2005 | Slayings of two federal drug informants. Accomplice was Angela Johnson. Scheduled for execution July 17 2020.[11] |
Billie Jerome Allen | 26901-044 | Sentenced to death in 1998 | Convicted and sentenced to death for his involvement in an armed bank robbery during which a bank guard was killed. (Co-defendant of Norris Holder.) |
Norris Holder | 26902-044 | Sentenced to death in 1998 | Convicted and sentenced to death for the fatal shooting of a security guard during a bank robbery. (Co-defendant of Billie Allen.) |
Lezmond Mitchell | 48685-008 | Sentenced to death in 2003 | Stabbed a 63-year-old woman to death and then forced her 9-year-old granddaughter to sit beside her grandmother's lifeless body as he drove about 40 miles, before he slit the young girl's throat. He was scheduled for execution on December 11, 2019 but on October 8, 2019 he got a stay of execution and is scheduled for a new sentencing in Phoenix on December 13, 2019. |
Jurijus Kadamovas and Iouri Mikhel | 23675-112
21050-112 |
Both sentenced to death in 2007 | Jurijus Kadamovas and Iouri Mikhel were sentenced to death for the ransom related kidnappings and murders of five people. The men allegedly demanded a total of more than $5.5 million from relatives and associates, and received more than $1 million from victim's relatives.[9][10] Prosecutors said the victims were killed regardless of whether the ransoms were paid. The bodies were tied with weights and dumped in a reservoir near Yosemite National Park. |
Non-death row
Inmate name | Register number | Status | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Zaid Safarini | 14361-006[21] | Serving a life sentence | Member of the Abu Nidal Organization; convicted of 21 counts of murder in connection with the deadly 1986 hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi, Pakistan.[22] |
Michael Rudkin | 17133-014 | Serving a 90-year sentence scheduled for release on November 27, 2099 | Former correction officer at FCI Danbury in Connecticut; sentenced to prison in 2008 for having sex with an inmate; convicted in 2010 of trying to hire a hitman to kill the inmate, his ex-wife, his ex-wife's boyfriend and a federal agent while incarcerated at USP Coleman in Florida.[23][24] |
Anthony Battle | 11451-056 | Serving a life sentence. Now at USMCFP Springfield | Convicted for murder of a prison guard. |
Drew Peterson | 07018-748 | Serving a 78-year sentence. Transferred out in 2019. | On September 6, 2012, Peterson was found guilty of the premeditated murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.[25] Jurors admitted that the most compelling evidence was based on the hearsay statements allowed under "Drew's Law". |
Brian David Mitchell | 15815-081 | Serving a life sentence | Former street preacher and pedophile; convicted in 2010 of interstate kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor across state lines connection with the 2002 abduction of Elizabeth Smart; accomplice Wanda Barzee was sentenced to 15 years.[26] |
Mohamad Shnewer | 61283-066 | Serving a life sentence | One of the six men that conspired to attack an Army Base in Fort Dix, New Jersey |
Robert Merritt | 59317-066 | Serving a life sentence | Accomplice to Lamont Lewis in a firebombing of a house of the mother of a federal witness ordered by Kaboni Savage, which killed six people including 4 children. Another accomplice named Kidada Savage is serving a life sentence at FCI Tallahassee, Lamont Lewis is serving a 40 year sentence, and Kaboni Savage is on death row at ADX Florence. |
John McCullah | 03040-063 | Serving a life sentence | Sentenced to death for the drug related kidnapping and murder of a man in Oklahoma. The 10th Circuit granted McCullah a new penalty hearing in 1996, and in February 2000, McCullah was resentenced to life in prison. While incarcerated at USP Coleman I, he fatally assaulted another inmate on the orders of female correctional officer, Erin Sharma. Sharma was sentenced to life in prison for the murder and McCullah was moved to ADX Florence. In July 2019, McCullah was transferred from USP Allenwood to Terre Haute. |
See also
- List of U.S. federal prisons
- Federal Bureau of Prisons
- Incarceration in the United States
- Capital punishment by the United States federal government
References
- ^ "BOP: FCI Terre Haute". Bop.gov. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
- ^ a b c Taylor, Zach (May 6, 2001), "Penitentiary opened to great fanfare", Tribune-Star
- ^ Catherine Herridge (January 31, 2009). "Inside Guantanamo Bay, a Study in Contrasts". Fox News. Retrieved January 31, 2009.
- ^ "Special Confinement Unit Opens at USP Terre Haute Archived December 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine." Federal Bureau of Prisons. July 13, 1999. Retrieved on October 3, 2010.
- ^ "Federal Death Row Prisoners | Death Penalty Information Center". Deathpenaltyinfo.org. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
- ^ "The Bureau Celebrates 80th Anniversary Archived May 28, 2010, at the Wayback Machine." Federal Bureau of Prisons. May 14, 2010. Retrieved on October 3, 2010.
- ^ Huppke, Rex W. "EXECUTION: Terre Haute, Ind. dreads execution of Timothy McVeigh." Associated Press at the Southeast Missourian. Friday April 6, 2001. 2A (continued from 1A). Retrieved from Google News (2/16) on October 14, 2010. "The planning for this day began when mcveigh was moved to Terre Haute along with the 19 other federal death row inmates in 1999[...]"
- ^ "Who is Juan Raul Garza? - CNN". Articles.cnn.com. June 18, 2001. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
- ^ "BOP: Federal Executions". Bop.gov. July 8, 1942. Archived from the original on February 15, 2013. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
- ^ "Louis Jones, Jr. #837". Clarkprosecutor.org. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
- ^ a b c d Ryckaert, Vic (June 16, 2020). "Federal executions to resume next month at Terre Haute prison". IndyStar.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Byrd, Caitlin (April 22, 2017). "Dylann Roof is now on federal death row in Indiana". The Post and Courier. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
- ^ "Rodriguez sentenced to die for killing Dru Sjodin". StarTribune.com. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
- ^ "Idaho suspect has violent history - US news - Crime & courts | NBC News". NBC News. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
- ^ "Competency appeal for Joseph Edward Duncan nears in federal court | HeraldNet.com - Northwest". HeraldNet.com. December 16, 2012. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
- ^ "Court of appeals affirms death penalty for Gabrion". Cedar Springs Post. June 7, 2013.
- ^ Agar, John (May 28, 2013). "Marvin Gabrion's death penalty reinstated in 1997 killing of young mother". MLIVE.
- ^ "First Federal Death Sentence in Non-death penalty state overturned". Death Penalty Information Center. Retrieved May 16, 2014.
- ^ "Court divided on Marvin Gabrion death penalty appeal". The Grand Rapids Press. March 14, 2008.
- ^ "Kenneth Jamal Lighty - Federal Death Row". http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/showthread.php?4694-Kenneth-Jamal-Lighty-Federal-Death-Row. October 2010.
{{cite news}}
: External link in
(help)|website=
- ^ "Appeals court grants Aldawsari lawyers more time to brief case". Lubbockonline.com. Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. March 16, 2013. Retrieved October 17, 2015.
- ^ Terry Friedan; Carol Cratty (May 12, 2004). "Survivors condemn hijacker in Pan Am massacre". CNN. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
- ^ "Jury Finds Former Federal Correctional Officer, Now an Inmate, Guilty of Attempts to Kill Federal Agent and Informant". FBI Jacksonville Division. April 28, 2010. Retrieved April 18, 2013. [verification needed]
- ^ Hudak, Stephen (July 18, 2010). "Former federal corrections officer gets 90 years in prison for trying to arrange murders behind bars". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved June 10, 2014. [verification needed]
- ^ Schmadeke, Steve; Stacy St. Clair; Matthew Walberg (September 6, 2012). "Peterson found guilty of murdering Savio". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 6, 2012. [verification needed]
- ^ "Mitchell Sentenced to Life in Prison in Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping Case" (PDF). Justice.gtov. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 29, 2011. Retrieved November 6, 2012. [verification needed]
External links
- USP Terre Haute Official Website