United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg

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United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg
United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg.jpg
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
LocationKelly Township, Union County,
near Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
StatusOperational
Security classMedium-security (with minimum-security prison camp)
Population953 (644 in USP, 309 in camp)
Opened1932
Managed byFederal Bureau of Prisons
Wardenas of late summer 2014: current acting warden is Mr. Wilson, new warden is Mr. Jeffrey Butler
Websitewww.bop.gov/locations/institutions/lew/index.jsp

The United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg (USP Lewisburg) is a medium-security United States federal prison in Pennsylvania for male inmates. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. An adjacent satellite prison camp houses minimum-security male offenders.

USP Lewisburg is located in Kelly Township, Pennsylvania, near Lewisburg.[1][2][3] It is in the central Pennsylvania region, 170 miles (270 km) west of Philadelphia and 200 miles (320 km) north of Washington, DC.[4]

History[]

Initially named North Eastern Penitentiary, USP Lewisburg was one of four federal prisons to open in 1932.[5][6] It was designed by Alfred Hopkins.

USP Lewisburg had a prison riot in November 1995. Although started by only 10 prisoners, more than 20 visited the hospital that November 1, with one prisoner recording multiple broken bones and missing teeth. Many were sentenced to the "hole" and over 400 were transferred.[7] This incident thrust the Penitentiary into the national spotlight, where it gained much of its current notoriety.

A local non-profit group, the Lewisburg Prison Project, assists prisoners here and in the surrounding area with issues of conditions of confinement.[8]

USP Lewisburg was the focus of the 1991 Academy Award-nominated documentary Doing Time: Life Inside the Big House by filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond. The one hour long film described conditions inside the prison and focused specifically on the abolition of parole within the federal system and the fears held by many prisoners about re-integrating into society upon their eventual release from prison.[9]

As of 2009, USP Lewisburg was designated as a Special Management Unit intended to house the most violent and disruptive inmates in the Bureau of Prisons. Although most USP Lewisburg inmates are housed in the SMU, there remains a work cadre of approximately 200 inmates in the USP's general population.

As of February 2021, USP Lewisburg was officially moved from a high-security institution to medium security. It will now be the third location within the BOP for Communications Management Units (CMU), alongside USP Marion and FCI Terre Haute. Offenders in the CMU will mostly be terrorists and inmates the BOP classifies as security threats who will be held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. The Special Management Unit (SMU) that was operated at Lewisburg is now at USP Thomson, which opened in 2019.[10]

Funding issues[]

USP Lewisburg entrance gate.

In July 2008, correction officers at USP Lewisburg expressed concerns about underfunding. Over the past four years, union leaders and other officials had been lobbying in an attempt to quell staff reductions and cutting costs. The Federal Bureau of Prisons had proposed $143 million in possible spending cuts, including not replacing vehicles and equipment, eliminating overtime, reducing corrections officer training, and a possible cut in officer staff positions.[11] Under such conditions, many of the Correctional Officers expressed concerns about their own safety.

Notable inmates (current and former)[]

  • †Inmates released prior to 1982 are not listed on the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
  • ††Inmates in the Federal Witness Protection Program are not listed on the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.

Organized crime figures[]

Inmate Name Register Number Status Details
David Thai 38263-053 Currently incarcerated at FMC Devens Founder and crime boss of the Vietnamese Born to Kill gang during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and was one of the largest purveyors of counterfeit watches in the New York counterfeiting industry. Was convicted of murder, extortion, racketeering alongside a multitude of charges in 1992 by a Federal Judge in Brooklyn.[12][13]
Whitey Bulger 02182-748 Held at USP Lewisburg from 1963 to 1965. Organized crime boss in Boston, Massachusetts in the 1970s and 1980s; FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive until his capture in 2011; known as "Whitey."[14][15]
John Gotti 18261-053 Held at USP Lewisburg from 1969 to 1972. Boss of the Gambino Crime Family in New York City from 1985 to 1992; convicted of murder, murder conspiracy, loansharking, illegal gambling, obstruction of justice, bribery, and tax evasion in 1992.[16]
Paul Vario 16522-053 Held at USP Lewisburg from 1973 to 1975. Former Caporegime and Underboss of the Lucchese crime family in New York City; portrayed by Paul Sorvino in the 1990 film Goodfellas.[17]
Enoch L. Johnson Unlisted† Held at USP Lewisburg from 1941 to 1945. New Jersey political boss and racketeer; served as an inspiration for the character Enoch Thompson, who is portrayed by Steve Buscemi in the HBO television series Boardwalk Empire.
Henry Hill Unlisted†† Held at USP Lewisburg from 1972 to 1978. Former associate of the Lucchese crime family in New York City; portrayed by Ray Liotta in the 1990 film Goodfellas.
Thomas DeSimone Unlisted† Sentenced to ten years for Hijacking Associate of the Lucchese crime family in New York.[18]
Jimmy Hoffa Unlisted† Held at USP Lewisburg from 1967 to 1971. American labor union leader who disappeared in 1975. Sentence was commuted in 1971.
Melvin Williams 47842-066 Spent a portion of his sentence at USP Lewisburg; released in 1996. Former organized crime figure in Baltimore, Maryland; convicted of heroin trafficking in 1985; served as an inspiration for the character Avon Barksdale in the HBO series The Wire.[19]
Gerard Ouimette 02519-070 Died while serving a life sentence in 2015 Former mafioso from Providence, Rhode Island; associate of the Patriarca crime family
Anthony Provenzano 00625-050 Held at USP Lewisburg from 1966 to 1970. Also known as Tony Pro. Was a caporegime of the Genovese crime family New Jersey faction. An associate of Jimmy Hoffa. President of Teamsters Local 560 in Union City, New Jersey.
Osiel Cárdenas Guillén 62604-079 Serving a 25-year prison sentence; scheduled for release on August 30, 2024.[20] Succeeded Juan García Ábrego as leader of the Gulf Cartel; extradited to the U.S. from Mexico in 2007 and pleaded guilty to threatening to murder U.S. law enforcement agents, drug trafficking and money laundering.[21][22]

Terrorists[]

Inmate Name Register Number Status Details
Edwin Cortes

Ricardo Jimenez

92153-024

88967-024

Held at USP Lewisburg from 1981 until 1999; their sentences were commuted by President Bill Clinton. Puerto Rican nationalists; convicted in 1981 of seditious conspiracy and other charges for their roles in numerous bombings aimed at achieving independence for Puerto Rico.[23]
Abdel Nur 64655-053 Served a 15 year sentence, released 2020 Convicted in 2012 for conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack at JFK Airport, deported to Guyana in 2020
Joe Doherty 07792-054 Held at USP Lewisburg from 1991 until his deportation to Northern Ireland in 1992. Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) escapee who fought an ultimately unsuccessful nine-year legal battle against extradition and deportation.

Political prisoners[]

Inmate Name Register Number Status Details
Herbert John Burgman Unlisted† Held at USP Lewisburg from 1949 to 1952. Convicted of treason in 1949 for making numerous propaganda broadcasts for the Nazis.
Alger Hiss Unlisted† Held at USP Lewisburg from 1950 to 1954. American lawyer, government official, author, and lecturer; accused of being a Soviet spy and subsequently convicted of perjury in 1950.[24]
Carl Marzani (1912–1994) Unlisted† Held at USP Lewisburg from 1950 to 1951. Italian-born American political activist, publisher, OSS and State Department official who concealed his CPUSA while in government.[25][26]
John Williamson Unlisted† Held at USP Lewisburg from 1950 to 1955. Member of the CPUSA Central Committee.

Others[]

Inmate Name Register Number Status Details
Andrew Caspersen 75827-054 Transferred to a Residential Reentry Facility in New York City Wall Street swindler
Bayard Rustin Unlisted† Held at USP Lewisburg from 1944 to 1946. Civil rights activist.[27]
Robert Hansen 80462-011 Held at USP Lewisburg from 1983 until his transfer to state prison in Alaska in 1988. American serial killer; convicted in 1983 of murdering four women near Anchorage, Alaska; suspected of 15 other murders.
Steve Reid Unlisted† Held at USP Lewisburg from 1969 to 1971. American jazz drummer and conscientious objector to the Vietnam War; convicted of draft evasion in 1969.
Robert Lee Johnson

Robert Thompson

Unlisted†

Unlisted†

Incarcerated at USP Lewisburg in 1965; Johnson was murdered at USP Lewisburg in 1972; Thompson was released in 1978. Johnson was a US Army sergeant and Thompson a US Air Force clerk; convicted of espionage in 1965 for passing classified army documents to the Soviet intelligence agency known as the KGB.
Chevie Kehoe 21300-009 Serving a Life Sentence White supremacist convicted on charges of racketeering, racketeering in aid of murder and robbery conspiracy in connection to the kidnapping, torture and murders of William and Nancy Mueller and their 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell. Co-defendant Daniel Lewis Lee was executed for the murders at United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute on July 14, 2020.
John Wojtowicz 76456-158 Held at USP Lewisburg from 1973 to 1979. Bank robber portrayed by Al Pacino in the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon.
Carl Upchurch 28862-117 Released from custody in 1982. American activist, author and educator; portrayed by Omar Epps in the 2002 film Conviction.
02638-049 Serving 294-month sentence for bank robbery scheduled release in 2024 Lead Singer and Rhythm guitarist of "Prisonbilly" band The Reclusos. Rumored to have recorded the live CD "Welcome To The Big House" inside the prison in 2006
Wilhelm Reich Unlisted† Held at USP Lewisburg from March 1956 until his death in November 1957. Austrian psychoanalyst; convicted of contempt of court in 1956 for violating Food and Drug Administration regulations.
Franklin Delano Floyd Unlisted† transferred to the Georgia State Prison on death row for murder.
Samuel Roth

Ralph Ginzburg

Unlisted†

Unlisted†

Released. American authors convicted of obscenity; their cases were the subjects of landmark Supreme Court rulings on freedom of sexual expression.
Richard McCoy Jr. Unlisted Deceased American skyjacker who hijacked United Airlines Flight 855, extorted $500,000 dollars, and parachuted out the back. Escaped from prison in 1974 by stealing a garbage truck and ramming the gate. McCoy was later killed in a shootout with FBI agents.
Jayme Gordon 98605-038 Released on 3 November 2018 from federal Residential Reentry Management housing in Philadelphia. American artist who tried to sue DreamWorks claiming to have came up with the idea for Kung Fu Panda, and altered pictures of a story he copyrighted as proof.
B.G. 31969-034[28] Currently at FCI Williamsburg Rapper from New Orleans

See also[]

  • List of U.S. federal prisons
  • Federal Bureau of Prisons
  • Incarceration in the United States

References[]

  1. ^ "USP Lewisburg Contact Information." Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved on February 11, 2013. "USP LEWISBURG U.S. PENITENTIARY 2400 ROBERT F. MILLER DRIVE LEWISBURG, PA 17837"
  2. ^ "BAS12M34211939136_000.pdf Archived 2014-05-03 at the Wayback Machine." U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on February 11, 2013.
  3. ^ "BAS12M34211939136_002.pdf Archived 2014-05-03 at the Wayback Machine." U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on February 11, 2013.
  4. ^ "BOP: USP Lewisburg". Bop.gov. Retrieved 2013-02-12.
  5. ^ "Learning from Lewisburg: 4. Pre-industrial Lewisburg". Facstaff.bucknell.edu. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
  6. ^ "New Prisons" Popular Science, August 1932, pages 16 & 17 for drawings
  7. ^ prisondesk@igc.apc.org. "Update about what happened at Lewisburg Penitentiary". Archived from the original on 2007-09-26. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
  8. ^ Lewisburg Prison Project.
  9. ^ Doing Time: Life Inside The Big House (1991).
  10. ^ PennLive, John Beauge | Special to (2019-03-22). "Lewisburg penitentiary to become medium-security institution; staff will be unaffected". pennlive. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  11. ^ Morton, Gina (2008-07-08). "Prison workers say they're at risk". Dailyitem.com. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
  12. ^ Steven Lee Myers (1992-10-24). "Life Sentence for Scourge of Chinatown". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-10-02.
  13. ^ English, TJ (2011-11-15). Born to Kill: The Rise and Fall of America's Bloodiest Asian Gang. Open Road Media. ISBN 9781453234273.
  14. ^ "Whitey Bulger, the FBI and MK Ultra". Crimelibrary.com. Archived from the original on 2008-01-13. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
  15. ^ Boeri, David (2012-05-30). "'Whitey' The Prisoner: A Master Manipulator". WBUR. Retrieved 2013-02-12.
  16. ^ "John Gotti Running The Mob - New York Times". Nytimes.com. 1989-04-02. Retrieved 2013-02-12.
  17. ^ Gene Mustain, Jerry Capeci (2002). "Chapter 9: "Club Lewisburg"". Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti. Penguin. ISBN 9780028644165. Retrieved 12 December 2010.
  18. ^ May, Allan (2012-12-14). "The Lufthansa Heist Revisited – Robert's Lounge Crew – Crime Library on". Trutv.com. Retrieved 2013-02-12.
  19. ^ "Melvin Williams Biography - Facts, Birthday, Life Story". Biography.com. Retrieved 2013-02-12.
  20. ^ "Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator". Federal Bureau of Prisons. United States Department of Justice. Retrieved 17 April 2020. BOP Register Number: 62604-079
  21. ^ "Extradition: Past cases highlight limits - Brownsville Herald: Valley". Brownsville Herald. 2011-03-05. Retrieved 2013-04-18.
  22. ^ https://www.justice.gov/dea/pr/speeches-testimony/2012-2009/dea_atf_071609.pdf
  23. ^ JOHN M. BRODERPublished: September 08, 1999 (1999-09-08). "12 Imprisoned Puerto Ricans Accept Clemency Conditions - New York Times". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 2013-02-12.
  24. ^ "The Alger Hiss Story". Homepages.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
  25. ^ Marzani, Carl (August 1952). We Can Be Friends: Origins of the Cold War. Topical Books Publishers. pp. 7 (introduction), 14 (jail with Thomas). Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  26. ^ "Carl Marzani, 82, 'Loyalty' Case Defendant, Dies". The New York Times. December 14, 1994.
  27. ^ Brooke, Aslan. "A lavender look at black history". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
  28. ^ 31969-034 - BOP

Coordinates: 40°59′17″N 76°54′54″W / 40.9880°N 76.9149°W / 40.9880; -76.9149

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