Initially named North Eastern Penitentiary, USP Lewisburg was one of four federal prisons to open in 1932.[4][5] It was designed by Alfred Hopkins.
In 1976, the prison was criticized by Judge Clarence Newcomer, who released inmate Francis Marziani early after it was revealed that Marziani had been one of many victims of gang rape during an unusual wave of rape, torture, and murder by inmates in the prison.[6]
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 film described conditions inside the prison, noted the abolition of parole within the federal system, and showed fears held by many prisoners about re-integrating into society upon their release.[7]
On November 1, 1995, USP Lewisburg had a prison riot. It was started by 10 prisoners, but more than 20 visited the hospital, one with broken bones and missing teeth. Many were sentenced to solitary confinement and more than 400 were transferred.[8] 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, helps prisoners here and in the surrounding area with issues of conditions of confinement.[9]
21st century
USP Lewisburg's 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.[10] Under such conditions, many of the Correctional Officers expressed concerns about their own safety.
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 about 200 inmates in the USP's general population.
As of February 2021, USP Lewisburg was changed from a high-security institution to medium security, becoming 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.[11]
Notable inmates (current and former)
†Inmates released before 1982 are not listed on the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
^"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"
^"Learning from Lewisburg: 4. Pre-industrial Lewisburg". Facstaff.bucknell.edu. Retrieved July 21, 2009.
^"New Prisons" Popular Science, August 1932, pages 16 & 17 for drawings
^"Killing Is Common in Lewisburg Federal Prison, Freed Inmate Says". The New York Times. June 3, 1976. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
^Doing Time: Life Inside The Big House (1991).
^"Update about what happened at Lewisburg Penitentiary". Archived from the original on September 26, 2007. Retrieved July 21, 2009.
^Lewisburg Prison Project.
^Morton, Gina (July 8, 2008). "Prison workers say they're at risk". Dailyitem.com. Retrieved July 21, 2009.
^PennLive, John Beauge | Special to (March 22, 2019). "Lewisburg penitentiary to become medium-security institution; staff will be unaffected". pennlive. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
^"Whitey Bulger, the FBI and MK Ultra". Crimelibrary.com. Archived from the original on January 13, 2008. Retrieved July 21, 2009.
^Boeri, David (May 30, 2012). "'Whitey' The Prisoner: A Master Manipulator". WBUR. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
^"Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator". Federal Bureau of Prisons. United States Department of Justice. Retrieved April 17, 2020. BOP Register Number: 62604-079
^"Extradition: Past cases highlight limits – Brownsville Herald: Valley". Brownsville Herald. March 5, 2011. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
^"Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 17, 2014. Retrieved November 22, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^May, Allan (December 14, 2012). "The Lufthansa Heist Revisited – Robert's Lounge Crew – Crime Library on". Trutv.com. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
^"John Gotti Running The Mob – New York Times". The New York Times. April 2, 1989. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
^Steven Lee Myers (October 24, 1992). "Life Sentence for Scourge of Chinatown". The New York Times. Retrieved October 2, 2016.
^English, TJ (November 15, 2011). Born to Kill: The Rise and Fall of America's Bloodiest Asian Gang. Open Road Media. ISBN 9781453234273.
^Gene Mustain, Jerry Capeci (2002). "Chapter 9: "Club Lewisburg"". Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti. Penguin. ISBN 9780028644165. Retrieved December 12, 2010.
^"Melvin Williams Biography – Facts, Birthday, Life Story". Biography.com. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
^Zito, Chuck; Layden, Joe (December 17, 2003). Street Justice – Google Books. Macmillan. pp. 227–232. ISBN 9780312320218. Retrieved August 9, 2010.
^Zito, Chuck; Layden, Joe (December 17, 2003). Street Justice – Google Books. Macmillan. pp. 217–223. ISBN 9780312320218. Retrieved August 9, 2010.
^JOHN M. BRODERPublished: September 8, 1999 (September 8, 1999). "12 Imprisoned Puerto Ricans Accept Clemency Conditions – New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved February 12, 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^"George Viereck: Diplomat or Propagandist?". The University of Iowa. November 18, 2010. Archived from the original on December 7, 2022. Retrieved December 7, 2022.
^"The Alger Hiss Story". Homepages.nyu.edu. Retrieved July 21, 2009.
^Marzani, Carl (August 1952). We Can Be Friends: Origins of the Cold War. Topical Books Publishers. pp. 7 (introduction), 14 (jail with Thomas). Retrieved December 31, 2019.
^"Carl Marzani, 82, 'Loyalty' Case Defendant, Dies". The New York Times. December 14, 1994.
^Brooke, Aslan. "A lavender look at black history". Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved July 21, 2009.
^"Roy Gardner". www.outlawlegends.freeservers.com. Archived from the original on May 11, 2013.
^Colt, Duane (December 29, 2011). "the Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History". HistoryLink.org. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
^Corson, Pete. "The Atlanta Federal Penitentiary's Hollywood connections". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
^"A Fugitive's on the Loose – New York Daily News". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on August 15, 2011. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
^"Jeburk's cohort admits 5 robberies". chronicle.augusta.com. Archived from the original on September 5, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
^"Fbop Ser Monthly Reports 1999 Jan-Dec" (PDF). www.prisonlegalnews.org.
^31969-034 – BOP
^Nadu, Jeff (June 8, 2023). "Report - Bill Omar Carraquillo". Twitter. Retrieved June 9, 2023. Youtuber Bill Omar Carraquillo aka "OMI IN A HELLCAT" has reported to USP Lewisburg federal prison to begin serve his 66 month prison sentence for a copyright infringement scheme that involved piracy of cable TV, wire fraud & money laundering
^Moore, Marcia (August 1, 2023). "Convicted abuser of top athletes, children, moved to USP Lewisburg". The Daily Item. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
