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| Location | Atlanta, Georgia |
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| Coordinates | 33°42′40″N 84°22′7″W / 33.71111°N 84.36861°W |
| Status | Operational |
| Security class | Medium Security |
| Capacity | 1,909 as of 2006 |
| Managed by | Federal Bureau of Prisons |
Atlanta Federal Penitentiary is a medium-security 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 southeast Atlanta at the junction of Boulevard and McDonough Boulevard.
Construction of the prison was authorized in 1899 and the project was completed in January 1902. It encompassed 300 acres 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.
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 isolation cell for up to 8 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.[1]
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Riot
In November 1987, the Cuban detainees, tired of indefinite confinement, rioted for 11 days.
Notable Inmates
- 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.
- Don Siegelman - former governor of Alabama. Convicted of bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud.
- Farouk Abdel-Muhti - Palestinian activist.
- Willie Aikens - Former Major League Baseball player.
- James J. Bulger - Committed 18 murders and is included on FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
- Jimmy Burke - New York mobster on whom the fictional Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas was based.
- 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.
- William Colbeck - St. Louis mobster and leader of the 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[2] - Creationist, convicted tax evador
- 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
- Carlo Ponzi of Ponzi scheme fame.
- Ted Tofelston
- Blue Steele - Popular bandleader and Victor recording artist, during the 1920s and 1930s. Was sentenced to federal prison, after beating up an IRS agent.
- Stephen Styles - Convicted cocaine trafficker from Fort Walton Beach, Fl.
- Lou Pearlman - Started Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync and others. Was convicted of felony. Perpetrated one of the longest running Ponzi schemes in America. Stole $500 million from family, friends, strangers and banks. 25 year sentence.
- Frank Abagnale
- Bernard Madoff - financier convicted of orchestrating the world's largest Ponzi scheme
References
- ^ Thomas Crane Young, FAIA (1858-1934) - landmarks-stl.org - Retrieved July 25, 2009
- ^ "Locate a Federal Inmate: Kent Hovind". Federal Bureau of Prisons. 2007. http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=NameSearch&needingMoreList=false&LastName=Hovind&Middle=&FirstName=Kent&Race=U&Sex=U&Age=&x=19&y=12. Retrieved 2007-05-15.
External links
- United States Penitentiary, Atlanta
- National Archives and Records Administration Southeast Region, Morrow, GA
- Atlanta FBI Division, a brief history
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