The United States Penitentiary, Tucson (USP Tucson) is a high-security United States

federal prison A federal prison is operated under the jurisdiction of a federal government as opposed to a state or provincial body. Federal prisons are used for convicts who violated federal law (U.S., Mexico), inmates considered dangerous (Brazil), or those s ...

for male inmates in Arizona. It is part of the Tucson Federal Correctional Complex (FCC Tucson) and is operated by the

Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Justice that is responsible for the care, custody, and control of incarcerated individuals who have committed federal crimes; that i ...

, a division of the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

. The facility also has a satellite prison camp for minimum-security male offenders. USP Tucson is located within Tucson's city limits, southeast of downtown Tucson.

History

The Federal Bureau of Prisons drafted a report on March 28, 2001 naming Tucson as an ideal site for a new federal prison housing either 1,100 medium security or 1,000 high security inmates. A hearing was arranged the following May. Construction was completed in 2005 at a cost of about $100 million, but additional preparations took over a year before inmates could be received. The facility is situated on a property and designed for 1,500 inmates, though officials had at one time planned to limit the population to around 960. The minimum-security work camp provides labor for day-to-day operations of the federal prison complex. It has been described as "its own little city" by Josias Salazar, executive assistant of the prison complex. The opening of the penitentiary on February 5, 2007 worsened a local shortage of prison officers and was cited by residents for adding to the street traffic generated by the various prison facilities.

Sex Offender Management Program

USP Tucson is one of several federal prisons that offers a Sex Offender Management Program (SOMP) and therefore has a higher proportion of sex offenders in its general population. Having a larger number of sex offenders at SOMP facilities ensures that inmates feel safe about participating in treatment. USP Tucson offers a Non-Residential Sex Offender Treatment Program (SOTP-NR), which is a moderate intensity program designed for low to moderate risk sexual offenders. Many of the inmates in the SOTP-NR are first-time offenders serving a sentence for an Internet sex crime. All SOMP institutions offer the SOTP-NR. Eligible inmates are transferred to a SOMP facility based on their treatment needs and security level. USP Tucson houses several high-profile sex offenders.

Notable incidents

The penitentiary went into lockdown on May 28, 2009 after several inmates were hospitalized from fights involving improvised weapons. Another inmate, Joseph William Nichols, was sentenced to 33 more months after being caught on August 12, 2009 with a concealed plastic shank that had been fashioned from his prison chair. A search of the kitchen where Nichols had been assigned resulted in the discovery of hidden

contraband Contraband (from Medieval French ''contrebande'' "smuggling") refers to any item that, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold. It is used for goods that by their nature are considered too dangerous or offensive in the eyes o ...

packages containing weapons and

drug paraphernalia "Drug paraphernalia" is a term to denote any equipment, product or accessory that is intended or modified for making, using or concealing drugs, typically for recreational purposes. Drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methampheta ...

Media coverage

In July 2010, a ''

San Diego CityBeat ''San Diego CityBeat'' was an alternative weekly newspaper in San Diego, California that focused on local progressive politics, arts, and music. It was published every Wednesday and distributed around San Diego county, although with a focus on the ...

'' reporter

mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sys ...

ed former congressman

Randy "Duke" Cunningham Randall Harold "Duke" Cunningham (born December 8, 1941) is a former American politician, decorated Vietnam War veteran, fighter ace, and ex-felon. Cunningham served as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California' ...

to inquire about his time at the prison's work camp halfway into his 100-month sentence for

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the tax ...

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agr ...

to commit

bribery Bribery is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Cor ...

, mail fraud and

wire fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical or electronic mail system to defraud another, and are federal crimes there. Jurisdiction is claimed by the federal government if the illegal activity ...

. Cunningham, who has become an advocate of prison reform, responded in a handwritten letter that he spends his days there teaching fellow inmates to obtain their GED. He wrote: " oomany students have severe learning disabilities from either drugs or genetic During the past 4 years only one of my students was unable to graduate—I taught him life skills, using a calculator to add, subtract, ultiply and divide This way he could at least balance a check book."

Notable inmates (current and former)

*Inmates who were released from custody prior to 1982 are not listed on the Bureau of Prisons website.

High-profile

Political figures

Terrorists

Organized crime figures

Others

References

External links

USP Tucson
at the

(Official site) {{Federal Bureau of Prisons While imprisoned, Pickard authored the acclaimed memoir "The Rose Of Paracelsus: On Secrets and Sacraments" http://www.createspace.com/5377339 2007 establishments in Arizona Buildings and structures in Tucson, Arizona Tucson Tucson