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United States Penitentiary, Atlanta.
Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, is a medium-security prison for men in Atlanta, Georgia. For many years it has been a notorious part of the U.S. federal prison system. It also has a detention center for pre-trial and holdover inmates and a camp for minimum security male inmates. It was primarily used as a detention center for Cuban refugees from the Mariel Boatlift who were ineligible for release into American society. The prison is located in southeast Atlanta at the junction of Boulevard and McDonough Boulevard. Its population as of July 6, 2006 is 1909 in the penitentiary and 554 in the camp.
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In November of 1987, the Cuban detainees, tired of indefinite confinment, rioted for 11 days.
[edit] 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.
- 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[1] - 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.
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