Federal Medical Center, Butner

Federal Medical Center, Butner
Location Granville County, North Carolina
Status Operational
Security class All security levels (with adjacent camp for minimum-security inmates)
Population 960
Managed by Federal Bureau of Prisons

The Federal Medical Center, Butner (FMC Butner) is a United States federal prison in North Carolina for male inmates of all security levels who have special health needs. It is part of the Butner Federal Correctional Complex and 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 inmates.

FMC Butner is located near the Research Triangle area of Durham, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill.[1]

Facility and programs

FMC Butner has a full hospital facility specializing in oncology and behavioral science. Many medical and surgical specialties hold clinics and perform procedures at the FMC. It has the only residential program devoted to the treatment of sexual offenders in the federal prison system.

Butner study

In 2009, a study conducted by psychologists Michael Bourke and Andres Hernandez was published in the Journal of Family Violence. The results suggested a strong link between viewing child pornography and sexual abuse. The findings went against the conventional and widely held belief that while abhorrent, a person passively viewing child pornography had an insignificant causal link with that person actually molesting a child.[2]

In what is known as the "Butner Study," Bourke and Hernandez analyzed data on 155 men convicted of child pornography offenses, who took part in an 18-month treatment program between 2002 and 2005, during which the men filled out assessment measures including a "victims list," where they revealed the number of children they had molested in the past.

74% of the men denied molesting anyone when they were sentenced. However, by the end of treatment, 85% had admitted to sexually molesting a child at least once. The numbers are more than twice that of other studies. In explaining this discrepancy, Bourke said, "Our treatment team worked for an average of 18 months with each offender, and the environment was one of genuine therapeutic trust" that encouraged the men to tell the truth about themselves.[3]

A critique of the study is that the use of a population of participants in the most intensive sex offender treatment program offered in the federal prison system skewed the sample. Offenders had to have received at least a thirty-six-month sentence to be eligible for the program. Melissa Hamilton argues, "These offenders may well, then, have represented particularly dangerous offenders who were a high risk to children since they had been prosecuted, convicted, given more than minimal prison sentences, and accepted into the limited-space program because of a perceived need by themselves and program clinicians for a lengthy and intensive residential program."[4]

Notable incidents

In October 2012, the oldest inmate in the federal prison system, Drayton Curry, inmate # 24017-037, died at FMC Butner at age 92. Curry was serving a life sentence for a 1992 drug trafficking conviction and had petitioned US President Barack Obama for clemency in February 2011 due to old age and poor health. Advocates of prison reform cited Curry's situation as a reason for reconsidering mandatory minimum federal drug sentences.[5]

Notable inmates (current and former)

Inmate Name Register Number Status Details
John Hinckley, Jr. 00137-177 Released to a psychiatric hospital in 1981. Attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C., on March 30, 1981, as the culmination of an effort to impress teen actress Jodie Foster; found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982.[6]
Omar Abdel-Rahman 34892-054 Serving a life sentence under the name Omar Ahmad Rahman. Leader of the terrorist organization al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya; convicted in 1995 of seditious conspiracy for masterminding a foiled plot to bomb high-profile targets in New York City, as well as conspiring to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.[7][8]
Frank Calabrese, Sr. 49955-079 Died at FMC Butner in 2012 while serving a life sentence. Hitman for the Chicago Outfit Mafia organization; arrested as part of Operation Family Secrets; convicted in 2007 of racketeering conspiracy for directing and engaging in Mafia activities including murder, extortion and loansharking.[9][10]
Russell Weston, Jr. 22372-016 Being held indefinitely; the Bureau of Prisons lists his status as "Hospital Treatment Completed." Responsible for the 1998 United States Capitol shooting, during which he fatally shot Detective John Gibson and Officer Jacob Chestnut of the US Capitol Police and wounded a tourist. Weston was subsequently ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial.[11]
James von Brunn 07128-016 Died at FMC Butner while awaiting trial in 2010. White supremacist and Holocaust denier who perpetrated the 2009 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting, during which Museum Security Guard Stephen T. Johns was killed.[12]
Manning, TomTom Manning 10373-016 Serving a 58-year sentence; scheduled for release in 2020. Member of the United Freedom Front, a Marxist group which carried out bank robberies and bombings at corporate buildings, courthouses and military facilities in the 1970s and 1980s; convicted of the 1981 murder of NJ State Trooper Philip Lomonaco.[13]
Salvatore DiMasi 27371-038 Serving an 8-year sentence; scheduled for release in 2018. Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 2004 to 2009; convicted in 2011 of conspiracy, honest services fraud and extortion for steering contracts to the software company Cognos in exchange for $65,000 in kickbacks.[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "BOP: FMC Butner". Bop.gov. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
  2. ↑ Sher, Julian; Carey, Benedict (2007-07-19). "Debate on Child Pornography’s Link to Molesting". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
  3. ↑ "Porn use and child abuse". Apa.org. 2007-07-19. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
  4. ↑ Hamilton, Melissa (April 2012). "The Child Pornography Crusade and Its Net-Widening Effect". Cardozo Law Review 33 (1679).
  5. ↑ Rayman, Graham (September 12, 2011). "Drayton Curry, 92, Nation's Oldest Federal Prisoner: Obama AWOL On Clemency Request - New York News - Runnin' Scared". Village Voice. Retrieved July 27, 2012.
  6. ↑ "John Hinckley, Jr. . Reagan . WGBH American Experience". PBS. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
  7. ↑ Fried, Joseph P. (1995-10-02). "THE TERROR CONSPIRACY: THE OVERVIEW;SHEIK AND 9 FOLLOWERS GUILTY OF A CONSPIRACY OF TERRORISM". The New York Times.
  8. ↑ "'Supermax' prison awaits Moussaoui". BBC News. 2006-05-04.
  9. ↑ "Chicago mob hitman Frank Calabrese dies in federal prison". Fox News. 2012-12-27.
  10. ↑ Coen, Jeff (2009-01-29). "Mob hit man gets life in Family Secrets case". Chicago Tribune.
  11. ↑ "Judge Rules Capitol Gunman Can Be Forced to Take Medicine". Newyorktimes.com. 2002-08-03. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
  12. ↑ Wilber, Del Quentin (January 7, 2010). "Von Brunn, white supremacist Holocaust museum shooter, dies". The Washington Post. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  13. ↑ "New Jersey State Police - History - 1980's". State.nj.us. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
  14. ↑ "FORMER SPEAKER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND LOBBYIST SENTENCED ON CORRUPTION CHARGES". US Department of Justice. September 9, 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2014.