10 Infamous American Prisons

Name: McNeil Island
Location: Steilacoom, Wash.
Year opened: 1875
Inmate population: 908
Facts: McNeil Island, at just over 2 miles in width and 3 miles in length, is the oldest prison in the Northwestern United States. This remote Washington state prison is the last of its kind -- located on an island only accessible by boat or helicopter -- still in use. Once a federal prison, it is now used by the state to house their offenders.
Famous Inmates: Robert F. Stroud (a prisoner who supposedly found solace in segregation by raising and selling birds) and Charles Manson (Helter Skelter)

Name: Atlanta Federal Penitentiary
Location: Atlanta, Ga.
Year opened: 1902
Inmate population: 2,500

Facts: Until Boulder Dam was built in 1932, Atlanta Federal Penitentiary was the largest cement mass in the United States. In 1920, it was the campaign headquarters of presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs, who ran from his cell, collecting 3.5 percent of the vote. His sentence was commuted a year later, on Christmas Day, by President Warren G. Harding. In 1931 it welcomed Al Capone, who began serving his sentence for tax evasion. Its primary use, however, was as a detention center for Cuban refugees who once rioted for eleven days in 1987, discontent with their indefinite confinement.
Famous Inmates: John Gotti (Gambino Crime Family Boss), Al Capone, Roy Gardner (last famous train robber of the western frontier)

Name: Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola
Location: Angola, La.
Year opened: 1835
Inmate population: 5,108
Facts: The Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola is America's largest maximum-security prison and home of the country's most dangerous rodeo. The prison rests on 18,000 acres of farmland. Corn and soybean are its primary crops, but it is also the home to over 1,500 head of cattle. Angola has the distinction of being the only prison in America to offer a college degree program on prison grounds.
Famous Inmates: James Booker (New Orleans pianist) and Lead Belly (Blues singer)


Name: Leavenworth (Hot House)
Location: Leavenworth, Kan.
Year opened: 1906
Inmate population: 1,642
Facts: With walls that measure 40 feet high and extend 40 feet below ground and a star-studded cast of former inmates, Leavenworth symbolizes everything a super-prison should be in America. Michael Vick could have used some of his dogs to tunnel out, but you know...
Famous Inmates: "Machine Gun" Kelly (considered one of the most famous gangsters from the prohibition era), Robert F. Stroud (dude is all over the list, but Leavenworth is where he spent most of his time studying birds), Michael "the Dog-Slayer" Vick


Name: Eastern State Penitentiary (Cherry Hill)
Location: Philadelphia
Year opened: 1829 (closed 1971)
Inmate population: 1,700 (1920's)
Facts: Eastern State Penitentiary was one of the earliest American prisons and coined the phrase penitentiary. The prisoners were isolated and forced to reflect on their crimes. Quakers designed the prison in an effort to bring penitence to lawbreakers. Its radial floor plan has been mimicked by more than 300 prisons throughout the world. Closed after 142 years, it is now a museum.
Famous Inmates: Al Capone (Scarface, the original), and Willie "Why do you rob banks?" "Because that's where the money is" Sutton (an expert at disguise)


Name: Attica
Location: Attica, N.Y.
Year opened: 1931
Inmate population: 2,200
Facts: In 1971, America witnessed 1,300 prisoners stage a four-day rebellion, taking over the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York. Nearly 1,500 police and National Guardsmen stormed the prison to quell the riot. Not before forty-two people had been killed though -- including 10 hostages.
Famous Inamtes: Son of Sam (serial killer sentenced to 6 life terms) and Mark David Chapman (John Lennon's murderer).


Name: San Quentin
Location: San Quentin, Calif.
Year opened: 1852
Inmate population: 5,967
Facts: Towering over San Francisco Bay, San Quentin is California's oldest correctional facility. It houses the state's only gas chamber and was once the home of such pop stars as Charles Manson and stagecoach-robber Black Bart.
Famous Inmates: Stanley "Tookie" Williams (Crips founder and Nobel Prize nominee), Charles Manson, Black Bart


Name: Sing Sing (The Big House, Up the River, The Last Mile)
Location: Ossining, N.Y.
Year opened: 1825
Inmate population: 1,533
Facts: The phrase "up the river" refers to prisoners being sent up the Hudson River from New York to Sing Sing prison (named Sing Sing after the town's original name). The prison is closely associated with the electric chair, having been the grounds for more than 600 executions by that method between the years of 1890 and 1963. Texas must have learned a great deal from its superintendents. In 1953, Russian spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were put to death at Sing Sing for espionage during the Cold War.
Famous Inmates: George C. Parker (con artist who sold the Brooklyn Bridge), Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez (electrocuted there after being found guilty for the murders of twelve people), Ethel and Julius Rosenberg (convicted spies for the Soviet Union).


Name: Folsom
Location: Represa, Calif.
Year opened: 1880
Inmate population: 7,246
Facts: Folsom was one of America's first maximum-security prisons. Now a medium-security facility, country singer Johnny Cash put the prison and himself on the map by performing there. The live concert was later released as a hit album titled "Folsom Prison Blues."
Famous Inmates: Erik Menendez (one half of the parent-murdering brothers), Rick James (we all know Rick), "Suge" Knight (co-founder and CEO of Death Row Records), "Little Pete" Fong Ching (mafia kingpin of Chinatown in 1880's), Danny Trejo (Reindeer Games, Spy Kids, Conair, and Heat actor), Charles Manson (you know, the dude with the Swazi)


Name: Alcatraz (The Rock)
Location: San Francisco
Year opened: 1934 (closed 1963)
Inmate population: 336
Facts: During its 29 year history Alcatraz incarcerated 1,576 prisoners. There were 14 escape attempts from "The Rock." The prison closed in 1963 because it was a financial nightmare. Nearly 1 million gallons of water had to be shipped to the island weekly. Alcatraz is now a national park site. 1 million visitors a year makes this the most infamous prison of them all.
Famous Inmates: Alvin Karpis (longest serving inmate there and America's first public enemy No. 1), Al Capone, Henri Young (main character from the movie Murder in the First), Robert Stroud, "Machine Gun" Kelly, James Bulger (fugitive and alleged leader of the Winter Hill Gang)