Federal Correctional Institution, Terre Haute : Established in 1960, it's a medium-security facility with a Communication Management Unit which holds inmates who are deemed to require increased monitoring of communications with others.
United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute : Established in 1940, it's a high-security facility which holds federal death row for men and also has a prison camp for minimum-security male offenders.
SCU
Terre Haute United States Penitentiary uses a Special Confinement Unit to separate Federal death sentenced inmates. This unit gives a safe, secure, and humane confinement for inmates sentenced for execution by the federal courts. These male inmates were transferred from other facilities, like state and federal prisons, for engagement in the Special Confinement Unit. Terre Haute USP opened this SCU on July 13, 1999.
Segregated housing
While the other divisions of prisons are important too, a maximum security prison, also known as administrative segregation, is the most important prison available. If inmates are being held at a maximum security prison, they are most likely at high risk for altercations with other inmates. Inmates considered high risk are immediately placed in a secure wing with more rules and supervision. These prisons are restricted segregation, which involves a twenty-three hour cell lock for troubled inmates. The extra hour in the schedule is used for a thirty minute lunch and a thirty minute yard time.
History
Gonorrhea experiments
The Terre Haute prison experiments in 1943 and 1944 were the precursor to the Syphilis experiments in Guatemala. In 1942, the sixth Surgeon General of the United States, Thomas Parran, Jr., endorsed medical experiments on STD transmission so long as volunteers were found to be exposed to infection. In 1943, a decision was made to use prisoners as volunteers, as soldiers could not be guaranteed sexual abstinence for six months, and the mentally ill were not considered appropriate research subjects. Due to legal issues, the Army Medical Corps preferred federal prisons to state run institutions, and Terre Haute had the best medical facilities. Prisoners participated with consent, receiving $100 for their involvement. A 2011 US Bioethics report states: The infection methods used by doctors did not involve natural sexual intercourse, unlike in 1947 in the Syphilis experiments in Guatemala. Dr John Charles Cutler supported the experiment to his death.
Deaths
On September 15, 2010, prisoner Daniel L. Delaney murdered his cellmate while both were in the Special Housing Unit or solitary confinement. Delaney was convicted of first degree murder for the act. He is now at ADX Florence.
