Federal Correctional Institution, Seagoville

The Federal Correctional Institution, Seagoville (FCI Seagoville) is a low-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Seagoville, Texas in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The facility includes a detention center for male offenders and an adjacent satellite prison camp that houses minimum security-male offenders.

Federal Correctional Institution, Seagoville
LocationSeagoville, Texas
StatusOperational
Security classLow-security (with minimum-security prison camp)
Population1,800 (170 in prison camp)
Managed byFederal Bureau of Prisons
WardenKristi Ciolli

FCI Seagoville is located 11 miles (18 km) southeast of Downtown Dallas.[1]

History

The Federal Reformatory for Women in Seagoville opened on October 10, 1940. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the government converted the center into a Federal Detention Station, monitored by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, that housed people of Japanese, German and Italian descent who were classified as "enemy aliens," including women deported from Latin America into U.S. custody[2][3] Many of the Latin American internees had been classified officially as "voluntary internees" because they had chosen to leave their home countries after their husbands had been deported to the U.S., however, their choice was in many cases motivated by the difficulties of supporting themselves and their families alone.[3] Internees at Seagoville published a German language newsletter called the Sägedorfer Fliegende Blätter.[4] Beginning in June 1943, the State Department arranged for the deportation of many of the internees to Japan and Germany, which helped decrease the population as authorities prepared to transfer the remaining detainees to Crystal City, Texas.[3] Seagoville held a total of some 650-700 people, and was closed in June 1945.[3][5]

After World War II ended, on June 25, 1945 the prison became a facility for minimum security male offenders. In 1969, the facility's mission changed to that of housing young male offenders sentenced under the Youth Corrections Act.[6] At the time the maximum age of the prisoners was 27.[7]

In 1979, the facility's mission changed into that of a Federal Prison Camp. In 1981, a perimeter fence was installed and the facility became a Federal Correctional Institution. The adjacent Federal Detention Center opened in 1996. FDC Seagoville celebrated its 60th anniversary on October 10, 2000.[6]

Facility

The prison facility is located on an 830-acre (340 ha) tract. Built for $1.8 million, it occupies a portion of the acreage. In World War II single detainees occupied dormitories while couples resided in "Victory Huts", prefabricated one room buildings with measurements of 18 square feet (1.7 m2) each.[8]

Notable incidents

On November 8, 2012, 27-year-old John Hall, an inmate at FCI Seagoville, pleaded guilty to violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act for assaulting a fellow inmate whom he believed to be gay. Hall admitted that on December 20, 2011, he repeatedly punched and kicked the victim, whom the Department of Justice did not identify, while calling the victim homosexual slurs. The victim sustained multiple lacerations to his face and fractured teeth as a result of Hall's unprovoked attack. On March 14, 2013, Hall was sentenced to an additional 71 months in prison for the attack, which is to be served consecutively.[9]

Notable inmates (current and former)
Inmate Register Number Status Details
Chris Epps 10095-042 Sentenced to 19.6 years. Former Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, convicted of taking $1.4 million in bribes from contractors related to Operation Mississippi Hustle[10][11][12]
Douglas Perlitz 36435-013 Sentenced to 19.6 years. Release Date: 10-03-2026 Former director of the Project Pierre Toussaint School in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. Perlitz confessed to sexually abusing eight homeless children at the center after showing them pornography, bribing them with food, money, clothing and electronics, and threatening to expel them if they told anyone. He is suspected of abusing dozens more young boys.[13]
Jacques Roy 44132-177 Now at FCI Pollock Physician; indicted in 2012 for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud for allegedly masterminding the largest healthcare fraud in US history, which involved 11,000 patients and resulted in $375 million being fraudulently billed to Medicare and Medicaid.[14][15]
Ralph Shortey Sentenced to 15 years. Former member of the Oklahoma Senate. Indicted in 2017 for child sex trafficking, to which he pled guilty and has been jailed since November 30.[16]

COVID-19 outbreak

On August 8, 2020, CNN reported that 1,300 of the 1,750 prisoners (75% of the inmates) have tested positive for COVID-19.Twenty-eight of the 300 staff members have tested positive as well. As of August 8, 2020, three inmates have died. "It came through here so fast that it's out of control," said inmate Bobby Williams, who contracted the virus in June. "We're packed like sardines."[17]

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See also

References
  1. "FCI Seagoville". Federal Bureau of Prisons.
  2. Seagoville, Texas from the Handbook of Texas Online
  3. Mak, Stephen. "Seogoville (detention facility)" Densho Encyclopedia (accessed 17 Jun 2014).
  4. "Seagoville Internee Newspaper: Sägedorfer Fliegende Blätter" (PDF). The Freedom of Information Times (in German). Retrieved 2014-02-06.
  5. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). "World War II Internment Camps". The Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved 2014-02-06.
  6. "SEAGOVILLE CELEBRATES 60th ANNIVERSARY Archived 2006-09-23 at the Wayback Machine." Federal Bureau of Prisons. Tuesday February 11, 2003. Retrieved on May 29, 2010.
  7. "Behind Bars in Texas: Not All Prisons, Are the Same." Texas Monthly. Emmis Communications, March 1974. Volume 2, No. 3. ISSN 0148-7736. START: p. 42. CITED: p. 42.
  8. Mangione, Jerre. "Concentration Camps—American Style." In: DiStasi, Lawrence. Una Storia Segreta: The Secret History of Italian American Evacuation and Internment During World War II. Heyday Books, 2001. ISBN 1890771406, 9781890771409. START: p. 117. CITED: p. 121.
  9. "Aryan Brotherhood Inmate Sentenced for Federal Hate Crime for Assaulting Fellow Inmate". U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
  10. Gates, Jimmie E. (2017-05-25). "Ex-prison chief gets nearly 20-year sentence". USA Today. Archived from the original on 2017-05-25. Retrieved 2017-05-26 – via MSN.
  11. Gates, Jimmie E. (2017-05-24). "Chris Epps sentenced to almost 20 years". The Clarion-Ledger. Retrieved 2016-05-27.
  12. Pickens, Erin (2017-07-03). "Former MDOC chief serving time in Texas prison". WAPT. Retrieved 2017-07-09.
  13. "Douglas Perlitz Sentenced for Haitian Sex Abuse". CBS News. Associated Press. Retrieved 2017-12-31.
  14. "Dallas Doctor Arrested For Alleged Role In Nearly $375 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme". US Department of Justice. February 28, 2012. Archived from the original on 26 November 2012. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  15. Fink, Jack (February 28, 2012). "Rockwall Doctor Charged In Biggest U.S. Healthcare Fraud Ever". CBS. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  16. "Former state senator ordered to pay over $125,000 in restitution to child sex trafficking victim". KFOR-TV. January 31, 2019. Retrieved September 28, 2019.
  17. Tolan, Casey; Black, Nelli; Griffin, Drew (August 8, 2020). "This Texas federal prison has been the hardest-hit by Covid-19". CNN. Retrieved August 9, 2020.


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