20th century

Initially named North Eastern Penitentiary, USP Lewisburg was one of four federal prisons to open in 1932.^[4][5] It was designed by Alfred Hopkins.

In 1976, the prison was criticized by Judge Clarence Newcomer, who released inmate Francis Marziani early after it was revealed that Marziani had been one of many victims of gang rape during an unusual wave of rape, torture, and murder by inmates in the prison.^[6]

USP Lewisburg was the focus of the 1991 Academy Award-nominated documentary Doing Time: Life Inside the Big House by filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond. The one-hour film described conditions inside the prison, noted the abolition of parole within the federal system, and showed fears held by many prisoners about re-integrating into society upon their release.^[7]

On November 1, 1995, USP Lewisburg had a prison riot. It was started by 10 prisoners, but more than 20 visited the hospital, one with broken bones and missing teeth. Many were sentenced to solitary confinement and more than 400 were transferred.^[8] This incident thrust the Penitentiary into the national spotlight, where it gained much of its current notoriety.

A local non-profit group, the Lewisburg Prison Project, helps prisoners here and in the surrounding area with issues of conditions of confinement.^[9]

21st century

In July 2008, correction officers at USP Lewisburg expressed concerns about underfunding. Over the past four years, union leaders and other officials had been lobbying in an attempt to quell staff reductions and cutting costs. The Federal Bureau of Prisons had proposed $143 million in possible spending cuts, including not replacing vehicles and equipment, eliminating overtime, reducing corrections officer training, and a possible cut in officer staff positions.^[10] Under such conditions, many of the Correctional Officers expressed concerns about their own safety.

As of 2009, USP Lewisburg was designated as a Special Management Unit intended to house the most violent and disruptive inmates in the Bureau of Prisons. Although most USP Lewisburg inmates are housed in the SMU, there remains a work cadre of about 200 inmates in the USP's general population.

As of February 2021, USP Lewisburg was changed from a high-security institution to medium security, becoming the third location within the BOP for Communications management units (CMU), alongside USP Marion and FCI Terre Haute. Offenders in the CMU will mostly be terrorists and inmates the BOP classifies as security threats who will be held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. The Special Management Unit (SMU) that was operated at Lewisburg is now at USP Thomson, which opened in 2019.^[11]

Organized crime figures

Terrorists

Political prisoners

Others