The Federal Correctional Institution, Seagoville (FCI Seagoville) is a low-security United States federal prison for male inmates in

Seagoville, Texas Seagoville ( ) is a city in Dallas County, Texas, United States, and a suburb of Dallas. A small portion of Seagoville extends into Kaufman County. The population was 14,835 at the 2010 census. The city is located along U.S. Highway 175, from do ...

in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. It is operated by the

Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Justice that is responsible for the care, custody, and control of incarcerated individuals who have committed federal crimes; that i ...

, a division of the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

. The facility includes a detention center for male offenders and an adjacent satellite prison camp that houses minimum security-male offenders. FCI Seagoville is located southeast of

Downtown Dallas Downtown Dallas is the central business district (CBD) of Dallas, Texas, United States, located in the geographic center of the city. It is the second-largest business district in the state of Texas. The area termed "Downtown" has traditionally ...

History

The Federal Reformatory for Women in Seagoville opened on October 10, 1940. After the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

, the government converted the center into a Federal Detention Station, monitored by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, that housed people of

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

and

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descent who were classified as "

enemy alien In customary international law, an enemy alien is any native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and ...

s," including women deported from Latin America into U.S. custodyMak, Stephen
"Seogoville (detention facility)"
''Densho Encyclopedia'' (accessed 17 Jun 2014). 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. Internees at Seagoville published a German language newsletter called the ''Sägedorfer Fliegende Blätter''. 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. Seagoville held a total of some 650-700 people, and was closed in June 1945. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

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.SEAGOVILLE CELEBRATES 60th ANNIVERSARY
."

. Tuesday February 11, 2003. Retrieved on May 29, 2010. At the time the maximum age of the prisoners was 27. 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.

Facility

The prison facility is located on an 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 each.

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 The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is a landmark United States federal law, passed on October 22, 2009, and signed into law by President Barack Obama on October 28, 2009, as a rider to the National Defense Auth ...

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.

Notable inmates (current and former)

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 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

.Twenty-eight of the 300 staff members have tested positive as well. , 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."

References

External links

Map of BOP PrisonsBOP: FCI Seagoville
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Seagoville Buildings of the United States government in Texas Federal Correctional Institutions in the United States Prisons in Texas Buildings and structures in Dallas County, Texas World War II internment camps in the United States Women's prisons in Texas 1940 establishments in Texas