Florida State Prison (FSP), otherwise known as Raiford Prison, is a
correctional institution
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correcti ...
located in
unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to:
* Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality
* Unincorporated entity, a type of organization
* Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...
Bradford County, Florida
Bradford County is a county in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 28,303. Its county seat and largest city is Starke.
History
New River County, as it was known at the time, was created in 1858 from segment ...
. It was formerly known as the "Florida State Prison-East Unit" as it was originally part of Florida State Prison in
Raiford, Florida
Raiford is a town in Union County, Florida
Union County is a county located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Florida, the smallest in the state. As of the 2020 census, the population was 16,147. The county seat is Lake Bu ...
(now known as
Union Correctional Institution
The Union Correctional Institution, formerly referred to as Florida State Prison, Raiford Prison and State Prison Farm is a Florida Department of Corrections state prison located in unincorporated Union County, Florida, near Raiford.
First op ...
). The facility, a part of the
Florida Department of Corrections
The Florida Department of Corrections operates state prisons in the U.S. state of Florida. It has its headquarters in Florida's capital of Tallahassee.
The Florida Department of Corrections operates the third largest state prison system in the ...
, is located on
State Road 16 right across the border from Union County. The institution opened in 1961, even though construction was not completed until 1968. With a maximum population of over 1,400 inmates, FSP is one of the largest prisons in the state. FSP houses one of the state's three
death row
Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...
cell blocks, and the state's
execution chamber
An execution chamber, or death chamber, is a room or chamber in which capital punishment is carried out. Execution chambers are almost always inside the walls of a maximum-security prison, although not always at the same prison where the death ro ...
.
Union Correctional Institution
The Union Correctional Institution, formerly referred to as Florida State Prison, Raiford Prison and State Prison Farm is a Florida Department of Corrections state prison located in unincorporated Union County, Florida, near Raiford.
First op ...
also houses male death row inmates while
Lowell Annex houses female death row inmates.
Lethal injection
Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium solution) for the express purpose of causing rapid death. The main application for this procedure is capital puni ...
became the standard method of execution in 2000. The
electric chair
An electric chair is a device used to execute an individual by electrocution. When used, the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes fastened on the head and leg. This execution method, ...
can still be used by request of the inmate.
FSP sits in the center of several other prisons. It is surrounded by New River Correctional Institution, New River O-Unit, FSP West Unit, and sits across the river from Union Correctional Institution. Even though Union Correctional Institution is on the same property, immediately north-west of FSP, the county line (with
Union County) runs in between the two, which makes
Raiford the
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...
address city of Union Correctional Institution, while
Starke is the USPS address city of Florida State Prison.
FSP is Florida's only prison that is officially named "prison", with the other institutions being named "Correctional Institutions" (or "Correctional Facility" if it is a privately contracted prison).
Notable inmates
Former
*
Mark DeFriest
Mark DeFriest (born August 18, 1960), known as the Houdini of Florida, is an American man known for his repeated escapes from prison, having successfully done so 7 times. Born in rural Florida, he was arrested for the first time in 1978, serving f ...
– Mark DeFriest, known as the Houdini of Florida, is a prisoner of the United States. In 1980, 19-year-old DeFriest retrieved work tools his recently deceased father had willed him before the will officially went through probate. This act was considered theft despite the fact DeFriest did not have an understanding of probate laws. DeFriest’s stepmother called the police, which led to his arrest. DeFriest was sentenced to four years in prison. The original four-year sentence has since developed into 34 years for 13 escape attempts, 7 of them successful, and hundreds of disciplinary reports for minor infractions. In 34 years, he’s collectively spent 27 of them in solitary confinement.
In custody
*
John Connolly, former FBI agent convicted for ties to
Whitey Bulger
James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger Jr. (; September 3, 1929 – October 30, 2018) was an American organized crime boss who led the Winter Hill Gang in the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, a city directly northwest of Bost ...
.
*
Phillup Partin
Phillup Alan "Sonny" Partin (born June 29, 1965, in Sacramento, California) is an American convicted murderer currently on Florida death row at Union Correctional Institution. Partin was sentenced to death by a 9–3 vote in favor of the senten ...
, convicted for the murder of 16-year-old hitchhiker Joshan Ashbrook.
*
Daniel Lugo, convicted of murdering a couple. His story is the basis for the 2013 blockbuster ''
Pain & Gain
''Pain & Gain'' is a 2013 American action comedy film directed by Michael Bay and starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, and Anthony Mackie. It is based on the activities of the Sun Gym gang, a group of ex-convicts and bodybuilders convicted ...
''.
*
Mark Sievers, orchestrated the murder of his wife
Teresa Sievers in
Bonita Springs. His co-conspirators, Jimmy Ray Rodgers and Curtis Wayne Wright, were also charged. Wright took a plea deal of 25 years for second degree murder for testimony at the other trials. Rodgers was sentenced to life without parole and Sievers was given the death penalty.
Executed
![Execution chamber, Florida](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Execution_chamber%2C_Florida.jpg)
*
Mark Asay
Mark James Asay (March 12, 1964 – August 24, 2017) was an American spree killer who was executed by the state of Florida for the 1987 racially motivated murders of two men in Jacksonville, Florida. He was convicted, sentenced to death, and sub ...
– Lethal injection on August 24, 2017, (aged 53), for 2 Jacksonville murders.
*
Oscar Ray Bolin
Oscar Ray Bolin Jr. (January 22, 1962 – January 7, 2016) was an American serial killer and convicted rapist who was executed in Florida for murder. In 1986, Bolin kidnapped and murdered three young women in Tampa, Florida. He was later connecte ...
– Lethal injection on January 7, 2016, (aged 53), for 3 Tampa Bay murders.
*
Gary Ray Bowles
Gary Ray Bowles (January 25, 1962 – August 22, 2019) was an American serial killer who was executed in 2019 for the murders of six men in 1994. He is sometimes referred to as The I-95 Killer since most of his victims lived close to the Inters ...
– Lethal injection on August 22, 2019, (aged 57), convicted of 3 murders.
*
Judy Buenoano
Judias V. "Judy" Buenoano (born Judias Welty, also known as Judias Goodyear and Judias Morris; April 4, 1943 – March 30, 1998) was an American serial killer who was executed for the 1971 murder of her husband James Goodyear. She was also convic ...
– Electric chair on March 30, 1998, (aged 54).
*
Ted Bundy
Theodore Robert Bundy ( born Cowell; November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989) was an American serial killer who kidnapped, raped and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s and possibly earlier. After more than a decade ...
– Electric chair on January 24, 1989, (aged 42), after confessing to over 30 killings dating from 1970s.
*
Oba Chandler – Lethal injection on November 15, 2011, (aged 65).
*
Juan Carlos Chavez – Lethal injection on February 12, 2014, (aged 46), for the murder of Jimmy Ryce.
*
Allen Lee Davis
Allen Lee Davis (July 20, 1944 – July 8, 1999) was an American murderer who was executed for the May 11, 1982, murder of Nancy Weiler, who was three months pregnant, in Jacksonville, Florida. According to reports, Nancy Weiler was "beaten almos ...
– Electric chair on July 8, 1999, (aged 54), for 3 counts of first-degree murder.
*
John Errol Ferguson
The Carol City murders were a series of murders that took place predominantly in Carol City, Florida and in and around Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County between October 1974 and January 1978. The murders were committed by American mass ...
– Lethal injection on August 5, 2013, (aged 65), for 8 murders.
*
Marvin Francois
The Carol City murders were a series of murders that took place predominantly in Carol City, Florida and in and around Miami-Dade County between October 1974 and January 1978. The murders were committed by American mass murderer and serial kille ...
– Electric chair on May 29, 1985, (aged 39), for 6 murders.
*
David Alan Gore
David Alan Gore (August 21, 1953 – April 12, 2012) was an American serial killer who confessed to, and was convicted of, six murders in Vero Beach and Indian River County, Florida in the 1980s. Gore was executed by lethal injection in 2012, ...
– Lethal injection on April 12, 2012, (aged 68), for the murder of 6 women.
*
Marshall Lee Gore
Marshall Lee Gore (August 17, 1963 – October 1, 2013) was an American convicted murderer and rapist who was Capital punishment in Florida, executed by the state of Florida for the 1988 murders of two women. He also raped and attempted to murder ...
– Lethal injection on October 1, 2013, (aged 50), for the murder of 2 women.
*
Martin Grossman
Martin Edward Grossman (January 19, 1965 – February 16, 2010) was convicted of first degree murder for his part in the December 13, 1984, Florida killing of wildlife officer Peggy Park. He was executed by lethal injection. In the days before his ...
– Lethal injection on February 16, 2010, (aged 45).
*
Paul Jennings Hill
Paul Jennings Hill (February 6, 1954 – September 3, 2003) was an American minister and anti-abortion terrorist who murdered physician John Britton and Britton's bodyguard, retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Barrett, in 1994. Hill was ...
– Lethal injection on September 3, 2003 (aged 49).
*
Thomas Knight – Lethal injection on January 7, 2014 (aged 62).
*
Bobby Joe Long
Robert Joseph "Bobby Joe" Long (October 14, 1953 – May 23, 2019) was an American serial killer and rapist who was executed by the state of Florida for the murder of Michelle Denise Simms. Long abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered at le ...
– Lethal injection on May 23, 2019, (aged 65), convicted of 10 murders.
*
Danny Rolling
Daniel Harold Rolling (May 26, 1954 – October 25, 2006), known as the Gainesville Ripper, was an American serial killer. He murdered five students in Gainesville, Florida, over four days in August 1990. Rolling later confessed to raping severa ...
– Lethal injection on October 25, 2006, (aged 52).
*
John Spenkelink
John Arthur Spenkelink (March 29, 1949 – May 25, 1979) was an American convicted murderer. He was executed in 1979, the first convicted criminal to be executed in Florida after capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, and the second (after Gar ...
– Electric chair on May 25, 1979, (aged 30).
*
Gerald Stano
Gerald Eugene Stano (born Paul Zeininger; September 12, 1951 – March 23, 1998) was an American convicted serial killer. Stano murdered at least 22 young women and girls, confessed to 41 murders and the police say the number of his victims may ...
– Electric chair on March 23, 1998, (aged 46).
*
Robert Austin Sullivan – Electric chair on November 30, 1983, (aged 36).
*
Beauford White
The Carol City murders were a series of murders that took place predominantly in Carol City, Florida and in and around Miami-Dade County between October 1974 and January 1978. The murders were committed by American mass murderer and serial kille ...
– Electric chair on August 28, 1987, (aged 41), for 6 murders.
*
Aileen Wuornos
Aileen Carol Wuornos (; born Pittman; February 29, 1956 – October 9, 2002) was an American serial killer. In 1989–1990, while engaging in street prostitution along highways in Florida, she shot dead and robbed seven of her male clients. Wuo ...
– Lethal injection on October 9, 2002, (aged 46).
*
Giuseppe Zangara
Giuseppe Zangara (September 7, 1900 – March 20, 1933) was an Italian immigrant and naturalized United States citizen who attempted to assassinate the President-elect of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, on February 15, 1933, 17 d ...
– Electric chair on March 20, 1933, (aged 32), convicted of murder in the assassination of Chicagoan mayor
Anton Cermak
Anton Joseph Cermak ( cs, Antonín Josef Čermák, ; May 9, 1873 – March 6, 1933) was an American politician who served as the 44th mayor of Chicago, Illinois from April 7, 1931 until his death on March 6, 1933. He was killed by an assassin, ...
and who may have been sent to assassinate President-elect
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
at Bayfront Park in Miami, Florida, on February 15, 1933.
Died
*
John Couey
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second E ...
– Natural causes in prison on September 30, 2009, (aged 51), died in prison before execution could be carried out.
*
Gerard Schaefer – Murdered by another prisoner on December 3, 1995, (aged 49).
*
Ottis Toole
Ottis Elwood Toole (March 5, 1947 – September 15, 1996) was an American serial killer who was convicted of six counts of murder. Like his companion Henry Lee Lucas, Toole made confessions which resulted in murder convictions, and which h ...
– Cirrhosis in prison on September 15, 1996, (aged 49).
*
Frank Valdes
Frank or Franks may refer to:
People
* Frank (given name)
* Frank (surname)
* Franks (surname)
* Franks, a medieval Germanic people
* Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang
Curr ...
– Stun gunned & beaten with correctional officer boots in prison on July 17, 1999 (aged 36).
[Brown, Julie K.]
Prison death is one of several raising questions in Florida
. ''Miami Herald
The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a List of communities in Miami-Dade County, Florida, city in western Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the M ...
''. June 14, 2014. Retrieved on June 28, 2014.
In popular culture
*''
The Mind of Mark DeFriest
''The Mind of Mark DeFriest'' (also known as ''The Life and Mind of Mark DeFriest'') is a documentary film about Mark DeFriest
Mark DeFriest (born August 18, 1960), known as the Houdini of Florida, is an American man known for his repeated escap ...
'' is a documentary film about Florida State Prison inmate Mark DeFriest.
*
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd ( ) is an American rock music, rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida. The group originally formed as My Backyard in 1964 and comprised Ronnie Van Zant (lead vocalist), Gary Rossington (guitar), Allen Collins (guitar), Larry Ju ...
's song "Four Walls of Raiford" tells the story of a convict who escapes from the Florida State Prison; The convict is a
veteran
A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military.
A military veteran that has ...
returning from the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
and pleads his case that he was wrongly convicted for
armed robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...
and asks to be buried with
full honors if he gets caught.
*In ''
Spawn
Spawn or spawning may refer to:
* Spawn (biology), the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise
** '' Spawn: ...
: The Undead'' Issue #9, the story takes place in Florida State Penitentiary where a death row inmate encounters Spawn.
*It was referred to in the show ''
Blue Bloods'' in Season 2 Episode 15 "The Life We Choose".
* In the 1997
Arthur Hailey novel ''
Detective
A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...
'' a police detective in Miami is driven in a marked cruiser for over four hours to hear the confession of a man on death row at Raiford. The book also mentions that Florida State Prison is technically ''not'' in Raiford but across the road in the town of Starke.
* In 2021, Americana/blues artist Shane Kelley released the song "Bradford County Blues" which is the story of a man locked up in Raiford.
References
External links
Florida State Prison—
Florida Department of Corrections
The Florida Department of Corrections operates state prisons in the U.S. state of Florida. It has its headquarters in Florida's capital of Tallahassee.
The Florida Department of Corrections operates the third largest state prison system in the ...
{{Authority control
1961 establishments in Florida
Buildings and structures in Bradford County, Florida
Capital punishment in Florida
Execution sites in the United States
Government agencies established in 1961
Prisons in Florida