Union Correctional Institution
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The Union Correctional Institution, formerly referred to as
Florida State Prison Florida State Prison (FSP), otherwise known as Raiford Prison, is a correctional institution located in unincorporated Bradford County, Florida. It was formerly known as the "Florida State Prison-East Unit" as it was originally part of Florida St ...
, Raiford Prison and State Prison Farm is a Florida Department of Corrections state prison 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 ...
Union County,
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, near Raiford. First opened in 1913, the prison expanded and restructured many times. State Prison Farm was well known as one of the last prisons in the United States to abolish the practice of
convict leasing Convict leasing was a system of forced penal labor which was practiced historically in the Southern United States, the laborers being mainly African-American men; it was ended during the 20th century. (Convict labor in general continues; f ...
in 1923. In 1955 the first buildings of the East Unit were established, across the Bradford county line to the south. In July 1972, the East Unit became the new Florida State Prison, and the old prison was redesignated as Union Correctional Facility. As of 2016, Union remains one of the largest prisons in the Florida system. It houses a maximum capacity of 2,172 adult male prisoners at a range of security levels (Maximum, Close, Medium, Minimum, and Community).


History


State Prison Farm

Florida's largest and oldest correctional institution was established in 1913 to house infirm inmates who could not be leased to private businesses. The initial population of the prison was close to 600 inmates, both male and female. Given the official name of Raiford Penitentiary, the facility was referred to almost exclusively as "State Prison Farm", as convicts' duties routinely included farming the prison property. The population at the facility remained fairly constant during these early years; the number of inmates needed for the farm would dictate the initial capacity for the prison. In January 1919, Captain J. S. Blitch was appointed warden and attempted to bring about positive change to the facility. The inmates were rewarded for their labors in the field with theatrical productions, and weekly baseball games. However, continued reports of guards beating inmates soured the positive image that Blitch was trying to publicize. Brutal treatment of inmates in the convict lease system would lead to the abandonment of convict lease in 1923. By the early 1920s, the large State Prison Farm property consisted of approximately under cultivation, kept in large part by the prisoners. Also on the property existed a shoe factory that made 10 pairs of shoes per day. Living conditions in the prison were very poor. The women especially lived in horrid conditions, housed separately from the men in overcrowded, wooden dormitories. A 1928 report on the American penal system shows that, of the 1,101 received male prisoners, 674 (61%) were of color and 427 (39%) were white. Segregation existed in all aspects of prison life, from working areas to hospitals to bathrooms.


Florida State Prison

Following the abolition of convict lease and the subsequent increase in the inmate population, the prison structure changed. In 1927, a license tag factory was constructed, adding to the already extensive production line of the prison. The Main Housing Unit ("The Rock") was erected in 1928, a major step in the process of increasing the prison population. This building was kept in use until court order in 1985. ("The Rock" remained at the prison site unused until demolition in 1999.) By 1932, the inmate population was over 2,000, and a mess hall, auditorium and library had been added. The expanding prison also added a laundry and shirt factory around this time. Shortly after, in 1935, a maximum security building was constructed, the "Flat Top". This proved vital in the expansion of the center, as from this stage forward the prison would remain a maximum security facility. This was also the year the "West Unit" was built to house female offenders which remained in use until 1954 when the Florida Correctional Institution in Ocala was opened and all the female inmates were transferred from Raiford to the new facility (the West Unit remained in use as a medical facility until 1968). In 1955, the "East Unit", a new maximum security facility was completed. The East Unit became a separate institution in July 1972, renamed Florida State Prison. The original prison site became known as Union Correctional Institution. In 1983, a Corrections Officer was stabbed to death by two inmates. A new Death Row was constructed in 1992, coinciding with the relocation of inmates from the State Prison next door. The present-day facility still uses many of the older buildings. The prison has an eclectic range of facilities, from hearing impaired and elderly accommodation to designated confinement space. The prison also has a variety of living residences, such as cell units, house units and self-contained houses. A 1999 report by the ''
St. Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...
'' took a detailed look into issues of one sided report of racism and diversity in the Union Correctional Institution. The report stated that more than half of the inmates were black, and more than 75% of the guards were white. This alone was grounds for racial tension. Several officers and inmates reported a clique of racist guards, distinguishable by the cord key chains they would wear. Problems turned out to be far more significant, however, after a review of public records and court files revealed over 100 black agency employees were involved in lawsuits alleging rampant racism and discrimination in the prison system. Perhaps worst of these allegations, a black recreation manager once arrived at his desk to find across his bulletin board the letters " KKK". The report also included the story of a 1993 incident; inmates on death row were exposed to a man wearing a KKK-style white sheet walking by their cells.


Notable inmates


Former inmates

*
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 ...
—American serial killer, executed August 22, 2019. *
Ted Bundy Theodore Robert Bundy (Name change, 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 th ...
—American serial killer, executed January 24, 1989. * Oba Chandler—American murderer, executed on November 15, 2011 for the June 1989 murders of Joan Rogers and her two daughters. *
Clarence Earl Gideon Clarence Earl Gideon (August 30, 1910 – January 18, 1972) was a poor drifter accused in a Florida state court of felony breaking and entering. While in prison, he appealed his case to the US Supreme Court, resulting in the landmark 1963 decisio ...
—Conviction overturned following successful appeal to
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
. *
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 ...
—American serial killer and rapist, executed May 23, 2019. *
Donn Pearce Donn Pearce (September 28, 1928 – July 25, 2017) was an American author and journalist best known for the novel and screenplay '' Cool Hand Luke''. Early life Born Donald Mills Pearce in a suburb of Philadelphia, Pearce left home at 15. He at ...
—American author and criminal whose time at Raiford (1949-1951) informed his prison novel and movie '' Cool Hand Luke''. *
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 ...
—"The Gainesville Ripper", executed October 25, 2006. *
Randy Schoenwetter Randy Lamar Ingram Schoenwetter (born October 27, 1981) is an American prisoner convicted of the August 12, 2000, murder of Ronald Friskey (aged 53) and his daughter Virginia (aged 11), and the attempted murder of Haesun Friskey. Apprehended shor ...
—Sentenced to death for the murders of a ten-year-old girl and her father. Death sentence overturned and moved to Columbia Correctional Institution (Florida). *Joseph Smith—Sentenced to death for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia, found dead in prison on July 26, 2021. *
Dan White Daniel James White (September 2, 1946 – October 21, 1985) was an American politician who assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, on Monday, November 27, 1978, at City Hall. White was convicted of manslaugh ...
—American actor in film and television. Arrested in St. Augustine in November 1930 and charged with robbery, convicted in circuit court and sentenced to 8 years, but received a conditional pardon after serving only 10 months. *
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 ...
—Attempted assassin of U.S. president
Franklin D. 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 ...
and assassin of Chicago 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, ...
, executed March 20, 1933


Current inmates

*
Lucious Boyd Lucious Boyd (born March 22, 1959) is an American convicted murderer, rapist, and suspected serial killer. While convicted and sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of 21-year-old Dawnia Dacosta, he is a suspect in at least ten other homicides or ...
—Sentenced to death for the torture/murder of Dawnia Dacosta. * Daniel Conahan—Sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murder of Richard Montgomery. Strongly suspected of being the Hog Trail Killer, a serial killer responsible for the kidnapping, rape, torture and murder of dozens of men in Charlotte County,
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
during the early to mid-1990s. * Donald Dillbeck—Sentenced to death for murdering a woman. *Adrian Noel Doorbal—Sentenced to death for his role in the " Sun Gym gang" murders that formed the basis for the film ''
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 ...
''.Francisco Alvarado
Pain & Gain: Where the Real-Life Sun Gym Gang Characters Are Now
''New Times'', April 4, 2013, accessed May 3, 2013.
Inmate Population Information Detail
(Noel Doorbal), Florida Department of Corrections, accessed May 3, 2013.
*
Paul Durousseau Paul Durousseau (born August 11, 1970) is an American serial killer who murdered seven young women (including two who were pregnant) in the southeastern United States between 1997 and 2003. German authorities suspect he may have also killed sever ...
—Serial killer, sentenced to death for nine murders. *
Franklin Delano Floyd Franklin Delano Floyd (June 17, 1943 – January 23, 2023) was an American murderer, rapist, and death row inmate. He was convicted of the 1989 murder of Cheryl Ann Commesso, as well as the kidnapping of 6-year-old Michael Anthony Hughes, whom he ...
—Kidnapper and murderer involved in several mysterious kidnappings and killings. * Kevin Foster—Sentenced to death for murdering a music teacher. * Gary Michael Hilton—Serial killer, sentenced to death in Florida for the murder of Cheryl Dunlap. Also sentenced to life imprisonment in Georgia and North Carolina for three other murders. * Eddie James—Sentenced to death for the murder of an 8-year-old girl and her grandmother. *Michael King—Sentenced to death for the kidnapping, rape, and
murder of Denise Amber Lee Denise Amber Lee was a 21 year old woman who was murdered by Michael King in the U.S. state of Florida on January 17, 2008 after he had kidnapped and raped her earlier in the day. Lee and several others had attempted to call for help through the ...
. This case received widespread media attention due to the number of 911 calls that were made and received while the crime was still in progress. The most infamous of which was a mishandled 911 call by the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, Lee's father was a detective Sergeant employed by the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office. * Daniel Lugo—Sentenced to death for two murders and racketeering, along with other charges.
(Daniel Lugo), Florida Department of Corrections, accessed May 3, 2013.
*
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 ...
—Sentenced to death for the murder of 16-year-old Joshan Ashbrook. *Donald Smith—Sentenced to death in May 2018 for the June 2013 murder of 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle. Smith was also sentenced to life without parole for Cherish's abduction and sexual battery. * Troy Victorino—Sentenced to death for the Deltona massacre. * William Thomas Zeigler—Sentenced to death for the quadruple murder of his wife, Eunice Zeigler, and her parents, Perry and Virginia Edwards, as well as another customer named Charlie Mays, in his furniture store in Winter Garden, Florida on December 24, 1975. *Michael Shane Bargo Jr.—Sentenced to death for the murder of 15-year-old Seath Jackson in 2011. First sentenced in 2013, Bargo became the youngest person on Florida’s death row.https://www.ocala.com/story/news/courts/2021/06/24/marion-county-man-remain-death-row-after-fsc-upholds-sentence/7779167002/


See also

*


References


External links


Union Correctional Institution
- Florida Department of Corrections {{Execution sites in the United States Prisons in Florida Buildings and structures in Union County, Florida Women's prisons in Florida 1913 establishments in Florida