Federal Correctional Institution, Tallahassee (FCI Tallahassee), is a low security United States

federal prison A federal prison is operated under the jurisdiction of a federal government as opposed to a state or provincial body. Federal prisons are used for people who violated federal law (U.S., Mexico), people considered dangerous (Brazil), or those sen ...

for female inmates in

Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of and the only incorporated municipality in Leon County, Florida, Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Fl ...

with a designed designated capacity of 812. It is operated by the

Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Justice that is responsible for all List of United States federal prisons, federal prisons ...

, a division of the

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

. The facility also has an adjacent detention center that houses administrative security level male inmates. FCI Tallahassee is east of downtown Tallahassee on US Highway 319.

History

2006 shootings

On June 21, 2006 at 7:42 a.m.

local time Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

and

United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive dep ...

agents attempted to arrest six

correctional officer A prison officer (PO) or corrections officer (CO), also known as a correctional law enforcement officer or less formally as a prison guard, is a uniformed law enforcement official responsible for the custody, supervision, safety, and regulation ...

s in connection with a

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

investigation into correctional officers trading drugs and other contraband for sex with female inmates. One of the correctional officers, Ralph Hill, used a personal

handgun A handgun is a firearm designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun, long barreled gun (i.e., carbine, rifle, shotgun, submachine gun, or machine gun) which typically is intended to be held by both hands and br ...

and opened fire on the agents. The shooting began in the lobby of the building and moved into the courtyard near the US 319 highway. William "Buddy" Sentner, an agent with the DOJ Office of Inspector General, shot Hill; Hill returned fire. Both died from their wounds. A lieutenant with the

was injured in the shooting and transported to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. The federal officers were unarmed at the time and the correctional officers were supposed to have been unarmed as well. Michael Folmar, the FBI's special agent in charge in Jacksonville, said "This arrest situation was done in a manner to be very controlled ... where nobody would have any weapons, and we could take this down so there wouldn't be any violence, and this is exactly how it would be handled normally across the United States." The officers to be arrested, Alfred Barnes, Gregory Dixon, Alan Moore, and E. Lavon Spence were transported to

Wakulla County Wakulla County is a county located in the Big Bend region in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 33,764. Its county seat is Crawfordville. Wakulla County is part of the Tallahassee, Flo ...

Jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cr ...

south of Tallahassee. Vincent Johnson, the last officer named in the indictment, was not involved in the sexual misconduct, but was alleged to have illegally influenced the prisoners to engage in the behavior. All five surviving guards were convicted and sentenced to one year in prison plus three months probation in January/February 2007. However, Spence, who had suffered a stroke, was re-sentenced to one year home detention plus three months probation. The case did bring about metal detector screening and bag searches of guards coming to work - which was and is still strongly opposed by the guards' union.

Conditions

An unannounced inspection by the Justice Department's inspector general in 2023 found "alarming" conditions, with inmates being fed spoiled food, and with rodent droppings and bugs being an issue. A crumbling infrastructure and staffing issues were cited as the biggest issues facing the facility.

Notable inmates

References

External links

* {{coord, 30.4451, -84.2254, scale:10000, display=title Buildings and structures in Tallahassee, Florida

Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of and the only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2024, the est ...