The Hardee Correctional Institution is a state prison for men located in

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep on ...

Hardee County, Florida Hardee County is a county located in the Florida Heartland, Central Florida region U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,327. Its county seat is Wauchula. Hardee County comprises the Wauchula, FL Micropolitan St ...

, owned and operated by 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 ...

. This facility has a mix of security levels, including minimum, medium, and close, and houses adult male offenders.

History

Hardee first opened in 1991 and has a maximum capacity of 1541 prisoners. In 2015, a campus of the

New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS) is a Baptist theological institute in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Missions and evangelism are core focuses of the seminary. NOBTS offers doctoral ...

was established in the penitentiary.

Notable inmates

*Alfonza Smalls (born 1978) - Accomplice of double murderer

Richard Henyard Richard Henyard (June 26, 1974 – September 23, 2008) was an American murderer executed in Florida for the double murder of sisters Jamilya and Jasmine Lewis in January 1993, and the rape and attempted murder of the girls' mother. Henyard commi ...

*Fred Waterfield (born 1952) - Cousin and accomplice of serial killer

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, ...

James Winkles James Delano Winkles (December 18, 1940 – September 9, 2010) was an American murderer, kidnapper and self-confessed serial killer. Initially sentenced to life imprisonment on kidnapping charges, he admitted responsibility for two murders commi ...

(1940–2010) - Murderer and alleged serial killer; was transferred to and died at

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 ...

https://web.archive.org/web/20220920170520/https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2010/09/12/inmate-dies-awaiting-execution/

References

{{State prisons in Florida Prisons in Florida Buildings and structures in Hardee County, Florida 1991 establishments in Florida