Federal Correctional Institution, Marion

The Federal Correctional Institution, Marion is a large medium-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Southern Precinct, unincorporated Williamson County, Illinois. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The facility also has an adjacent satellite prison camp that houses minimum security male offenders.
FCI Marion in Southern Illinois is approximately south of the city of Marion, Illinois, south of Chicago, and southeast of St. Louis, Missouri.

History

FCI Marion was built and opened in 1963 as United States Penitentiary, Marion, to replace the maximum security federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, which closed the same year. On May 16, 2025, a tornado hit the Penitentiary but no injuries were reported on site.

Notable incidents

High-profile escape attempts

The first escape from USP Marion was on July 21, 1971, when Warren George Briggs leapt over two fences and escaped to Kansas City, Missouri, via Interstate 57. Four days later, Warren turned himself in to the FBI. He reportedly did this so he could draw attention to his invention, a water desalination process.
On October 10, 1975, five inmates used an illegal homemade electronic device to open the front gates of the prison. One of them had been an electrician and was assigned to work on the lock mechanisms of all of the doors in the main corridors. He also converted a radio into a remote control, with which he opened all of the doors. The five escapees were all eventually captured and returned to prison, the last one being apprehended in Canada on October 31, 1975.
Two escape attempts occurred in 1978 involving the same inmate, Garrett Brock Trapnell. On May 24, 1978, Trapnell's friend, 43-year-old Barbara Ann Oswald, hijacked a St. Louis based charter helicopter and ordered the pilot, Allen Barklage, to fly to USP Marion. Barklage complied, but he wrestled the gun away from Oswald and fatally shot her while he was landing in the prison yard, thwarting the escape. On December 21, 1978, Oswald's 17-year-old daughter, Robin Oswald, hijacked TWA Flight 541, which was en route from Louisville International Airport to Kansas City International Airport and threatened to detonate dynamite strapped to her body if the pilot did not fly to Williamson County Regional Airport, located only miles from USP Marion. When the pilot landed at the airport in Marion, hundreds of cops showed up, Robin Oswald surrendered to F.B.I. negotiators at the Williamson airport without incident about ten hours later. The dynamite was later found to be fake.
The last escape from the maximum-security prison area was on February 14, 1979, when Lawrence Caldwell, Albert Garza and Howard Zumberge climbed both exterior fences in a dense fog; Caldwell was caught before he could clear the first of the two fences. Both Garza and Zumberge were apprehended three days later near Cypress, hiding in a church basement. During the capture of the escapees, Garza shot Johnson County Sheriff Elry Faulkner in the chest at almost point-blank range; Faulkner, however, was wearing a ballistic vest and only suffered minor bruises. Garza was shot and wounded, but survived and returned to Marion two months later.

Murders of correction officers Clutts and Hoffmann

On October 22, 1983, correctional officers Clutts and Hoffmann were killed in separate incidents only hours apart, both at the hands of members of the Aryan Brotherhood, a white-supremacist prison gang. Officer Clutts was stabbed to death by Thomas Silverstein. While walking down a hall accompanied by Clutts, Silverstein was able to turn to the side and approach a particular cell. The prisoner in that cell subsequently unlocked Silverstein's handcuffs with a stolen key and provided him with a knife. Later that same morning, Officer Hoffmann was stabbed to death by Clayton Fountain, after Hoffmann had pulled Fountain off another officer who was being attacked.

Permanent lockdown and the birth of the supermax

As a result of the murders of Clutts and Hoffmann, USP Marion went into "permanent lockdown" with all inmates locked in their cells for the majority of the day. USP Marion was effectively transformed into a "control unit" prison, also called supermax, or "super-maximum" security. This method of prison operation involves the keeping of inmates in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, and does not allow communal dining, exercising, or religious services.
Years later, Norman Carlson, director of the Bureau of Prisons at the time of the Marion incident, said that as draconian as the permanent lockdown was, he believed it the only way to deal with "a very small subset of the inmate population who show absolutely no concern for human life." He pointed out that the two inmates who killed the guards were already serving multiple life sentences, so adding another would have had no effect. The "control unit" model at Marion was later the basis for ADX Florence, which opened in 1994 as a specifically designed supermax prison.

Downgraded to medium-security prison

In 2006, USP Marion's designation was changed to a medium security prison and major renovations were made. The renovations increased Marion's inmate population from 383 to 901.
In 2024, USP Marion was renamed to FCI Marion.

Communication Management Unit

Although the facility no longer operates as a "supermax" facility, FCI Marion is now home to one of two "Communication Management Units" in the federal prison system. The other is at the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute, Indiana. The Federal Bureau of Prisons created the Communication Management Unit in response to criticism that it had not been adequately monitoring the communications of prisoners. "By concentrating resources in this fashion, it will greatly enhance the agency's capabilities for language translation, content analysis and intelligence sharing," according to the Bureau's summary of the CMU. In a Democracy Now! interview on June 25, 2009, animal rights activist Andrew Stepanian talked about being jailed at the CMU. Stepanian is believed to be the first prisoner released from a CMU.

Significant inmates

† Inmates who were released from custody prior to 1982 are not listed on the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
†† The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 eliminated parole for most federal inmates. Inmates sentenced for offenses committed prior to 1987 are eligible for parole consideration.

Foreign terrorists

Foreign citizens who committed or attempted terrorist attacks against United States citizens and interests.

Inmate Name	Register Number	Status	Details
Mohammed Saleh		9999-99-99Served a 35-year sentence, released on September 1, 2023.	Al-Qaeda operatives and followers of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman; convicted in 1996 of seditious conspiracy and other charges for their involvement in the foiled NYC landmark bomb plot.
Clement Hampton-El		Died in 2014 while serving a 35-year sentence.	Al-Qaeda operatives and followers of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman; convicted in 1996 of seditious conspiracy and other charges for their involvement in the foiled NYC landmark bomb plot.
Mohammed A. Salameh		Serving a 86-year and 11-month sentence.	Palestinian terrorist, convicted perpetrator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-Owhali		Serving a life sentence. Transferred to ADX Florence.	Al-Qaeda operative; convicted of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, in relation to his role in the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Nairobi, Kenya. Sentenced to life in prison in 2001.
Iyman Faris		Served a 20-year sentence; released on August 18, 2020.	Al-Qaeda operative; pleaded guilty in 2003 to terrorism conspiracy for researching potential targets, including the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, and obtaining equipment to be used in attacks at the behest of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Omar Rezaq		Serving a life sentence; eligible for release in 2023.††	Follower of the militant Palestinian leader Abu Nidal and the sole surviving hijacker of EgyptAir Flight 648; 58 people were killed during the 1985 hijacking; Rezaq was convicted of air piracy in 1996.
		Serving a life sentence. Transferred to USP Terre Haute	Al-Qaeda operative; convicted in 1996 of conspiracy in connection with planning Project Bojinka, a foiled plot conceived by senior Al-Qaeda member Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to bomb twelve planes over the Pacific Ocean in a 48-hour period.
Dritan Duka		Serving life plus 30 years. Transferred to FCI Terre Haute.	One of the six men that conspired to attack an Army Base in Fort Dix, New Jersey. His brothers Eljvir Duka and Shain Duka are being held USP Hazelton and ADX Florence, respectively.

Domestic terrorists

American citizens who committed or attempted terrorist attacks against United States citizens and interests.

Inmate Name	Register Number	Photo	Status	Details
Francis Schaeffer Cox			Transferred to RRM Seattle. Serving a 25-year and ten-month sentence; scheduled for release on September 6, 2024.	Leader of the Alaska Peacekeepers Militia; convicted in 2012 of murder conspiracy for plotting the murders of judges and law enforcement agents; two co-defendants were also sentenced to prison.
Michael Finton			Transferred to FCI Bennettsville. Serving a 28-year sentence; scheduled for release on January 11, 2034.	Follower of the late militant cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki; pleaded guilty in 2011 to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction for plotting to destroy a federal building in Illinois with a truck bomb in 2009.
Carlos Almonte			Transferred to FCI Fairton. Serving a 20-year sentence; scheduled for release on June 20, 2027.	Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder persons outside the US, and for attempting to join Al Shabaab, a terrorist group based in Somalia; co-conspirator Mohamed Alessa was sentenced to 22 years.
Alexis Candelario Santana	34421-069		Transferred to MDC Guaynabo. Serving a life sentence.	Convicted in 2013 for the 2009 Sabana Seca massacre
Richard Scutari			Transferred to FCI Mendota. Serving a 60-year sentence; scheduled for release on June 26, 2025.	Former member of the white supremacist group The Order. Convicted in 1987 of conspiracy, racketeering, and robbery.
Cesar Altieri Sayoc			Transferred to FCI Butner Medium II. Serving a 20-year sentence, scheduled for release on November 10, 2035.	Pleaded guilty to mailing explosive devices to critics of US President Donald Trump. These included leading Democratic Party politicians such as former U.S. President Barack Obama, former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. One package was addressed only to CNN and sent to its world headquarters.
Kaleb James Cole			Serving a seven-year sentence; scheduled for release on June 17, 2025.	The FBI had sought an Extreme Risk Protection Order against Cole and seized his cache of weapons which included five assault rifles, a shotgun and pistols in October 2019. According to the FBI Cole had also acquired separate parts needed to manufacture untraceable AR-15s. Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes told the media they "firmly believe, prevented a massacre". Cole was sentenced for conspiring to threaten Jews, black people and journalists in Washington and two other states.
Zachary Adam Chesser			Transferred to ADX Florence and then to USP Hazelton. Serving a 25-year sentence; scheduled for release on January 1, 2032.	Convicted in 2010 for attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization by aiding Al-Shabaab, a militant group with ties to Al-Qaeda. He was also convicted for desensitizing law enforcement by ordering people to plant fake explosive devices. Chesser was also convicted for sending threats to Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park, after they aired an episode of the show with depictions of Muhammad.
Matthew F. Hale			Serving a 40-year sentence; scheduled for release in 2036. Previously at ADX Florence.	Neo-Nazi who was convicted in attempting to solicit the murder of federal judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow.