Libby Prison

Background

Libby Prison was a Confederate prison at Richmond, Virginia, during the American Civil War. In 1862 it was designated to hold officer prisoners from the Union Army, taking in numbers from the nearby Seven Days Battles (in which nearly 16,000 Union men and officers had been killed, wounded, or captured between June 25 and July 1 alone) and other conflicts of the Union's Peninsular campaign to take Richmond and end the war only a year after it had begun. As the conflict wore on the prison gained an infamous reputation for the overcrowded and harsh conditions. Prisoners suffered high mortality from disease and malnutrition. By 1863, one thousand prisoners were crowded into large open rooms on two floors, with open, barred windows leaving them exposed to weather and temperature extremes.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.

• Rikers Island
  East Elmhurst, NYMixedLocal jail42% occupancy
• Franklin County Detention Facility
  St. AlbansMaximumCounty jail660% occupancy
• Gallia County Jail
  GallipolisCounty jail336% occupancy
• Southwest Virginia Regional Jail - Tazewell
  TazewellMaximumCounty jail330% occupancy
• Noble County Jail
  CaldwellCounty jail542% occupancy
• Stark County Jail
  ToulonCounty jail3446% occupancy

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

World Prisons. (2026). Libby Prison. Retrieved July 22, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/libby-prison

"Libby Prison." World Prisons. Accessed July 22, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/libby-prison.

@misc{worldprisons-libby-prison,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Libby Prison},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/libby-prison},
  urldate = {2026-07-22}
}