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United States · VA · Pennington Gap
United States Penitentiary
High-securityLowLow
Verified
Fresh · 2mo ago
Sources last reviewed on
Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.
For families
How to send mail, money, and visit United States Penitentiary
Step-by-step guidance using the United States system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.
Capacity
125
Current population
—
Occupancy
—
Year opened
2002
Operational
Figures from official sources · verified 28 May 2026 · methodology
Facility profile
Operator
Federal Bureau of PrisonsPopulation held
Mixed/unknown
Opened
2002
Region
VA
Security level
High-security
Death-row facility
No
Conditions
No conditions summary available yet.
Visiting
No visiting information available.
Mailing
No mailing information available.
Practical info
Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.
Known issues
No major issues documented in our database.
Notable inmates
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Viktor Bout1967 · arms traffickerViktor Anatolyevich Bout (; Russian: ÐиÌкÑÐ¾Ñ ÐнаÑоÌлÑÐµÐ²Ð¸Ñ ÐÑÑ, romanized: Viktor Anatolyevich But; born 13 January 1967) is a Russian arms dealer and politician.
- Juan Matta-Ballesteros1945–2025 · drug trafficker
Juan Ramón Matta-Ballesteros (also spelled Mata-Ballesteros; January 12, 1945 â October 30, 2025) was a Honduran major narcotics trafficker who has been credited with being one of the first to connect Mexican drug traffickers with the Colombian cocaine cartels.
Source: Wikidata + Wikipedia.
Contact & address
Conditions Risk Score
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
0/100
Low concern0/100
- Overcrowding
- 0/30
- Oversight reports
- 0/30
- Structural flags
- 0/15
- Death signals
- 0/15
- Conditions text
- 0/10
This facility scores 0. The national average across 7,437 scored United States facilities is 2 — 2 points below national average.
Related facilities
Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.
- Rikers IslandEast Elmhurst, NYMixedLocal jail42% occupancy
- Franklin County Detention FacilitySt. AlbansMaximumCounty jail660% occupancy
- Gallia County JailGallipolisCounty jail336% occupancy
- Southwest Virginia Regional Jail - TazewellTazewellMaximumCounty jail330% occupancy
- Noble County JailCaldwellCounty jail542% occupancy
- Stark County JailToulonCounty jail3446% occupancy
Compared to other facilities in United States
7436 peersCapacity (beds)this: 125 · peers avg: 547 (77%)
Reports
- marshall-project8 Jan 2016
ndshakes, the toilet phone, and the “shoe bomber.” This article was published in collaboration with Vice . Not many people ever make it out of the ADX. Officially called the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence — and colloquially known as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies” — the ADX is the highest-security federal prison in the country, located in the Colorado
Data completeness
52%How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.
Sources
- OpenStreetMap — OpenStreetMap Contributors
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation
- Wikidata (Q7890879)
- Wikipedia
- See /data-sources for our overall methodology.
Cite this page
Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.
APA
World Prisons. (2026). United States Penitentiary. Retrieved July 21, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/united-states-penitentiary
Chicago
"United States Penitentiary." World Prisons. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/united-states-penitentiary.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-united-states-penitentiary,
author = {{World Prisons}},
title = {United States Penitentiary},
year = {2026},
url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/united-states-penitentiary},
urldate = {2026-07-21}
}