The Kentucky State Peniterary (KSP), also known as the "castle in Cumberland," is a maximum security and supermax prison with a capacity for 856 detainees located in Eddyville, Kentucky at Lake Barkley on the Cumberland River, about 3 mile (4.8 km) from downtown Eddyville. It is managed by Kentucky Department of Corrections. Completed in 1886, it was the oldest prison facility in Kentucky and the only commonwealth facility with a supermax unit. Kentucky prison inmates penitentiary and conventional execution facility. By 2015 it has about 350 staff members and an annual operating budget of 20 million dollars. In many cases, inmates are not sent directly to the prison after being sentenced, but sent there because of violent or harassing behavior perpetrated in other less secure prison facilities in the commonwealth.
Video Kentucky State Penitentiary
Histori
The former brigadier general of the Confederation Society and the original Eddyville Hylan Benton Lyon are the forces that move behind the Kentucky Branch Institution located in what is now Old Eddyville. A hill overlooking the Cumberland River was chosen as a place for a new prison. The construction of the Kentucky State Branch Penitentiary began in 1884, using large granite blocks dug from a site under Cumberland. Italian masons were recruited to build the original building, which resembles a medieval castle. The prison was officially opened in 1889. It is the second prison built in the state, the first of which is the Kentucky State Prison in Frankfort, which opened in 1798. When the Kentucky State Penitentiary was built, Kentucky State Prison was named Kentucky State Orphanage. Kentucky State of Corrections
Establishment
Before the prison was built, the life of the prison in Kentucky was terrible. A study in 1875 showed that 20 percent of inmates at Kentucky State Prison were suffering from pneumonia and seventy-five percent had scurvy. The prison is where "closed mucus walls, open excrement, and coughing cemetery." About seventy out of a thousand prisoners had died in 1875. Prison life was something that Kentucky officials never really concentrated on until Governor Luke P. Blackburn. He was elected governor in 1879 and immediately asked the legislature to approve a new prison.
1889-1908
In 1889, the prison was overcrowded. The General Assembly allows some inmates to work outside the prison walls, sometimes even without supervision. In the first few years, about half of fifty inmates working outside the prison managed to escape. The level of ill-treatment by excessive guards and supervisors against the highest prisoners, especially since no one oversees the handling of the prisoners. Finally, in the early 1890s, the law was abolished and all prisoners were forced to live in prison. It was almost full right away.
1909-1987
In 1909, a law was made so that prisoners no longer needed to wear stripes. Inmates will wear loose denim pants and jackets, cloth hats, and cotton shirts. They will also have numbers listed on their backs. Although this was passed, the balls and chains would still be used as punishment for offenders until 1940. In the 1940s, prisons began to remove all convicts under the age of eighteen. Most of them were sent to reform. The main problem with Kentucky Correctional Institutions during this period was the prison staff, always low in numbers and low pay.
The prison was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 as part of the Old Eddyville Historic District.
From 1988
On June 17, 1988, eight inmates, three of whom became murderers in death prison, escaped from the Kentucky State Penitentiary. This happened around 2 am, slipping around the fire set by other inmates. The inmates sawed through the bars of the cell, walked through the cell door, and climbed about thirty feet to the window using an electric extension cord. On July 1, 1997, Kentucky executed his first prisoner in thirty-five years. Harold McQueen, 44, was convicted in 1981 for killing Rebecca O 'Hearn, a store clerk, during a robbery that netted him 1,500 dollars. Harold McQueen was electrocuted at 12:07 am. More than a hundred opponents of capital punishment and twenty-five supporters of the death penalty protested outside the prison.
On November 21, 2008, death row inmate Marco Allen Chapman, who was convicted of killing two northern Kentucky children in 2002, was executed with a deadly injection, most recently at Kentucky Correctional Institution.
On January 13, 2014, inmate James Kenneth Embry, Jr., died of starvation and dehydration after a hunger strike. In March, after an investigation by the Associated Press, Kentucky Correction Commissioner LaDonna Thompson asked the Attorney General's office to review Embry's death. The July 2016 author, Steve E. Asher, publishes the Hauntings of Kentucky State Penitentiary, a book on paranormal activity at KSP.
Maps Kentucky State Penitentiary
Distinctions
Five different levels of prisoners form a population of KSP prisoners. Prisoners wear certain color uniforms based on their level of detention. The level and color of each uniform are:
- General population - khaki
- Protection of prisoners - kelly green
- Administrative segregation - yellow canaries
- Death row - red red
- Minimum security - dark green (see below)
In addition to the main facilities, there is a small minimum security unit outside the walls of the institution that inmates have job assignments at all facilities & amp; reason. Prisoners in the minimum security unit are given additional privileges, including fishing at Lake Barkley at their leisure.
References
External links
- Kentucky State Penitentiary. Kentucky Department of Correction
- KentuckyLake.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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