penitentiary

Alcatraz, which opened as a federal penitentiary in 1934, was once considered among the most secure prisons in the United States due to its isolated island location and the strong currents surrounding it.

From Barron's ● Apr. 3, 2026

Early last year, prison officials transferred Hernández out of the federal detention center in Brooklyn, which largely holds pretrial detainees, and sent him to the high-security Hazelton penitentiary in West Virginia.

From Salon ● Feb. 19, 2026

Several defense attorneys filed court declarations describing meetings and conference calls with Christopher Synsvoll, a Bureau of Prisons attorney based at the Florence penitentiary who served as liaison to the inmates’ lawyers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2025

As the documentary outlines, the building of that “state-of-the-art” penitentiary in the middle of the redwood forest in the northernmost part of California helped dehumanize those housed within its walls.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 5, 2025

Doug Swieteck’s brother and the state penitentiary crowd were looking down at me.

From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt

Time served for the state convictions will run at the same time as the federal sentences, and the men will serve their time in federal penitentiaries.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 9, 2024

But now, he is resisting calls from criminal justice advocates and liberal state lawmakers to shutter five more penitentiaries.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 2024

La Regional jail is located in a large prison compound which houses a total of five penitentiaries and more than 12,000 inmates.

From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2024

According to the Prison Policy Initiative, more than 1 million people are held in state penitentiaries, of which 71% will be re-arrested within three to five years after committing additional offenses.

From Reuters ● Aug. 2, 2023

That has been true since penitentiaries first opened in America.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander