United States Penitentiary-Atlanta, Georgia
This prison is a sprawling medium security complex located 20 minutes from downtown Atlanta. Neighbors in the area during the mid 1980s told tales of prisoners easily buying liquor and cigarettes in the community and returning to the prison at night. In 1987, a massive influx of Cubans seeking refugee status flooded the United States; many refugees were housed at the facility. In November of 1987, these detainees rioted, took hostages and set fire to the prison. This facility housed famous inmates such as Al Capone, Irish mob boss Whitey Bulger and Pan-Africanist Movement and Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. As head of the Universal Negro improvement Association, Garvey served four years for mail fraud. The fraud charges were for operation of The Black Star Line, an economic plan of the UNIA. He was freed in 1927 and deported to Jamaica.
