United States Penitentiary, Canaan: PA

The United States Penitentiary, Canaan (USP Canaan) is a high-security United States federal prison for male inmates, with a satellite prison camp for minimum-security male inmates. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice.
USP Canaan is located in northeastern Pennsylvania, 20 miles east of Scranton, and 134 miles north of Philadelphia.^[1]

History and facility

USP Canaan is a 170,000-square-yard (140,000 m²) facility designed by David R. Cassara Associates, Structural Engineering and Consulting of Rochester, New York for $141 million.^[2] USP Canaan opened in March 2005 and is designed to house 1088 male inmates in six housing units. Six V-shaped buildings facing each other and a larger maintenance building surround a central yard with a tower in the middle. Six additional towers are lined along the rectangular shaped facility. The facility is surrounded by a lethal electrical double fence. Cells are approximately 4 × 2 m (13 × 7 feet) in size equipped with a bunkbed, a stainless steel sink-toilet combination and a small table with a non-removable stool. Cells are usually occupied by two inmates and are air conditioned. The administrative and disciplinary unit, called the Special Housing Unit, can hold approximately 250 inmates. Cells in the disciplinary unit have showers and are occupied by two inmates.

Prison schedule and regulations

Inmates are counted 5 to 6 times a day, at 12:01 a.m., 3:00 a.m., 5:00 a.m., 4:00 p.m. (stand up count), 10:00 p.m. and 10:00 a.m. (on weekends and holidays). Initial work movements start at 4:30 a.m. and inmates must be up at 7:30 a.m. All inmates must be back inside their cells at 10:00 p.m.^[3]
Prisoners have access to a text-based e-mail program known as Trust Fund Limited Inmate Communication System (TRULINCS).^[4] Prisoners are only allowed 13,000 characters per e-mail, and attachments cannot be sent, received, or viewed. Inmates are not allowed to retain more than two newspapers, 10 magazines and 25 letters in their cells. Inmates are allowed to place phone calls to up to 30 approved numbers. Phone calls are restricted to 15 minutes per call and five hours per month. Inmates pay for their phone calls through their trust accounts. Inmates can buy additional food, hygiene articles and clothes from commissary for a maximum of $290 a month.

Notable incidents

There have been two inmate murders at USP Canaan since its opening. On April 25, 2010, Allen Hurley, an inmate serving a 37-year sentence for multiple armed robberies, became involved in a physical altercation with Joseph O'Kane while they were both in Hurley's cell. Hurley pulled out a homemade prison knife known as a shank, and stabbed O'Kane 92 times. O'Kane, an associate of the Gambino Crime Family in New York City who was serving life sentence for racketeering and murder, died at the scene. Hurley was convicted of manslaughter on June 21, 2012 and faces a mandatory life sentence when he is sentenced in September 2012.^[5][6]
On August 23, 2010, inmate Jose Antonio Perez, the leader of a major drug trafficking ring in Hartford, Connecticut, died of a single stab wound to the neck. Perez was serving a life sentence for drug trafficking and murder for hire in connection with the 2002 shooting death of Theodore Casiano, the leader of a rival drug trafficking organization.^[7][8] Perez' murder remains under investigation.
In June of 2011, 300 inmates and several staff members became ill after eating chicken in the prison dining room. The Pennsylvania State Department of Health was called in to investigate and determined that the cause was salmonella poisoning. The incident constituted one of the largest institutional outbreaks of salmonella poisoning in US history. No one became critically ill.^[9]