The
Federal Correctional Institution, Fort Dix (
FCI Fort Dix) is a low-security United States
federal prison for male offenders in New Jersey. It is operated by the
Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the
United States Department of Justice. A satellite prison camp houses minimum-security male inmates.
FCI Fort Dix is located in Burlington County on the
Fort Dix/
McGuire Air Force Base military installation. It is approximately 40 miles from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
[1]
Fort Dix is named for
Major General John Adams Dix, a veteran of the
War of 1812 and the
Civil War. Construction began in June 1917.
Camp Dix, as it was known at the time, was a training and staging ground for units during
World War I.
The camp became a demobilization center after the war. Between the
World Wars, Camp Dix was a reception, training and discharge center for
the
Civilian Conservation Corps. Camp Dix became Fort Dix on March 8, 1939, and the installation became a permanent Army post. During and after
World War II
the fort served the same purpose as in the first World War. It served
as a training and staging ground during the war and a demobilization
center after the war.
On July 15, 1947, Fort Dix became a
Basic Training Center and the home of the
9th Infantry Division.
In 1954, the 9th moved out and the 69th Infantry Division made the fort
home until it was deactivated on March 16, 1956. During the
Vietnam War rapid expansion took place. A mock
Vietnam
village was constructed and soldiers received Vietnam-specific training
before being deployed. Since Vietnam, Fort Dix has sent soldiers to
Operation
Desert Shield,
Desert Storm,
Bosnia,
Afghanistan, and
Iraq.
U.S. Coast Guard site
The
Atlantic Strike Team (AST) of the
U.S. Coast Guard is based at Fort Dix. As part of the
Department of Homeland Security, the AST is responsible for responding to oil pollution and
hazardous materials release incidents to protect public health and the environment.
[4][5]
Federal Correctional Institution
Fort Dix is also home to
Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution,
the largest single federal prison in America. It is a low security
installation for male inmates located within the military installation.
As of November 19, 2009 it housed 4,310 inmates, and a minimum-security
satellite camp housed an additional 426.
[6] Inmates use plastic pouches of mackerel as
commodity money.
[7]
Mission realignment
Knowing that Fort Dix was on a base closure list the
U.S. Air Force attempted to save the
U.S. Army post during 1987. The
USAF moved the Security Police Air Base Ground Defence school from
Camp Bullis
Texas to Dix in the fall of 1987. It was eventually realized that it
was not cost effective to put 50-100 S.P. trainees on a commercial
flight from San Antonio, Texas to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania every
couple of weeks, so the school was later moved back to
Camp Bullis Texas. Fort Dix was an early casualty of the first
Base Realignment and Closure
process in the early 1990s, losing the basic-training mission that had
introduced new recruits to military life since 1917. But Fort Dix
advocates attracted Army Reserve interest in keeping the 31,000-acre
(13,000 ha) post as a training reservation. With the reserves, and
millions for improvements, Fort Dix actually has grown again to employ
3,000. As many as 15,000 troops train there on weekends, and the post
has been a major mobilization point for reserve and National Guard
troops since the
September 11, 2001 attacks on
New York City and
Washington, D.C.
Fort Dix has completed its realignment from an individual training center to a
FORSCOM Power Projection Platform for the Northeastern United States under the command and control of the
United States Army Reserve
Command. Primary missions include being a center of excellence for
training, mobilizing and deploying Army Reserve and National Guard
units; providing regional base operations support to on-post and
off-post active and reserve component units of all services; and
providing a high-quality community environment, including 848 housing
units for service members and their families. Fort Dix supported more
than 1.1 million man-days of training in 1998. A daily average of more
than 13,500 persons live or work within the garrison and its tenant
organizations. Fort Dix subinstallations include the Charles E. Kelly
Support Facility in
Oakdale, Pennsylvania and the
Devens Reserve Forces Training Area in
Ayer, Massachusetts.
2005 Realignments
In 2005, the
United States Department of Defense announced that Fort Dix would be affected by a
Base Realignment and Closure. It will be merged with two neighboring military bases,
McGuire Air Force Base and
Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, establishing
Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. This will be the first base of its kind in the United States.
The preliminary 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) list was released by the
United States Department of Defense on May 13, 2005. The proposal recommends closing 33 major United States
military bases and the "realignment" (either enlarging or shrinking) of 29 others. The justifications made are, in part:
This recommendation transforms Reserve Component facilities and
command and control structure throughout the Northeast Region of the
United States. The implementation of this recommendation will enhance
military value, improve homeland defense capability, greatly improve
training and deployment capability, create significant efficiencies and
cost savings, and is consistent with the Army’s force structure plans
and Army transformational objectives.
The BRAC recommendations directly affecting Fort Dix are:
- Realign Pitt USARC, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, by disestablishing the HQ 99th Regional Readiness Command and establishing a Northeast Regional Readiness Command Headquarters at Fort Dix, NJ, while Closing Charles Kelly Support Center and relocating the units to Pitt US Army Reserve Center.
- Close Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, and relocate the HQ 78th Division at Fort Dix, NJ.
- Realign Fort Totten, NY, by disestablishing the HQ 77th Regional Readiness Command and establishing a Sustainment Brigade at Fort Dix, NJ., while at the same time Closing Carpenter USARC, Poughkeepsie, New York, McDonald USARC, Jamaica, New York, Fort Tilden USARC, Far Rockaway, New York, and Muller USARC, Bronx, New York, and relocate the units to a new Armed Forces Reserve Center at Fort Totten, NY.
- Realign Fort Sheridan, IL, by relocating the 244th Aviation Brigade to Fort Dix, NJ.
- Realign Fort Dix, NJ, by relocating Equipment Concentration
Site 27 to the New Jersey Army National Guard Mobilization and Training
Equipment Site joint facility at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
Attack plots
1970
In 1970, the
Weather Underground planned to detonate a
nail bomb
at a noncommissioned officers dance at the base to "bring the war home"
and "give the United States and the rest of the world a sense that this
country was going to be completely unlivable if the United States
continued in
Vietnam." The plot failed the morning of the dance when a bomb under construction exploded at the group's
Greenwich Village,
New York townhouse, killing three members of the group.
[8]
2007
On May 8, 2007, six individuals, mostly ethnic
Albanian Muslims,
[9] were arrested for plotting an attack against Fort Dix and the soldiers within. The men are believed to be
Islamic radicals who may have been inspired by the ideologies of
Al-Qaeda.
[10] The men allegedly planned to storm the fort with automatic weapons in an attempt to kill as many soldiers as possible.
[9] The men faced charges of
conspiracy to kill U.S. Soldiers.
[11]
1969 stockade riot
On June 5, 1969, 250 men imprisoned in the
military stockade for being
AWOL, rioted in an effort to expose the unsanitary conditions.
[12][13][14]
"Ultimate Weapon" monument
In 1957, Specialist 4 Steven Goodman, assisted by PFC Stuart Scherr,
made a small clay model of an infantryman during their leisure hours.
Their tabletop model was spotted by a
public relations
officer who brought it to the attention of Deputy Post Commander Bruce
Clarke, who suggested the construction of a larger statue to serve as a
symbol of Fort Dix.
[15] Goodman and Scherr, who had studied industrial arts together in New York City and were classified by the Army as
illustrators,
undertook the project under the management of Sergeant Major Bill
Wright. Operating on a limited budget, and using old railroad track and
other available items, they created a 12-foot figure of a charging
infantryman in full battle dress,
[15] representing no particular race or ethnicity.
[16]
By 1988, years of weather had taken a toll on the statue, and a
restoration campaign raised over $100,000. Under the auspices of Goodman
and the Fort Dix chapter of the
Association of the United States Army, the statue was
recast in
bronze and its concrete base replaced by black
granite.
[17]
The statue stands 25 feet tall at the entrance to Infantry Park. Its inscription reads
-
- This monument is dedicated to
- the only indispensable instrument of war,
- The American Soldier---
-
- THE ULTIMATE WEAPON
-
- "If they are not there,
- you don't own it."
- 17 August 1990
Geography
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the
CDP has a total area of 11.3 square miles (29.3 km
2), of which 11.2 square miles (29.1 km
2)of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.2 km
2)of it (0.53%) is water.
Demographics
| Historical populations |
| Census |
Pop. |
|
%± |
| 1990 |
10,205 |
|
—
|
| 2000 |
7,464 |
|
−26.9% |
| source:[18] |
As of the
2000 United States Census[19] there were 7,464 people, 843 households, and 714 families residing in the
CDP. The
population density was 663.9 people per square mile (256.4/km
2). There were 1,106 housing units at an average density of 98.4 homes per square mile (38.0/km
2). The racial makeup of the CDP was 58.4%
White, 35.6%
African American, 0.4%
Native American, 1.3%
Asian, 0.1%
Pacific Islander, 2.5% from
other races, and 1.7% from two or more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 22.8% of the population.
There were 843 households, of which 63.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 75.2% were
married couples
living together, 6.8% had a female householder with no husband present,
and 15.3% were non-families. 14.7% of all households were made up of
individuals and none had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or
older. The average household size was 3.06 and the average family size
was 3.39.
In the CDP the population was spread out with 13.6% under the age of
18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 62.1% from 25 to 44, 15.1% from 45 to 64, and
1.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For
every 100 females there were 491.0 males. For every 100 females age 18
and over, there were 734.5 males.
The median income for a household in the CDP was $41,397, and the
median income for a family was $41,705. Males had a median income of
$31,657 versus $22,024 for females. The
per capita income for the CDP was $10,543. About 2.5% of families and 3.2% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 3.2% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.
