| Prison Name: | Federal Medical Center, Butner |
| Location: | Durham County, North Carolina |
| Status: | Operational |
| Classification: | All security levels (with adjacent camp for minimum-security inmates) |
| Population: | 775 (June 2023) |
| Opened: | 1995 |
| Managed By: | Federal Bureau of Prisons |
The Federal Medical Center, Butner (FMC Butner), is a United States federal prison opened in 1995[1] in North Carolina for male inmates of all security levels who have special health needs. It is part of the Butner Federal Correctional Complex and is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. An adjacent satellite prison camp houses minimum-security male inmates.
It is located in Mangum Township,[2] Durham County, North Carolina,[3] near Butner.[4]
FMC Butner is located near the Research Triangle area of Durham, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill.[5]
FMC Butner has a full hospital facility specializing in oncology and behavioral science. Many medical and surgical specialties hold clinics and perform procedures at the FMC. It has the only residential program devoted to the treatment of individuals convicted of sexual offenses in the federal prison system.
In 2009 Philip Fornaci, the director of the DC Prisoners' Project, stated that FMC Butner, along with FMC Carswell and FMC Rochester, "are clearly the 'gold standard' in terms of what BOP facilities can achieve in providing medical care" and that they had provided "excellent medical care, sometimes for extremely complex medical needs."[6] However, in 2021, the Bureau of Prison's accreditation from the Joint Commission lapsed, raising concerns of a decline in the quality of medical care.[7]
A 2023 NPR investigation found that from 2009-2020, roughly a quarter of all deaths in federal prisons occurred at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex. Due to bureaucratic delays in diagnoses and referrals, prisoners often arrive at FMC Butner with terminal conditions, only eligible for palliative care and compassionate release, despite the 1976 US Supreme Court case Estelle v. Gamble guaranteeing prisoners Eighth Amendment rights against deliberate indifference to their medical needs.[8] Furthermore, vacancies in over 20% of nurse and paramedic positions at FMC Butner were linked to staff shortages and burnout.
In 2009, a study conducted by psychologists Michael Bourke and Andres Hernandez was published in the Journal of Family Violence. The results suggested a strong link between viewing child pornography and sexual abuse. The findings went against the conventional and widely held belief that a person passively viewing child pornography had an insignificant causal link with that person actually molesting a child.[9]
In what is known as the "Butner Study," Bourke and Hernandez analyzed data on 155 men convicted of child pornography offenses, who took part in an 18-month treatment program between 2002 and 2005, during which the men filled out assessment measures including a "victims list," where they revealed the number of children they had molested in the past.
74% of the men denied molesting anyone when they were sentenced. However, by the end of treatment, 85% had admitted to sexually molesting a child at least once. The numbers are more than twice that of other studies. In explaining this discrepancy, Bourke said, "Our treatment team worked for an average of 18 months with each offender, and the environment was one of genuine therapeutic trust" that encouraged the men to tell the truth about themselves.[10]
A critique of the study is that the use of a population of participants in the most intensive sex offender treatment program offered in the federal prison system skewed the sample. Offenders had to have received at least a thirty-six-month sentence to be eligible for the program. Melissa Hamilton argues, "These offenders may well, then, have represented particularly dangerous offenders who were a high risk to children since they had been prosecuted, convicted, given more than minimal prison sentences, and accepted into the limited-space program because of a perceived need by themselves and program clinicians for a lengthy and intensive residential program."[11]
| width=12% | Inmate Name | width=8% | Register Number | width=25% | Status | width=55% | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russell Weston Jr. | 22372-016 | Being held indefinitely; the Bureau of Prisons lists his status as "Hospital Treatment Completed." | Responsible for the 1998 United States Capitol shooting, during which he fatally shot Detective John Gibson and Officer Jacob Chestnut of the US Capitol Police and wounded a tourist. Weston was subsequently ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial.[12] | ||||
| John Russell Whitt | 19945-057 | Currently serving a federal prison sentence for robbery. | Pled guilty on January 15, 2020, to two charges of second degree murder and two charges of concealment of death and was sentenced to 26 to 32 years for each murder, to be served consecutively after he completes his sentence in federal prison for robbery in 2037. | ||||
| Mohammad Shibin | 78207-083 | Serving life sentence. | Somali pirate leader; convicted in 2012 of piracy, kidnapping, and hostage-taking for acting as a ransom negotiator during the hijacking of the civilian vessel Quest in 2010 and the oil tanker Miranda Marguerite in 2011; Shibin is the highest-ranking pirate ever prosecuted.[13] [14] |
| width=12% | Inmate Name | width=8% | Register Number | width=25% | Status | width=55% | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mike DeBardeleben | 09671-074 | Died while in custody. | Kidnapper, rapist, counterfeiter, and suspected serial killer.[15] | ||||
| James von Brunn | 07128-016 | Died at FMC Butner while awaiting trial in 2010. | White supremacist and Holocaust denier who perpetrated the 2009 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting, during which Museum Security Guard Stephen T. Johns was killed.[16] | ||||
| Frank Calabrese Sr. | 49955-079 | Died at FMC Butner in 2012 while serving a life sentence. | Hitman for the Chicago Outfit Mafia organization; arrested as part of Operation Family Secrets; convicted in 2007 of racketeering conspiracy for directing and engaging in Mafia activities including murder, extortion and loansharking.[17] [18] | ||||
| 27371-038 | Served an 8-year sentence; released November 22, 2016. | Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 2004 to 2009; convicted in 2011 of conspiracy, honest services fraud and extortion for steering contracts to the software company Cognos in exchange for $65,000 in kickbacks.[19] | |||||
| 34892-054 | Served a life sentence under the name Omar Ahmad Rahman until his death on February 18, 2017.[20] | Leader of the terrorist organization al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya; convicted in 1995 of seditious conspiracy for masterminding a foiled plot to bomb high-profile targets in New York City, as well as conspiring to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.[21] [22] | |||||
| Tony Alamo | 00305-112 | Served a 175-year sentence under his actual name, Bernie Lazar Hoffman, until his death on May 2, 2017.[23] | Cult leader from Arkansas; convicted in 2009 of ten counts of transporting minors across state lines for sexual purposes for using his influence to force children as young as 8 into marriages and sexual relationships.[24] [25] [26] | ||||
| Tom Manning | 10373-016 | Died at USP Hazelton in 2019. | Member of the United Freedom Front, a Marxist group which carried out bank robberies and bombings at corporate buildings, courthouses and military facilities in the 1970s and 1980s; convicted of the 1981 murder of NJ State Trooper Philip Lomonaco.[27] | ||||
| Harry Bowman | 26595-039 | Deceased March 2019 | President of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club; convicted in 2001 of directing a racketeering enterprise which engaged in drug trafficking, extortion, murders and bombings; one of the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives until his capture in 1999.[28] [29] | ||||
| James Leon Guerrero | 03744-045 | Now at ADX Florence | Pleaded guilty to murdering Federal Correctional Officer Jose Rivera at the United States Penitentiary, Atwater on June 20, 2008; accomplice Jose Cabrera-Sablan also pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence.[30] | ||||
| Joshua Ryne Goldberg | 63197-018 | Transferred to FCI Sandstone; released on April 1, 2024.[31] | Pleaded guilty to attempting to bomb a Kansas City, Missouri 9/11 memorial event in 2015 while posing as an ISIS supporter.[32] [33] | ||||
| Bernie Madoff | 61727-054 | Died at FMC Butner in April 2021, while serving a 150-year sentence. | Securities fraud, investment advisor fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, false statements, perjury, making false filings with the SEC, theft from an employee benefit plan | ||||
| Joe Exotic | 26154-017 | Serving a 21-year sentence; scheduled for release in 2036. Transferred back to FMC Fort Worth | Convicted in 2019 of animal abuse (eight violations of the Lacey Act and nine of the Endangered Species Act) and two counts of attempted murder for hire.[34] | ||||
| 04475-046 | Died at FMC Butner in June 2023, while serving 8 life sentences. Reportedly committed suicide.[35] | Known as the Unabomber; pleaded guilty in 1998 to building, transporting, and mailing explosives to carry out 16 bombings from 1978 to 1995 in a mail bombing campaign targeting those involved with modern technology, which killed 3 people and injured 23 others.[36] [37] [38] | |||||
| Amine El Khalifi | 79748-083 | Serving a 30 year sentence; scheduled for release in 2037. Currently at FCI Williamsburg. | Convicted in 2012 for plotting to carry out a suicide bombing attack on the United States Capitol Building. |