United States Penitentiary, Allenwood

Federal prison in Pennsylvania

The United States Penitentiary, Allenwood (USP Allenwood) is a maximum security United States federal prison in Pennsylvania. It is part of the Allenwood Federal Correctional Complex (FCC Allenwood) and is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. FCC Allenwood is located on US Route 15 in Gregg Township, Union County, near White Deer. It is approximately halfway between the cities of Williamsport and Lewisburg and approximately 75 mile (121 km) north of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the state capital.

USP Allenwood has four two level housing units each of which consists of four 16 cell ranges around a central dayroom where inmates can congregate during the times they are allowed outside their cells. Most cells house two inmates each. Recreational and counseling facilities are located adjacent to the housing units. The outer perimeter is secured by a double line of fencing with rolled barbed wire on the ground in between the fences. The inner fence is equipped with a perimeter intrusion detection system and a road for patrol vehicles runs along the outer fence. Correction officers man six guard towers at each corner of the security fence and a seventh within the fence. Educational programs include GED, ESL, adult continuing education, vocational training, correspondence classes, and evening college classes. Inmates work in a UNICOR upholstery factory and institutional maintenance jobs such as food service and building repair. Medical, psychological and drug treatment services are also available.

In April 1996, USP Allenwood inmate David Paul Hammer allegedly strangled fellow inmate Andrew Hunt Marti to death with a piece of homemade cord. Hammer and Marti were cellmates in the Special Housing Unit, where especially violent inmates are held. Writing on a website dedicated to his case in 2001, Hammer could not ‘attribute any motive’ to his actions. Hammer, a career criminal who was serving a 1,200 year sentence for crimes including larceny, shooting with intent to kill, kidnapping and making bomb threats, subsequently pleaded guilty to Marti's murder and was sentenced to death by the electric chair. The death sentence was vacated in 2006 after a federal judge found that prosecutors withheld evidence during the penalty phase that would have bolstered Hammer's claim that he and Marti were having consensual sex. In July 2014, another federal judge concurred, ruling that a life sentence was appropriate based upon multiple circumstances, including Hammer's acceptance of responsibility and remorsefulness, his extended family history of dysfunction, abuse and mental illness, his mental and emotional impairments and his self improvement, specifically citing Hammer's writing to at risk children and counseling them against engaging in criminal conduct.

On September 28, 2005, USP Allenwood inmates Ritz Williams (47085 008) and Shawn Cooya (48896 008) stabbed a fellow inmate, 50 year old Alvin Allery, ten times with a homemade knife and repeatedly kicked him in the head and torso, causing Allery's death. Williams and Cooya were already serving lengthy sentences, Williams for murder and Cooya for weapons violations. A subsequent investigation revealed that Williams and Cooya planned the attack in advance. In 2013, Williams and Cooya pleaded guilty to first degree murder and were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. As of March 2022, Williams is currently incarcerated at USP Victorville and Cooya is at ADX Florence.

On December 7, 2020, two correctional officers were injured after one was stabbed in the neck and eye by Abdulrahman el Bahnasawy (75868 054), a Canadian convicted of terrorism related offenses in 2016. Both officers were taken via ambulance to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville and survived, with one losing an eye. In April 2021, El Bahnasawy was transferred to ADX Florence.