The United States Penitentiary, Canaan (USP Canaan) is a high-security United States federal prison for male inmates in northeastern Pennsylvania, 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 Canaan Township, Wayne County, Pennsylvania, east of Scranton and north of Philadelphia.
USP Canaan is a facility designed by David R. Cassara Associates, Structural Engineering and Consulting of Rochester, New York for $141 million. 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 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.
Units A1 & A2, closest to the dining area and the Receiving & Discharge area, are primarily used for inmates in transit. One-unit houses Minimum and Low security inmates in transit and the other housing Medium and Maximum-security inmates. Administrative Maximum custody inmates are generally housed in the SHU during transit. These units have also been used when the USP Canaan SHU is filled beyond capacity. Inmates will then be locked in a cell without a shower and only be able to shower three times weekly.
Inmate transit usually occurs at least twice a week to and from USP Canaan with Monday being the âÂÂairliftâ day where inmates are brought to the Harrisburg airport by bus for secure transit to another prison. The trips to the next prison occur either by another bus trip or a flight on what is often called âÂÂCon Airâ (operated by US Marshals Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System or JPATS). Tuesday is generally the transit day for inmates going to or from MDC Brooklyn and MCC Manhattan (when it was open).
Four inmate murders have taken place at USP Canaan since its opening in 2005.
Other incidents: In June 2011, 300 inmates and several staff members became ill after eating chicken in the prison dining room. The Pennsylvania 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.