Status Operational Phone +1 434-535-7000 | Warden Eddie Pearson Opened September 1990 | |
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Location 901 Corrections WayJarratt, Virginia 23870-9614 Security class Level 3 (correctional center)Level 1 (work center) Population 3,055 (as of June 2008) Similar South Side Regional Jail, FCI Petersburg Low, Tillery Prison, Caledonia Correctio Institution, Riverside Regional Jail | ||
Greensville Correctional Center is a prison facility located in unincorporated Greensville County, Virginia, near Jarratt. The prison, on a 1,105-acre (447 ha) plot of land, is operated by the Virginia Department of Corrections. Greensville houses the execution chamber used to carry out capital punishment by the Commonwealth of Virginia.
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History
Opened in September 1990 in a ceremony presided over by Governor of Virginia L. Douglas Wilder, the $106 million facility was built to provide initial relief to the then overcrowded Virginia correctional system. The facility opening allowed for the subsequent closure of the Virginia State Penitentiary in downtown Richmond. The execution chamber moved from the former state penitentiary to Greensville in 1991.
Initially, the center was classified as a maximum security facility. However, with the subsequent opening of other facilities intended for the most hardened violent criminals, the security classification at Greensville has been lowered to medium security. There is a double perimeter fence topped with razor wire as well as six 52-foot (16 m) high guard towers to bolster perimeter security.
The facility consists of 4 pod-style buildings (three have a capacity for 516 inmates each; the fourth can handle 192 higher-risk inmates) arranged in a semicircle in a 125-acre (0.51 km2) campus-like setting. The tract of land upon which the Correctional Center is constructed measures 1,105 acres (4.47 km2). It is located one mile (1.6 km) from Interstate 95. The primary contractor for the project was Morrison-Knudsen.
In 1995, a minimum-security work camp for low-risk inmates was constructed adjacent to the main complex. Together, the two facilities have a capacity of 3,007 inmates.
The facility contains a dedicated health care unit and mental health center which serves inmates in the eastern region of the Virginia corrections system. It is also home to the state death chamber, which was completed in April 1991. There have been 99 executions by electrocution or lethal injection have taken place in the L Building, located at the rear of the facility. The unit containing condemned prisoners was nicknamed "Hellsville" by the inmates.