Status Operational Population 1,460 Opened 1998 | Security class high-security Warden Charles Daniels | |
 | ||
Location Jefferson County, near Beaumont, Texas Managed by Federal Bureau of Prisons Similar United States Penitentiary, Victorville, United States Penitentiary, Tucson, Federal Correctional Institution, Yazoo City | ||
The United States Penitentiary, Beaumont (USP Beaumont) is a high-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Texas. It is part of the Federal Correctional Complex, Beaumont (FCC Beaumont) and is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice.
Contents
FCC Beaumont is located approximately 100 miles (160 km) east of Houston.
2007 inmate murder
On November 28, 2007, correction officers were escorting inmates Mark Snarr and Edgar Garcia to their cells at the USP Beaumont. When they arrived, Snarr and Garcia slipped from their restraints, repeatedly stabbed both correction officers with homemade prison knives known as shanks, and took the officers' cell keys.
Snarr and Garcia then unlocked the cell of inmate Gabriel Rhone and stabbed Rhone over 50 times. Additional officers arrived and used chemical agents to stop the attack, which lasted several minutes and was captured on surveillance camera. The wounded corrections officers and Rhone were transported to a local hospital, where Rhone was pronounced dead. The officers were treated and survived.
Attorneys for Snarr and Garcia claimed that Rhone had repeatedly threatened to kill their clients and that prison officials had failed to respond to those threats. However, Snarr and Garcia were subsequently convicted of murder and both were sentenced to death on May 24, 2010. They are currently being held at the United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute, a high-security facility in Indiana which houses federal death row.
2008 inmate murder
On February 12, 2008, USP Beaumont staff discovered the body of a 29-year-old inmate, Ronald Joseph, in his cell. An autopsy showed that Joseph died from asphyxia due to ligature strangulation or compression of the neck. Further investigation identified James Sweeney and Harry Lee Napper, both inmates at USP Beaumont, as suspects in the murder. Sweeney and Napper were indicted and charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and second-degree murder on May 4, 2011. In 2012, Sweeney pleaded guilty to racketeering and murder charges for leading the prison gang Dead Man Incorporated in exchange for the murder charge being dismissed and was sentenced to life in prison. Napper received a decades-long sentence.