The Federal Prison Camp, Morgantown (FPC Morgantown)[1] is a minimum-security United States federal prison for male inmates in West Virginia. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The facility has been nicknamed 'Club Fed' because of its amenities which include a large college-like campus, a movie theater, a bocce ball court and a basketball court as well as housing many white collar, nonviolent offenders.[2][3]
FPC Morgantown is located in the city of Morgantown in northern West Virginia and approximately 160 miles northeast of Charleston, the state capital.[4]
History
Senator Ted Kennedy dedicated the Robert F. Kennedy Youth Center in December 1968. The facility was designed to be the first of its kind to test a new method of detention employing an experimental "unit management" model that promoted a humane approach, grouping inmates into units of 50 to 200 overseen by multidisciplinary teams and specialized staff to tend to inmate needs including religious services, training, and counseling and rehabilitation. Less than a decade after opening, the facility transitioned from housing juvenile offenders to adult, male inmates. The name of the facility was later changed to 'Federal Correctional Institution, Morgantown Kennedy Center'[3]
Notable incidents
In August 2008, 50-year-old Randall Michael pleaded guilty to committing mail fraud while he was an inmate at FCI Morgantown. Michael masterminded a scheme to obtain money by falsely representing himself to potential investors as a wealthy executive who was attempting to obtain a grant requiring a refundable $50,000 bond with which he would purchase approximately 13 acres for $3.9 million for coal exploration. One individual subsequently mailed Michael a check for $26,250 addressed to the false bonding company, which Michael cashed and distributed to members of his own family. Michael was sentenced to an additional 24 months in prison on July 9, 2009.[5]
Contestant on the CBS television program Survivor in 2000; convicted of tax evasion in 2006 for failing to report income, including $1 million he won on the show and $321,000 he was paid by a Boston radio station.[10][11]
Released from custody in 2017; served 22 months.[12]
Mayor of Charlotte, NC from December 2013 to March 2014; pleaded guilty in 2014 to honest services fraud for accepting $50,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents posing as investors in exchange for using his official position to benefit them.[13][14]
A former art dealer from Michigan; Eric pleaded guilty to selling forged art works from artists such as Picasso, de Kooning, Marc Chagall and Joan Mitchell. Eric was forced to forfeit the $1.45 million he made from the scheme and pay $154,100 in fines.
James Clifton Jr.
21293-084
Served a 5-month sentence; released January 2017.
A former Sales Manager for a local Car Dealership and the former Bristol Virginia Utilities (BVU) Board Chairman who pleaded Guilty to 1 count of conspiracy to commit program fraud and misprison of a felony. He conspired with other BVU Employees to rig bids on fleet vehicles purchases to ensure his employer was the low bidder.
Walter P. Reed
34260-034
Was serving a 4-year sentence; released from custody on October 8, 2021.
Former St. Tammany Parish District Attorney; was convicted of 18 counts of public corruption charges in May 2016.[17]
Was serving a 50-month prison sentence; released from custody on August 17, 2018.
President and founder of Detroit-based Happy's Pizza, found guilty of 32 tax crimes and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. The jury took 4.5 hours to convict on 3 counts of filing of false returns for Happy's pizza franchises and one count of engaging in a corrupt endeavor to obstruct and impede the administration of the IRS
^James F. McCarty, "West Virginia federal prison in the mountains houses Cuyahoga County's corruption convicts" The Plain Dealer, June 20, 2011
^ abPam Kasey, "This Is No Country Club; Morgantown’s federal prison pioneered today’s standard model of prison management. Some say the town and prison could pioneer again" WV Living Morgantown, Oct. 7, 2015