Federal Correctional Institution, Terre Haute
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| Location | Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana |
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| Status | Operational |
| Security class | Medium-security (with minimum-security prison camp) |
| Population | 1,190 (455 in prison camp) |
| Managed by | Federal Bureau of Prisons |
The Federal Correctional Institution, Terre Haute (FCI Terre Haute) is a medium-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Indiana. It is part of the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Complex (FCC Terre Haute) and is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The facility also has an adjacent satellite prison camp for minimum-security male offenders.
FCC Terre Haute is located 2 miles south of the City of Terre Haute and 70 miles west of Indianapolis.
FCI Terre Haute has a controversial high-security wing known as the Communication Management Unit (CMU) for inmates who were determined to pose a serious threat if their communications were not severely restricted. The CMU at FCI Terre Haute is a 55-cell unit located in the former death row and was opened in December 2006. Prisoners there are under open and covert audio and video surveillance, and all of their phone calls are monitored except for talks with their attorneys. Prisoners are prohibited from touching family members during tightly controlled visits. All telephone calls and mail are monitored, and inmates are required to conduct all conversations in English unless special permission is arranged for conversations in other languages. Without such strong security, the government claims, inmates would be able to conspire with outsiders to commit terrorist or criminal acts. The Federal Bureau of Prisons created the CMU in response to criticism that it had not been adequately monitoring the communications of prisoners. According to the Bureau of Prisons, "By concentrating resources in this fashion, it will greatly enhance the agency's capabilities for language translation, content analysis and intelligence sharing," according to the Bureau's summary of the CMU.
When the CMU at FCI Terre Haute opened, 15 of the first 17 inmates were Muslim. In August 2008, 38 prisoners signed up for Ramadan observances. The disproportionate number of Muslims at the CMU led the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to raise a concern about racial profiling. The ACLU also charged that the communication restrictions were unduly harsh for prisoners who are not sufficiently serious security threats to warrant placement in USP Florence ADX, the federal supermax facility in Colorado. In response, according to civil rights lawyers, the Bureau of Prisons started moving in non-Muslims. The group included tax resisters, a member of the Japanese Red Army and inmates from Colombia and Mexico. Inmates say the guards there called them "balancers." As of 2011, the Bureau of Prisons says a total of 71 men now live in the units.
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