USP Victorville is 630,000 square-feet and is designed to house 960 male inmates in 6 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, a brickstone wall on its northern side and a view protection fence on its western side. 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 can hold 238 inmates. Cells in the disciplinary unit have showers and are occupied by three inmates when overcrowding occurs.
Inmate life
Prisoners have access to the text-based e-mail program known as TRULINCS. Prisoners are allowed only 13,000 characters per e-mail, and attachments cannot be sent, received, or viewed. Inmates are not allowed to retain more than two newspapers, 10 magazines and 25 letters in their cells. They are allowed to place phone calls to up to 30 approved numbers. Phone calls are restricted to 15 minutes per call and five hours per month. Inmates pay for their phone calls through their trust accounts. Inmates can buy additional food, hygiene articles and clothes from commissary for a maximum of $290 a month. Inmates are counted 5 to 6 times a day at 12:01 a.m., 3:00 a.m., 5:00 a.m., 4:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m. and 10:00 a.m.. Initial work movements start at 4:30 a.m. and inmates must be up at 7:30 a.m. All inmates must be back to their cells at 10:00 p.m.
Notable incidents
On April 11, 2005, USP Victorville inmate Scott Fischer was fatally slashed by another inmate, reportedly over a dispute regarding less than $10.00 worth of tobacco. USP Victorville inmate Tony Richard Padilla died at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center on August 12, 2006, from injuries sustained during a fight with another inmate. On the afternoon of May 13, 2009, several inmates at USP Victorville, CA, attacked inmate Gregory Francis Ritter of Waikiki, Hawaii, who was serving a 33-month sentence for drug and weapons possession, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. Ritter was transported to a local hospital by ambulance and later flown to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in critical condition. Ritter died of his injuries at 7:13 PM. On October 1, 2013, inmate Javier Sanders was found beaten to death in his cell. Sanders was serving a 10-year sentence for federal drug crimes. Fifty-three year old David Snow, the former president of the Aryan Brotherhood of Ohio, was found beaten to death on November 13, 2013 The next day, 40 year old David Serra was found dead in what was determined to be a suicide. Serra had been at the prison for only five months, and was serving a 30-year sentence for second-degree murder and deadly use of a firearm. On June 21, 2014, two inmates were found dead in the prison. The deaths were quickly ruled homicides, and the victims were later identified as 24 year old Brian Kountz and 49 year old Robert Howard Ferguson. In 2013, Kountz had been sentenced in Wyoming to 80 months in prison for an armed robbery. Ferguson had been sentenced the same year in Las Vegas, Nevada, to 80 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Three days later, news outlets reported that 48-year-old Daniel Casto of Sweet Home, Oregon, had been identified as a suspect and placed in a restricted housing unit within USP Victorville. Casto is currently being held at the United States Penitentiary, Florence ADX, a high-security federal prison in Colorado, with a release date in 2031. Serious incidents of violence at federal prisons are investigated by the FBI.
Notable inmates (current and former)
†The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 eliminated parole for federal inmates. However, inmates sentenced for offenses committed prior to 1987 are eligible for parole consideration.
