Lexington High Security Unit

Barbara Hanbury

On October 29, 1986, the Federal Bureau of Prisons opened the first female High Security Unit (HSU) at the Federal Correctional Institution, Lexington, Kentucky. The mission of the Lexington HSU was to control and isolate women prisoners who posed a political threat to the United States or who were considered to be highly disruptive or an escape threat within the federal prison system. Lexington HSU was a 16-bed self-contained unit located in the subterranean level of the institution. It soon became a focus for national and international concern over human rights and was closed just two years after opening. Congress originally established the Lexington facility in 1929 as the first U.S. narcotics rehabilitation “farm” for the treatment of male addicts. In 1936, it became the U.S. Public Health Service Clinical Research Center and continued to treat drug addicts including those who were federal prisoners. At this time, the facility held ...

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