FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION. The Federal Correctional Institution at La Tuna (now part of Anthony) in northwestern El Paso County is a medium-security prison for men. It was formally opened on May 1, 1932, and designated to house offenders from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, and southern Utah; its Spanish-mission architecture was designed to reflect the Southwestern environment. A minimum-security Federal Prison Camp was added in 1978. In 1992 the inmate population was 890 at the Federal Correctional Institution and 324 at the Federal Prison Camp; the staff numbered 359. Thomas P. White, who served from the facility's opening in 1932 until 1951, had the longest tenure of any warden. During White's service some 300 of the institution's 630 acres was irrigated, and inmates were trained in farming and dairying. Agricultural activities were discontinued in subsequent years but resumed in 1992, with the aim of supplying vegetables and some fruits for the facility and for other federal prisons. The FCI offers a variety of educational and vocational programs, including studies for the general-equivalency diploma, English as a second language, computer literacy, continuing-education courses, and training in automobile repair, building trades, and horticulture. The institution formerly served as a detention center for aliens held by the United States Immigration Service.

Martin Donell Kohout