Project Quote: "At no point are we not going to value the sanctity of life. We would resuscitate him, then execute him." - San Quentin prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon
NEW! Research on the BOP's Network Services and SENTRY
This was a project which was born out of innate curiousity. However, as time has gone on, I have begun to realize that the world is becoming dictatorial, secretive, and controlling. Things that once were perfectly legal are now considered illegal or treasonous. This is a pattern which is occurring not only in the United States, but continues in Muslim countries, China, Russia, and Europe. And the question becomes, who is watching the watchers? Thus was born the idea of the Open Source Intelligence Network, or OSIN. The Internet has become the greatest weapon to levy against that growing threat and any one of you reading this has the power to join, to look, to search, or to listen and share what you know with the world. That is, if you know how. And this project is meant to instruct anyone on how to conduct search missions. One piece of information may seem inocuous, but when that piece of information is brought together with one more or several, the flood gates to Big Brother's secrets come flying apart. And information on the Internet is not your only tool. Observations on the ground are just as informative. Retirement photos can reveal something that is usually missed. You only need to share with the world.
That being said, I felt it only proper that the first project I should start with was the US Bureau of Prisons (BOP). This project, which I call "Know Before You Go" is dedicated to the hope that Karl Rove may find his destiny in one of these places.
Some will no doubt claim I'm making the terrorists' jobs easier. My response is this- Do you really think the terrorists are just sitting around twittling their thumbs waiting for someone like me to release this information? If I'm releasing it, it IS too late. After all, the terrorists are not stupid and some of them were trained by American Intelligence, so don't try to claim National Security reasons to hide information. We have a duty to know.
A word of warning- I like to cuss. I consider it an art form and in these reports I may say things that might offend. I don't apologize. However, with the exception of Texans and Karl Rove, I think you'll survive reading them. ;)
This project culminates in some of the open source information I found on the Internet. There was no hacking of computers or stealing of records. It was freely available if you know how to use a search engine. The imagery itself came from a variety of sources, but the overwhelming majority is derived from Microsoft's Terraserver site and Google's new mapping service. Other information came from sources such as general contractors, online newspapers, former and current inmates, and demonstrators. And of course, the vast majority of information came from the bop.gov website itself. I should caution any visitor to that website- BOP has not been updating some of the information in a timely manner. I have found that the wardens listed for some facilities have either retired or moved to other facilities. Some left more than three years ago. Another problem was that the addresses used for some facilities were either very vague or wrong.
The survey covers about 115 facilities that comprise the BOP's prison system. This system is divided up into 6 regions and the national headquarters. I know that I've probably missed a few because the American government is opening more facilities all the time to accomodate the ever-increasing population of inmates. For some facilities, I could find no overhead imagery because they were just recently opened or were still under construction.
Prisons are usually very easy to find in overhead imagery, at least those of higher security. The land is inevitably cleared around the facility. Because of the fence lines they also tend to appear very angular in appearance. However, a fence line was not always used at some of these facilities, such as a minimum security facility, so I began to noticed that all levels of security, from minimum to high had these three characteristics:
1. They all had at least one parking lot and quite a few had 2 or more.
2. The construction used in the buildings gave an appearance of
symmetry or purpose. This was especially true at many medium security
facilities that used the sets of triangular buildings which I believe
are inmate housing.
3. Nearly all had an athletic area and at least one baseball/softball field.
It was those three characteristics which sometimes allowed me to find facilities that weren't plotting to the addresses listed for them on the bop.gov website.
You should read these reports with scepticism. I know I'm right about some things, but I make assumptions in many places. And the interesting thing you should keep in mind is how many times I am actually wrong. Then you begin to see how a trailer in Iraq can be misconstrued as a mobile chemical weapons platform. These reports are by no means complete. They were never meant to be finished. Anyone out there can add their own views or contribute their thoughts.
Here are the links to the different regions and their site reports:
Northeast Region
Middle Atlantic Region
Southeast Region
North Central Region
South Central Region
Western Region
BOP National Headquarters
Obligatory update to keep geocities from deleting the project- 109845321