On October 30, 2018, notorious mob leader and long-time fugitive Whitey Bulger was found beaten with a sock-wrapped padlock and stabbed to death with a shiv in the facility after arriving there the previous day. He was sentenced to three additional months of incarceration. Thompson, who was serving a 120-month sentence at the minimum-security prison camp, admitted that he commandeered a Bureau of Prisons truck on February 12, 2011, and drove it out of the camp to visit his wife. In January 2012, USP Hazelton inmate Gerrod Thompson pleaded guilty to escape. Wilson's killing remains under investigation. Wilson, 25, was serving an 11-year sentence for an armed robbery in Maine. The facility was placed on lockdown and remained on lockdown for over a month after the incident until prison officials were reasonably certain that there were no further threats to the safety of staff and inmates. Five other inmates who were injured during the fight, which was reportedly racially motivated, were transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. On December 6, 2009, inmate Jimmy Lee Wilson was killed during a fight involving at least five other inmates. Andrews is currently incarcerated at USP Canaan Bellinger is at ADX Florence. Ihlenfeld, II, the US Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia, announced that the Department of Justice will seek the death penalty against Andrews if he is convicted. Since both inmates were already serving life sentences - Andrews for a pair of homicides in 19 and Bellinger for attempted murder in 2007 - they were also charged with murder by a federal prisoner serving a life sentence. A long and complex investigation led to an Octoindictment charging inmates Patrick Andrews (12550-007) and Kevin Bellinger (03532-007) with second-degree murder. On October 7, 2007, inmate Jesse Harris was murdered at USP Hazelton. It consists of living units and prison program facilities and has a capacity of 128 inmates. The 27,000-square-foot (2,500 m 2) minimum security Federal Prison Camp, also completed in 2004, is located outside the high security perimeter of the high-security facility. It is surrounded by a triple security fence with a taut wire system, and six guard towers around the perimeter. In addition, there are several one- and two-story buildings which house various prison programs, as well as a factory where prisoners work. The 650,000-square-foot (60,000 m 2) high-security facility, completed in 2004, contains six two-story buildings with 768 general housing cells and 120 'special housing cells' where especially dangerous prisoners are housed. The prison was designed by KZF Architectural Firm. The high security facility and the satellite minimum security prison camp cost $129 million to build and takes up 996 acres (4.03 km 2 1.56 sq mi). USP Hazelton was built due to an increasing need for modern facilities to house the growing number of federal inmates. The Federal Correctional Complex (FCC) Hazelton has two prisons, physically adjacent but distinct: USP Hazelton and the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution, Hazelton constructed in 2015. The facility is located in an unincorporated area of Preston County, West Virginia, several miles east of Bruceton Mills, less than two miles (3.2 km) west of the Maryland border. The facility has a satellite prison camp for minimum-security male offenders. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice.

The high-security facility has earned the nickname 'Misery Mountain' by the inmates who are incarcerated there.

The United States Penitentiary, Hazelton ( USP Hazelton) is a high-security United States federal prison for male inmates in West Virginia.

Human muzzle prison