The Eastern Correctional Institution (ECI) is a medium-security state prison for men located in Westover, Somerset County, Maryland, owned and operated by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. Eastern has a minimum-security Annex, completed in 1993, and housing some 560 inmates. The total capacity of the minimum- and medium-security sections is around 3,400. With an actual population of about 3,300, this is Maryland's largest prison.
The facility is adjacent to the Somerset County Detention Center.
In October 2016, federal authorities indicted eighty people as part of a scheme to smuggle drugs, telephones and pornography into the facility. Also while there the federal authorities investigated 6 different murders within the facility one of them resulting in one inmate being partially decapitated. The investigation led to the charge and conviction of an inmate Patrick Simpson#3378314 who was also under suspicion for 2 previous murders and for smuggling large amounts of illicit drugs and tobacco. Simpson subsequently pleaded out to assault with a deadly weapon and received an additional 2 years on his sentence to be served before his release.
Notable inmates Hadden Clark, child murderer, cannibal and serial killer Charles Edward "Pete" Richter - Convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison for the April 3, 2011 shooting death of his neighbor Mark Xander, receiving an additional five years for using a handgun in a crime of violence.https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/ex-police-officer-convicted-of-2nd-degree-murder/https://thecinemaholic.com/mark-xander-murder-where-is-charles-pete-richter-now/https://dpscs.maryland.gov/IncarceratedIndividualLocator/IncarceratedIndividualLocator?searchType=name&FirstName=Charles&LastName=Richter
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