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United States · KY · Eddyville

Kentucky State Penitentiary

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Verified 29 May 2026
Fresh · 1d ago

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Photograph of Kentucky State Penitentiary

Gallery

From Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA where not otherwise stated).

  • Kentucky State Penitentiary from east.jpg

    Photo by Nyttend via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • KY-State-Penitentiary.jpg

    Photo by Acdixon (talk • contribs • count) via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • State Penitentiary - NARA - 280615.jpg

    Photo by Tennessee Valley Authority via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Background

The Kentucky State Penitentiary (KSP), also known as the "Castle on the Cumberland", is a maximum security and supermax prison with capacity for 856 prisoners located in Eddyville, Kentucky on Lake Barkley on the Cumberland River, about 4.8 kilometres (3 mi) from downtown Eddyville. It is managed by the Kentucky Department of Corrections. Completed in 1886, it is Kentucky's oldest prison facility and the only commonwealth-owned facility with supermax units. The penitentiary houses Kentucky's male death row inmates and the commonwealth's execution facility. As of 2015, it had approximately 350 staff members and an annual operating budget of $20 million.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

856

Current population

Occupancy

Year opened

1889

Operational

Facility profile

Operator

Kentucky Department of Corrections

Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

1889

Region

KY

Security level

Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Contact & address

266 Water Street, Eddyville 42038

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

Insufficient data
We don't have enough public data on this facility to score it. Have something to add? Send us a correction.

Compared to other facilities in United States

3276 peers
Capacity (beds)this: 856 · peers avg: 1425 (40%)

Data completeness

44%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources