United States · Richmond
Libby Prison
Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.
For families
How to send mail, money, and visit Libby Prison
Step-by-step guidance using the United States system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.

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

Photo by A. Hoen & Co. via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Photo by A. Hoen & Co. via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Photo by Internet Archive Book Images via Wikimedia Commons (No restrictions)

Photo by Internet Archive Book Images via Wikimedia Commons (No restrictions)

Photo by Internet Archive Book Images via Wikimedia Commons (No restrictions)

Photo by Internet Archive Book Images via Wikimedia Commons (No restrictions)
Photo by Daderot via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

Photo by [Vynne, Harold Richard] [from old catalog] via Wikimedia Commons (No restrictions)
Background
Libby Prison was a Confederate prison at Richmond, Virginia, during the American Civil War. In 1862 it was designated to hold officer prisoners from the Union Army, taking in numbers from the nearby Seven Days Battles (in which nearly 16,000 Union men and officers had been killed, wounded, or captured between June 25 and July 1 alone) and other conflicts of the Union's Peninsular campaign to take Richmond and end the war only a year after it had begun. As the conflict wore on the prison gained an infamous reputation for the overcrowded and harsh conditions. Prisoners suffered high mortality from disease and malnutrition. By 1863, one thousand prisoners were crowded into large open rooms on two floors, with open, barred windows leaving them exposed to weather and temperature extremes.
Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.
Capacity
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Current population
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Occupancy
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Year opened
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Operational
Figures from official sources · verified 29 May 2026 · methodology
Facility profile
Operator
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Population held
Mixed/unknown
Opened
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Region
Richmond
Security level
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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.
Notable inmates
Seth Boughton Ryder1830–1896 · mayor- Charles Holbert Voorhees1824–1900 · physician
- Charles Holbert Voorhees1824–1900 · physician
- Charles Holbert Voorhees1824–1900 · physician
- Charles Holbert Voorhees1824–1900 · physician
- Voranus Lothrop Coffin1831–1917 · politician
Source: Wikidata + Wikipedia.
Contact & address
No public contact details available.
Conditions Risk Score
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
Related facilities
Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.
- Rikers IslandEast Elmhurst, NYMixedLocal jail42% occupancy
- Franklin County Detention FacilitySt. AlbansMaximumCounty jail660% occupancy
- Gallia County JailGallipolisCounty jail336% occupancy
- Noble County JailCaldwellCounty jail542% occupancy
- Woodman State JailGatesvilleMaximumState prison720% occupancy
- Stark County JailToulonCounty jail3446% occupancy
Data completeness
16%How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.
Sources
- Wikipedia — Wikimedia Foundation
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation
- Wikidata (Q926372)
- Wikipedia
- Wikimedia Commons
- See /data-sources for our overall methodology.
Cite this page
Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.
World Prisons. (2026). Libby Prison. Retrieved October 20, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/libby-prison
"Libby Prison." World Prisons. Accessed October 20, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/libby-prison.
@misc{worldprisons-libby-prison,
author = {{World Prisons}},
title = {Libby Prison},
year = {2026},
url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/libby-prison},
urldate = {2026-10-20}
}