The United States Penitentiary (USP), Leavenworth was the largest maximum security federal prison in the United States from 1903 until 2005.[1] It became a medium security prison in 2005.
It is located in Leavenworth, Kansas. It is an all-male, medium-security facility committed to carrying out the judgments of the Federal Courts.
The civilian USP Leavenworth is one of two major prisons built on the grounds of Fort Leavenworth. The United States Disciplinary Barracks is four miles north and is the sole maximum-security penal facility of the United States Military. USDB prisoners were used to build the civilian prison. The prisons operate independently of each other.
In September 2009 it had 1,899 inmates in the main building and 407 in the adjoining minimum security camp.[2]
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Design
Leavenworth is one of three first generation United States Penitentiaries built in the early 1900s. Prior to its construction federal prisoners were held at state prisons. In 1895 Congress authorized the construction of the federal prison system. [3]
The other two were Atlanta and McNeil Island (although McNeil dates to the 1870s the major expansion did not occur until the early 1900s).[4]
The prison follows a format popularized at the Auburn Correctional Facility in New York where the cell blocks were in a large rectangular building. The rectangular building was focused on indoor group labor with a staff continually patrolling.[5]
The Auburn system was a marked difference from the earlier Pennsylvania plan popularized at the Eastern State Penitentiary in which cell blocks radiated out from a central building (and was the original design for the nearby Disciplinary Barracks before it was torn down and replaced by a totally new prison).[6]
St. Louis, Missouri architect firm of Eames and Young designed both Leavenworth and the United States Penitentiary, Atlanta[7].
Leavenworth's prison cells are back to back in the middle of the structure facing the walls. The prison's walls are 30 feet high and 3,030 feet long and enclose22.8 acres (0.092 km2; 0.0356 sq mi).
Its domed main building was nicknamed the "Big Top" or "Big House."[8] The domed Disciplinary Barracks two miles to the north was nicknamed the "Little Top" until it was torn down in 2004 and replaced with a newer structure.
The large central structure created various maintenance problems. It was nicknamed the "Hot House" because of its poor ventilation even when air conditioning is running.[9]
The next generation was characterized by the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary built in 1931 which started a move away from a huge central castle like structure. Cell blocks are arranged in a "telephone pole" format extending out from the central building. This eliminated the mixing of prisoners of all types in the same building.[10]
Modern federal prisons such as ADX Florence have gone to smaller buildings spread out over a compound and depend more upon electronic surveilance.[11]
Historical timeline
- 1827 - Colonel Henry Leavenworth chose site for new fort.
- 1875 - Fort chosen as the site for a military prison. Within a year, Fort Leavenworth housed more than 300 prisoners in a remodeled, supply-depot building.
- 1894 - Secretary of War conceded to the House Appropriations Committee that War Department could do without the military prison.
- 1895 - July 1 - Congress transferred the military prison from the War Department to the US Department of Justice. The Department of Justice took over the plant and inaugurated the United States Penitentiary. Commandant of the military prison, James V. Pope. Warden of the USP, James W. French.
- 1896 - House Judiciary Committee recommended that the facility be replaced.
- 1896 - June 10 - the Congress authorized a new federal penitentiary.
- 1897 - March - Warden French marched prisoners every morning two and one-half miles (4 km) from Ft. Leavenworth to the new site of the federal penitentiary. Work went on for two and one-half decades.
- 1899 - July 1 - Robert W. McClaughry was appointed Leavenworth's 2nd Warden.
- 1901 - November 10 - Joseph Waldrupe was the first correctional officer to be killed (records dating back to 1901) in the line of duty at Leavenworth.
- 1903 - Enough space was under roof to permit the first 418 prisoners to move into the new federal penitentiary.
- 1904 - First Cell house completed
- 1906 - February 1 - All prisoners had been transferred to the new facility, and the War Department appreciatively accepted the return of its prison.
- 1910 - May - The Attorney General approved construction of a separate cellblock for females on the penitentiary grounds - this plan was later abandoned.
- 1913 - June - T. W. Morgan, editor of a newspaper in the small Kansas town of Ottawa, was appointed Leavenworth's 3rd Warden.
- 1919 - Construction of the cellblocks completed.
- 1926 - Construction of the shoe shops completed.
- 1928 - Construction of the brush and broom factory completed.
- 1929 - Construction of the barber shop and first interprison murder.
- 1930 - May - the Bureau of Prisons became a federal agency within the Department of Justice.
- 1930 - September 5 - Carl Panzram becomes the first to be executed (records dating back to 1927) by hanging at Leavenworth.
- 1934 - December 11 - President Franklin Roosevelt authorized the first federal prison industries as a public corporation.
- 1938 - August 12 - Robert Suhay and Glenn Applegate the first double execution (records dating back to 1927) by hanging at Leavenworth.
- 2005 - Federal Bureau of Prisons changes USP Leavenworth's mission. The BOP decided to change the custody level of USP Leavenworth from High / Maximum to Medium while retaining the USP designation for historical reasons.
Notable prisoners
- Samuel R. Caldwell- First man in America to be arrested for selling marijuana
- "Boss" Tom Pendergast, political boss of Kansas City who handpicked Harry Truman for the U.S. Senate
- George "Bugs" Moran, Irish gangster who battled Al Capone for the control of Chicago's criminal underworld
- Lawrence "Larry" Bilello, NYPD officer convicted of murdering a fellow police officer and Lucchese crime family mob associate
- Jimmy Burke who was sent to the prison for the first time at the age of eighteen in 1949 and once again in 1972 for extortion
- James J. Bulger, Irish-American gangster sent to Leavenworth for hijacking and bank robbing. He was shipped to Leavenworth out of Alcatraz.
- Fritz Joubert Duquesne - Nazi spy and leader of the Duquesne Spy Ring, the largest convicted espionage case in United States history.
- Victor Feguer - last federal fugitive executed before Timothy McVeigh
- Gus Hall - former leader of the Communist Party USA, indicted under the Smith Act
- Thomas James Holden - murderer and escapee, FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive #1, 1950
- Orba Elmer Jackson - escapee and post office robber, FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive #7, 1950
- George "Machine Gun" Kelly - Depression era gangster.
- Randy Lanier - 1986 Indy 500 rookie of the year.
- Felix Mitchell - notorious drug kingpin from Oakland, California. Stabbed to death in 1986, just months into his prison term
- Byron "Bam" Morris - former NFL player, played in Super Bowl XXX
- Richard Case Nagell - the so-called "Man Who Knew Too Much"
- Carl Panzram - serial killer
- John Paul, Sr. - racecar driver, released in 1999
- Leonard Peltier - American Indian Movement leader, convicted of murdering two FBI agents, FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive #335, 1975
- Leslie Isben Rogge - Bank robber, FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive #430, 1990
- Robert Stroud - became famous as the "Bird Man of Alcatraz"
- Thomas Silverstein - Regarded as one of the prison Bureau's most dangerous prisoners; was held in Leavenworth's basement in a "No Human Contact" Status
- Michael Vick - NFL quarterback formerly with the Atlanta Falcons, pleaded guilty to operating an unlawful six-year-long interstate dog fighting venture known as "Bad Newz Kennels".[12]
- Frankie Cavanaugh - Irish-American gangster sent to Leavenworth for a 20 year sentence for murder. Released in 2007
- Ricardo Flores Magón - Mexican anarcho-syndicalist intellectual who was in the US during the Mexican Revolution. He became equally at odds with US authorities and eventually died in Leavenworth in 1922, probably dying from long-standing health impairments.
- Frederick Cook - Famous explorer whose claims to be the first to reach the summit of Mt. McKinley and the North Pole turned out to be fraudulent. In 1922, plead guilty to mail fraud and imprisoned until 1930.
- Antonio Fernandez aka King Tone - Current Inca of the Latin Kings (gang).
- Brandon Morris- murderer of Maryland Correctional Officer Jeffery Wroten.
- Charles B. Younger Jr. - Bank Robber
References
- ^ Prison Info - Leavenworth Convention and Visitors Bureau - lvarea.com - Retrieved September 1, 2009
- ^ Weekly Prison Populations - bop.gov - Retrieved September 9, 2009
- ^ Encyclopedia of crime and punishment, Volume 2 By David Levinson Sage Publications, Inc; 1 edition (March 18, 2002) ISBN 076192258X
- ^ McNeil Island and the Federal Penitentiary, 1841-1981 - historylink.org - Retrieved October 1, 2009
- ^ The U.S. Federal Prison System by Mary F. (Francesca) Bosworth - Sage Publications, Inc; 1st edition (July 15, 2002) ISBN 0761923047
- ^ The U.S. Federal Prison System by Mary F. (Francesca) Bosworth - Sage Publications, Inc; 1st edition (July 15, 2002) ISBN 0761923047
- ^ Thomas Crane Young, FAIA (1858-1934) - landmarks-stl.org - Retrieved July 25, 2009
- ^ Leavenworth Train: A Fugitive's Search for Justice in the Vanishing West - joejacksonbooks.com - Retrieved July 25, 2009
- ^ Leavenworth Train: A Fugitive's Search for Justice in the Vanishing West - joejacksonbooks.com - Retrieved July 25, 2009
- ^ The U.S. Federal Prison System by Mary F. (Francesca) Bosworth - Sage Publications, Inc; 1st edition (July 15, 2002) ISBN 0761923047
- ^ The U.S. Federal Prison System by Mary F. (Francesca) Bosworth - Sage Publications, Inc; 1st edition (July 15, 2002) ISBN 0761923047
- ^ Vick enters drug treatment program at Kansas prison
External links
- United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth Information from Leavenworth Area Development
Coordinates: 39°19′51″N 94°56′09″W / 39.33083°N 94.93583°W
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