Are you starting to feel a sense of optimism, yet?
This afternoon, I drove up to the Castle warmly called by inmates who were sent to Ft Leavenworth to fulfill their sentences. It is now slowly an empty shell. They have been demolishing it for about a year and frankly it was a building to be seen. I stopped to take some photo's and was greeted by the contractor tasked to bring down the old prison. He said I could so I will return tomorrow and get as many interesting shot's as I can most has been demolished but there are still the guard pillars and the front.
The gentleman said it was a building with a lot of history but a bit dangerous in recent years, sheet rock falling on the prisoners. Awwwwwe damn. That prison was built rock (and I mean ROCK by ROCK) by rock by the inmates when it was still considered vogue to sentence someone to harsh labor while incarcerated.
The new prison, well it looks like a huge college campus. Nice facility from the outside. Excellent out door equipment and I believe their hard labor is now making license plates and the shadow boxes for the boxes we put our loved one's flag in.
I will try and get photo's of that new prison. Then of course the big house where actually some of the most violent military prisoner's are housed. If anyone would be interested in the photo's or that I should post them let me know?
One of the more memorable men serving LIFE,Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald . He was accused of killing his entire family at Bragg. He has always claimed his innocence. He finally remarried and asked the prison system to be moved closer to his new wife, they obliged. Go figure. He evidently has considered parole, that would mean admitting to the crime, but would let him out .. tick tock wonder what he will do.
This was an initial reply to SmithL but I added a few other names who I thought might be interested in this comment.
Dedicated to Providing History and Updates on Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald and the MacDonald Case
History of the USP 1896 - 2002 -
Significant Milestones at Ft. Leavenworth/USP
1827 - Colonel Henry Leavenworth chose site for new fort.
1875 - Fort chosen as the site for a military prison. Within a year, Ft. 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 - Congress transferred the military prison from the War Department to the Department of Justice. (July 1)
1895 - July 1 - 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 - Spring (March) - Warden French marched prisoners every morning two and one-half miles 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 - 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.
1930 - May - the Bureau of Prison's 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.