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Sometimes, things can get confused in translation. Thank you for the heads up. I have to tell you the new prison is quite striking. They have huge security. Understandable. It looks like a huge college campus. You can go deer hunting and um shoot a shot right over the fence into the prison perimeter.

From my observations, going the USDB (original) was considered hard time. The environment was difficult. As you mentioned the living conditions. The idea that you did not have A/C must have been miserable. I am sure the mess was inside the Castle. I bet the buildings around the Castle that an inmate was aloud to go to would be coveted hugely.

Were the inmates escorted to the medical building? I am trying to figure out the layout as I said there was a sports field behind the building but looking at photo's you also had one directly next to the Castle.

Currently, the inmates wear 3 different color's signifying their status at the prison. I will have to pursue that in the next week of what color meant what but I suppose it was method to make the system run more smoothly.

How many inmates were there to a cell? Were the tiers divided for a purpose or were they all equal. I cannot imagine the lack of privacy, not even my time in the military would come close, let alone my college experience.

You mentioned trustees, I must confess I watched a bit more TV than I care to admit. It seems like anyone can be a trustee, if their trust worthy? I wonder, as I took photo's of other places on Post, what were the images that you could see from your windows? Did you have windows? From one direction are miles and miles of land and from another the river.

Thank you, I appreciate any and all corrections. I have done some reading on McDonald, now I wonder, why was he not sent to a military prison? It seems that he did the crime while on A/D? Just one of those questions that gnaws at me. I also feel he has ligit issues of his forensics. As a matter of fact, or little known fact, the home he lived in, was left the way it was for decades. It was a training tool for the military and their military police. Frankly who would have wanted to live there, so it was a good choice I am sure.

As I think about it, the color of the uniforms are the color of the badges you wore, things change and they remain the same.

I will to my best to get access to that building and will report back. BTW, as with the federal prison's, the warden lives on the grounds, with trustee's. Oddly enough next to the Big House, are these charming little bungalows that I bet are the quarters for the folks that work at the Federal Pen.

Really has nothing to do with this, but, an interesting observations. Also that the design of both are so similar.

Your observations are correct. The DB was no place to be and you knew that you were at the end of the line when you got there. The photos don't do the castle justice. It was huge, ominous, physically imposing on the outside and even more so on the inside.

Once inside you were in the rotunda with a small building square in the middle known as master control. The was no painting at the top of the rotunda like the Sistine chapel. Off of the rotunda were the "wings" which were the cell blocks. The cell blocks were stacked 6 tiers high and fenced off at the front,back and sides from 4 tier up. There were 2 floors underground the castle as well. That is where the "hole" among other things was located. The lowest tier was known as 1 tier, then above it 2 tier. You could not get from 1 and 2 tier into the main wing off the rotunda. The main or first floor in the wing was actually 3 tier. There was a guard cage inside the wing upon entering that the guards were locked inside of and they controlled all the cells from this cage. The next tier up was then 4,5,6,7, and finally 8 tier. The wing was made in a rectangle and there were identical cells on each side except one side on 3 tier had showers instead of cells for half of the length of the cell block. Stairs in the front on both sides led up to the higher tiers.

We lived in single man cells. Once you were awarded custody you were allowed to live with other people. 6 wing was known as "minimum inside-only" which meant that they lived in 2 man cells inside the walls but couldn't work outside the walls. Minimum buildings and LPU (outside the walls) lived in rooms or squad bays.

If you were to progress thru the custody ranks from highest to lowest, you would first be maximum custody, locked in your cell 23 hours day. Then medium custody, eligible to work and move about the wing but locked down at night and during all counts. Then MIO, lived in unlocked cells inside the castle. Then Minimum custody, live inside the walls but outside the castle and can work outside the walls, then trustee unit which is outside the walls.

Not everyone progressed through every single custody grade. When my sentence was reduced, I went from medium custody to minimum custody and then home. Some guys with only 5 year sentence would be awarded minimum custody as soon as they arrived. It depended on each inmate, crime, sentence, etc.

From 7 wing, I could see a small airfield and the banks of the river. There were no windows in the cells but windows in the wing you could see outside of from your cell. During the flood of 93-94? I was in minimum custody and worked on outside work crew filling sandbags! That was a serious flood. We filled millions of sandbags trying to stop the river.

In regard to Jeffrey McDonald, I think that for whatever reason, he was tried by a federal court and not by court-martial. That is why he has always been a federal prisoner. I think that covered your questions, sorry if I missed any