United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth

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United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth
Leavenworth-prison.jpg
Prison from the southwest
United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth
Location Leavenworth, Kansas
Coordinates 39°19′48″N94°56′11″W / 39.33000°N 94.93639°W / 39.33000; -94.93639 [1]
StatusOperational
Security classMedium-security (with minimum-security satellite camp)
Population1,942 [1,622 at the USP, 321 in prison camp] (official BOP website)
Opened1903
Managed by Federal Bureau of Prisons
Warden Donald Hudson

The United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth (USP Leavenworth) [2] is a medium security U.S. penitentiary in northeast Kansas. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. It also includes a satellite federal prison camp (FPC) for minimum-security male offenders.

Contents

USP Leavenworth is located in Leavenworth, Kansas, which is 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Kansas City, Kansas. [3]

Background

USP Leavenworth, a civilian facility, is the oldest of three major prisons built on federal land in Leavenworth County, Kansas. It is separate from, but often confused with, the United States Disciplinary Barracks (USDB), a military facility located on the adjacent Fort Leavenworth army post. Located 4 miles (6.4 km) north of the USP, the USDB is the sole maximum-security penal facility for the entire United States Military. [4] Prisoners from the original USDB were used to build the civilian penitentiary. In addition, the military's medium-security Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility (JRCF), located southwest of the new USDB, opened in 2010. The USDB and JRCF operate independently from USP Leavenworth.

The prison was described by Pete Earley, the only writer at that time who had ever been granted unlimited access to the prison, in his book, The Hot House. The prison's history has also been covered in a pictorial history titled U.S. Penitentiary Leavenworth by Kenneth M. LaMaster, the retired Institution Historian and J.H. Johnston III, a prominent member of the Leavenworth community 1933/3/18 - 2007, authored the book; Leavenworth: Beginning to Bicentennial.

USP Leavenworth was the largest maximum-security federal prison in the United States from 1903 until 2005 when it was downgraded to a medium-security facility. [5]

Design

USP Leavenworth was one of three first-generation federal prisons which were built in 1913. Prior to its construction, federal prisoners were held at state prisons. In 1895, Congress authorized the construction of the federal prison system. [6]

The other two were Atlanta and McNeil Island (although McNeil dates to the 1870s the major expansion did not occur until the early 1900s). [7]

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. [8]

The Auburn system was a marked difference from the earlier Pennsylvania plan popularized at 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. [9]

The St. Louis, Missouri architecture firm of Eames and Young designed both Leavenworth and the United States Penitentiary, Atlanta. [10] Leavenworth's prison cells are back to back in the middle of the structure facing the walls. The prison's walls are 40 feet (12 m) high, 40 feet (12 m) below the surface and 3,030 feet (920 m) long and enclose 22.8 acres (92,000 m2). Its domed main building was nicknamed the "Big Top" or "Big House." [11] The domed Disciplinary Barracks two miles (3 km) to the north was nicknamed the "Little Top" until it was torn down in 2004 and replaced with a newer structure.

Historical timeline

Aerial image, 1929 Kansas - Leavenworth - NARA - 23940177 (cropped).jpg
Aerial image, 1929

Notable inmates (current and former)

Famous escapees

Frank Grigware, imprisoned for train robbery, escaped from Leavenworth in 1910 with five other men by smashing through the prison gates with a hijacked supply locomotive. While the others were quickly recaptured, Grigware escaped to Canada. In 1916 he became the mayor of Spirit River, Alberta. He was discovered by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the FBI in 1933, but serious doubts about his original conviction led the U.S. to drop its extradition request in 1934. Grigware never returned to the U.S. and died in Alberta in 1977. [15]

Basil Banghart escaped from Leavenworth three times. He escaped federal custody a fourth time while awaiting return to Leavenworth. [ citation needed ]

On December 11, 1931, seven inmates took Warden Thomas B. White hostage and escaped, aided by the well-known gangsters Frank Nash, George "Machine Gun" Kelly, and Thomas James Holden. [16]

Executions

On September 5, 1930, serial killer Carl Panzram, under a federal death sentence for murder, was hanged at USP Leavenworth. On August 12, 1938, two men under the sentence of death for murder, Robert Suhay and Glenn Applegate, were hanged at USP Leavenworth. [17]

Cemetery

The penitentiary maintains a cemetery for deceased prisoners outside the walls of the prison. [18]

See also

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References

  1. "United States Penitentiary Leavenworth Kansas". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. "USP Leavenworth".
  3. Federal Bureau of Prisons. "USP Leavenworth". Bop.gov. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
  4. "Welcome to the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks". USDB. Retrieved December 24, 2013.
  5. "Prison Info - Leavenworth Convention and Visitors Bureau - lvarea.com - Retrieved September 1, 2009". lvarea.com. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
  6. Encyclopedia of crime and punishment, Volume 2 By David Levinson Sage Publications, Inc; 1 edition (March 18, 2002) ISBN   0-7619-2258-X.
  7. McNeil Island and the Federal Penitentiary, 1841-1981 - historylink.org - Retrieved October 1, 2009.
  8. The U.S. Federal Prison System by Mary F. (Francesca) Bosworth - Sage Publications, Inc; 1st edition (July 15, 2002) ISBN   0-7619-2304-7.
  9. The U.S. Federal Prison System by Mary F. (Francesca) Bosworth - Sage Publications, Inc; 1st edition (July 15, 2002) ISBN   0-7619-2304-7.
  10. Thomas Crane Young, FAIA (1858-1934) - landmarks-stl.org - Retrieved July 25, 2009.
  11. Jackson, Joe (August 28, 2002). Leavenworth Train: A Fugitive's Search for Justice in the Vanishing West. New York, New York: Carroll & Graf. ISBN   978-0786710607 . Retrieved August 22, 2013.
  12. Federal Bureau of Investigation (January 24, 2014). "A Byte Out of History - The Five-Decade Fugitive Chase". fbi.gov.
  13. "Leavenworth (detention facility)". Densho Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 6, 2014.
  14. Erickson, Matt (January 27, 2011). "Prison Bureau seeking public comment on plans for new Leavenworth facility". TonganoxieMirror.com. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
  15. Federal Bureau of Investigation (January 24, 2014). "A Byte Out of History - The Five-Decade Fugitive Chase". fbi.gov.
  16. Leavenworth Seven: The Deadly 1931 Prison Break Author Kenneth M. LaMaster Publisher: Arcadia Publishing 2019
  17. "Executions of Federal Prisoners (since 1927) Archived February 15, 2013, at the Wayback Machine ." Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved on August 22, 2010.
  18. "United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth Cemetery". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.

Further reading