United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth

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The United States Penitentiary (USP), Leavenworth is located in Leavenworth, Kansas on 1,583 acres (6.4 km²) with 22.8 acres (92,000 m²) inside the penitentiary walls. The USP Leavenworth came into existence through an act of Congress in 1895. It is an all-male, high-security facility committed to carrying out the judgments of the Federal Courts.

USP Leavenworth is frequently confused with the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, the maximum-security, penal facility of the United States Military. In fact the two facilities are unrelated institutions.

Popularly called the 'Hot House' because the facility was notoriously hot year-round, no matter the weather and/or A/C units running.

Leavenworth is currently being switched from a USP to a medium-level facility. All USP prisoners are now being incarcerated in the new USP facilities such as the one in Coleman, Florida - USP Coleman.

Rated Capacity 1197
Population 1641 (as of 9 May 2002)
Security Level HIGH
Custody Level IN and MAXIMUM
Judicial District District of Kansas

Contents

[edit] 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 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.

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.

[edit] Notable Prisoners

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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