by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Very early this morning there was some snark floating around Twitter as to where the Trump presidential library should be built. (I suggested someplace south of Texas.). One clever Tweeter opined that he thought Leavenworth might be an appropriate spot. That remark stirred memories regarding my own time in Leavenworth.
That's right. Cagey old Pa Rock did time in Leavenworth from January through November of 2005. I was a civilian social worker at Ft. Leavenworth, an active duty U.S. Army base - my first job as a civilian with the military. I was, even at that time, too old to work in the actual military prison which is located on the base - they wanted social workers young and fit enough to run like hell if the need arose - but I worked with base personnel, including many guards and others whose primary duties were inside of the prison.
I lived in an apartment in an old house in the town of Leavenworth, an aging and somewhat idyllic community north and west of Kansas City. Leavenworth is the county seat of Leavenworth County, Kansas.
(One of my favorite memories of that small town experience was driving home late one night with my son and grandson in the car. As we entered the "main drag" of town I saw a couple of city police cars pulled to the side of the road with their lights flashing. I slowed down to rubberneck, but could see no wrecks. Then suddenly two young police officers came running along going the other direction - in pursuit of a loose longhorn steer! It was a pure Barney and Andy moment!)
At that time Leavenworth County was home to four major prisons: the aforementioned U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Ft. Leavenworth, the U.S. Federal Penitentiary at Leavenworth, and the Kansas State Men's and Women's Prisons at Lansing.
And, if that wasn't enough cell space, the county also had its own jail!
When people comment about "Leavenworth" as the Tweeter did this morning, it is generally used as a term referring to a prison complex, but that is inaccurate and represents more of a conglomeration of trivia and stories than it does the actual facts of the matter.
Here is a bit of clarification as to what "Leavenworth" as a correctional center actually entails.
The United States Disciplinary Barracks was built on Ft. Leavenworth in 1874, and its function was (and is) to house serious lawbreakers who also happen to be active duty members of the U.S. Armed Forces. The old prison gradually fell into serious disrepair, and in 2002 - just three years before I arrived - it was replaced by a new and very modern "pod" structure. During my year at Ft. Leavenworth, the military was still in the process of tearing down the old prison. Today the most famous inmate at the USDB is Major Nidal Hassan, the army doctor who killed thirteen soldiers and wounded more than thirty others in a shooting at Ft. Hood, Texas, in 2009. Major (Doctor) Hassan is awaiting execution.)
(Two years later while I was working at my second base - Ft. Campbell, Kentucky - one of my social work clients was sentenced to a prison term at the USDB in Leavenworth. Not too long after he was transported to Kansas, I returned to the area to attend a play that my son had written and was staging at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. While on that outing, I stopped by Ft. Leavenworth to make my first actual trip inside the military prison for a visit with my old client.
I entered the prison main entrance and before I even reached the information desk I heard someone call my name. It was another old client - this one from Ft. Leavenworth who was a guard at the prison - and she quickly walked over and hugged me! After that I saw the client from Ft. Campbell, and he was not as cheerful!)
In 1903 military convicts from the USDB were used as forced labor to build another prison just a couple of miles down the road from Ft. Leavenworth. That became the U.S. Federal Penitentiary at Leavenworth - which was commonly referred to as "Leavenworth." Some of the better known prisoners to inhabit that maximum security facility were Machine Gun Kelly, Kansas City political boss Tom Pendergast, Robert Stroud (the bird man of Alcatraz), political assassin James Earl Ray, Indian activist Leonard Peltier, and mobster Whitey Bolger. Leavenworth was downgraded to a medium security prison in 2005 as newer and more severe lockdowns began coming on line.
The state penitentiaries in Lansing (which is also in Leavenworth County) have apparently been reconfigured since my time in the county, and today they are known as the Lansing Correction Facility (with a men's and a women's department). The "In Cold Blood" killers - Richard Hickock and Perry Smith - spent five years in the Kansas State Men's Prison in Lansing before finally being hanged in a warehouse there in 1965. Truman Capote, the man who immortalized the crime, the victims, and the killers in his famous true-crime novel, was in attendance at their hangings.
And now to add to the prison milieu, there is apparently also a less severe incarceration center on Ft. Leavenworth itself called the "Midwest Joint Regional Facility," though I must admit to having no personal knowledge of that one.
But even with all of the emphasis on crime and punishment, the city and county of Leavenworth was one of the best places that I ever lived. The population was educated and urbane, yet small-town friendly - and my sense is that they would not take kindly to having the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library arbitrarily plopped down into their community.
Housing criminals is one thing, but intentionally glorifying them is quite another.
Perhaps that honor could go to Florida - and it could be built on pontoons!
Citizen Journalist
Very early this morning there was some snark floating around Twitter as to where the Trump presidential library should be built. (I suggested someplace south of Texas.). One clever Tweeter opined that he thought Leavenworth might be an appropriate spot. That remark stirred memories regarding my own time in Leavenworth.
That's right. Cagey old Pa Rock did time in Leavenworth from January through November of 2005. I was a civilian social worker at Ft. Leavenworth, an active duty U.S. Army base - my first job as a civilian with the military. I was, even at that time, too old to work in the actual military prison which is located on the base - they wanted social workers young and fit enough to run like hell if the need arose - but I worked with base personnel, including many guards and others whose primary duties were inside of the prison.
I lived in an apartment in an old house in the town of Leavenworth, an aging and somewhat idyllic community north and west of Kansas City. Leavenworth is the county seat of Leavenworth County, Kansas.
(One of my favorite memories of that small town experience was driving home late one night with my son and grandson in the car. As we entered the "main drag" of town I saw a couple of city police cars pulled to the side of the road with their lights flashing. I slowed down to rubberneck, but could see no wrecks. Then suddenly two young police officers came running along going the other direction - in pursuit of a loose longhorn steer! It was a pure Barney and Andy moment!)
At that time Leavenworth County was home to four major prisons: the aforementioned U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Ft. Leavenworth, the U.S. Federal Penitentiary at Leavenworth, and the Kansas State Men's and Women's Prisons at Lansing.
And, if that wasn't enough cell space, the county also had its own jail!
When people comment about "Leavenworth" as the Tweeter did this morning, it is generally used as a term referring to a prison complex, but that is inaccurate and represents more of a conglomeration of trivia and stories than it does the actual facts of the matter.
Here is a bit of clarification as to what "Leavenworth" as a correctional center actually entails.
The United States Disciplinary Barracks was built on Ft. Leavenworth in 1874, and its function was (and is) to house serious lawbreakers who also happen to be active duty members of the U.S. Armed Forces. The old prison gradually fell into serious disrepair, and in 2002 - just three years before I arrived - it was replaced by a new and very modern "pod" structure. During my year at Ft. Leavenworth, the military was still in the process of tearing down the old prison. Today the most famous inmate at the USDB is Major Nidal Hassan, the army doctor who killed thirteen soldiers and wounded more than thirty others in a shooting at Ft. Hood, Texas, in 2009. Major (Doctor) Hassan is awaiting execution.)
(Two years later while I was working at my second base - Ft. Campbell, Kentucky - one of my social work clients was sentenced to a prison term at the USDB in Leavenworth. Not too long after he was transported to Kansas, I returned to the area to attend a play that my son had written and was staging at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. While on that outing, I stopped by Ft. Leavenworth to make my first actual trip inside the military prison for a visit with my old client.
I entered the prison main entrance and before I even reached the information desk I heard someone call my name. It was another old client - this one from Ft. Leavenworth who was a guard at the prison - and she quickly walked over and hugged me! After that I saw the client from Ft. Campbell, and he was not as cheerful!)
In 1903 military convicts from the USDB were used as forced labor to build another prison just a couple of miles down the road from Ft. Leavenworth. That became the U.S. Federal Penitentiary at Leavenworth - which was commonly referred to as "Leavenworth." Some of the better known prisoners to inhabit that maximum security facility were Machine Gun Kelly, Kansas City political boss Tom Pendergast, Robert Stroud (the bird man of Alcatraz), political assassin James Earl Ray, Indian activist Leonard Peltier, and mobster Whitey Bolger. Leavenworth was downgraded to a medium security prison in 2005 as newer and more severe lockdowns began coming on line.
The state penitentiaries in Lansing (which is also in Leavenworth County) have apparently been reconfigured since my time in the county, and today they are known as the Lansing Correction Facility (with a men's and a women's department). The "In Cold Blood" killers - Richard Hickock and Perry Smith - spent five years in the Kansas State Men's Prison in Lansing before finally being hanged in a warehouse there in 1965. Truman Capote, the man who immortalized the crime, the victims, and the killers in his famous true-crime novel, was in attendance at their hangings.
And now to add to the prison milieu, there is apparently also a less severe incarceration center on Ft. Leavenworth itself called the "Midwest Joint Regional Facility," though I must admit to having no personal knowledge of that one.
But even with all of the emphasis on crime and punishment, the city and county of Leavenworth was one of the best places that I ever lived. The population was educated and urbane, yet small-town friendly - and my sense is that they would not take kindly to having the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library arbitrarily plopped down into their community.
Housing criminals is one thing, but intentionally glorifying them is quite another.
Perhaps that honor could go to Florida - and it could be built on pontoons!
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