United States Disciplinary Barracks Explained

Prison Name:United States Disciplinary Barracks (USDB)
Pushpin Map:USA Kansas
Pushpin Map Caption:Location in Kansas
Location:Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, U.S.
Status:Operational
Classification:Minimum-maximum security, Level III (Maximum Security)
Capacity:515
Population:440
Opened:1874, rebuilt in 2002
Managed By:United States Army Corrections Command
Director:Commandant: Colonel Kevin Payne

The United States Disciplinary Barracks (USDB), colloquially known as Leavenworth, is a military correctional facility[1] located on Fort Leavenworth, a United States Army post in Kansas. It is one of two major prisons built on Fort Leavenworth property, the other is the military Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility, which opened on 5 October 2010. Together the facilities make up the Military Corrections Complex which is under the command of its commandant, who holds the rank of colonel, and serves as both the Army Corrections Brigade Commander and Deputy commander of The United States Army Corrections Command

The USDB is the U.S. military's only maximum-security facility that houses male service members convicted at court-martial for violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Only male service members with sentences over ten years are confined to the USDB. Those with sentences under ten years are confined in smaller facilities, such as the nearby Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility or the Naval Consolidated Brig at Chesapeake, Virginia. Corrections personnel at the facility are Army Corrections Specialists (MOS 31E) trained at the U.S. Army Military Police school located at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, as well as Marine and Air Force corrections personnel.

Female prisoners from all branches of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) are typically incarcerated in the Naval Consolidated Brig, Miramar instead of the USDB.[2]

First facility

Originally known as the United States Military Prison, the USDB was established by Act of Congress in 1874. Prisoners were used for the bulk of the construction, which began in 1875 and was completed in 1921. The facility was able to house up to 1,500 prisoners. From 1895 until 1903, prisoners from the USDB were used to construct the nearby United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth.[3]

The original USDB followed the Pennsylvania plan modeling on a layout of the Eastern State Penitentiary where cell blocks radiated out from a central structure. Individual cells were relatively isolated. In contrast, the civilian prison, modeled on the Auburn Correctional Facility in New York, reflected a newer concept where prisoners were housed in a large rectangular building where there was a certain amount of communal living.[4] The site covered with walls from 16to high.[5]

The original USDB was Fort Leavenworth's biggest and tallest building sited at the corner of McPherson Avenue and Scott Avenue on bluffs above the Missouri River . The old domed building was nicknamed "Little Top" in contrast to the domed federal prison south which was nicknamed the "Big Top".[6]

During World War I, two brothers named Joseph and Michael Hofer, died at Fort Leavenworth in 1918 after refusing to enlist or wear uniforms after they were drafted under the Selective Service Act of 1917. The pair of conscientious objectors, who were Christian Hutterites, were held in solitary confinement, beaten, and starved to death.[7]

In 1988 the prison had 1,450 prisoners, including 21 women. This included 42 officers, the highest ranking being a lieutenant colonel.[8] By 2014, all female prisoners have been moved to NAVCONBRIG Miramar.[2] In August 1988, an inmate named David Newman escaped after hiding in Pope Hall while on Wood Shop detail. He assembled a ladder, kicked out a window and climbed over the wall between Towers 3 and 4. He was captured four days later in Kansas City. Following the escape, bars were placed on the windows of all buildings within the complex and interior chain link with razor wire top guard was placed between the buildings and the exterior stone walls.[9] Shortly before the detention barracks closed more than 300 inmates refused lockdown on 12 May 1995. The uprising was put down by 150 correction officers.

In 2002, Gail Dillon of Airman magazine wrote of the old detention barracks:

A visitor would immediately notice the medieval ambiance of this institution – the well-worn native stone and brick walls constructed by long-forgotten inmates when 'hard labor' meant exactly that – have witnessed thousands of inmates' prayers, curses, and pleas over the past 128 years" and that entering the facility was "like stepping back in time or suddenly being part of a kitschy movie set about a prison bust.[10]

In the late 1990s, work began on a new purpose-built military detention center on the site of the former USDB Farm Colony. The largest buildings of the original barracks ("The Castle") were torn down in 2004. The walls and ten of the buildings in the original location—including Pope Hall—have been converted or are in the process of being converted to other uses at Fort Leavenworth. The prison's original commandant's house still remains.[11]

Current facility

The new state-of-the-art, 515-bed, disciplinary barrack, which cost $67.8 million ($ million in dollars), became operational in September 2002. It was built about a mile north of the original USDB at Fort Leavenworth. The new 51acres site is enclosed by two separate 14feet high fences. There are three housing units, each of which can accommodate up to 142 prisoners. The units, described as "bow ties", are two-tiered, connected triangular shaped domiciles.[12] The cells in the new facility have solid doors and a window. There are no bars. The new facility is said to be much quieter than the old one and is preferred by inmates.[13] Colonel Colleen L. McGuire, the first female commandant of the USDB, said in 2002 that the new facility is "much more efficient in design and layout – much brighter and lighter."[14]

In 2009, the Barracks, along with the Standish Maximum Correctional Facility in Michigan, were being considered for relocation of 220 prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Kansas officials, including both U.S. Senators, objected to the transfer; Pat Roberts stated that the transfer would require 2,000 privately owned acres around the fort to be acquired through the use of eminent domain to establish a stand-off zone because the prison is on the perimeter of the fort.[15]

The new prison reflects current prison design of smaller low-rise separate buildings where prisoners can be more easily isolated from the general population.[4] In 2012 the facility received a 100% rating and the accolades from an assessment team from the American Correctional Association (ACA) (who have been auditing the sites since 1988). Three independent evaluators visited the prison facilities to check on more than 500 standards, including mental health services, safety issues, and other aspects of the facility related to humane treatment of inmates. The USDB received a top rating in all of the standards despite having a portion of its staffing deployed to Iraq. The facility has maintained this rating and score on each of its subsequent triennial inspections. [16]

The USDB is staffed by both "green-suiters," Service Members assigned to the 15th Military Police Brigade as well as DoD liaisons from each branch, and DA Civilians. Many soldiers have a designated Military Occupational Specialty 31E, corrections specialists, while treatment and support staff range from food services to occupational therapists and chaplains. The unit is designated a Direct Reporting Unit under Army Corrections Command, which was activated in Washington, D.C. in 2007 under the Provost Marshal General.[17]

In August 2010, two inmates overpowered an MP guard in the Special Housing Unit. They then were joined by 11 others. The guard was freed by a special tactics unit which retook control of the Special Housing Unit. Several inmates and one rescuer sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the incident. This was the first such incident in the new prison.[18]

Cemetery

See main article: Fort Leavenworth Military Prison Cemetery. Deceased prisoners who are not claimed by their family members are buried near the original USDB. There are 300 graves dating from approximately 1894 to 1957, 56 of which are unmarked and 14 that belong to German prisoners of war executed for the murder of fellow POWs. The executions were carried out in 1945, in three groups: five on 10 July, two on 14 July, and seven on 25 August.[19] The most recent internment in the cemetery was in May of 2023.

Capital punishment

See also: Capital punishment by the United States military. The USDB houses the U.S. military’s death row inmates who have been convicted of one or more capital offenses under the UCMJ and sentenced to death by a court-martial. All four death row inmates currently awaiting execution are former U.S. military personnel convicted of murder; however, enemy combatants who are currently being tried before a military commission at Guantanamo Bay would be transferred to USDB for execution if they are convicted and sentenced to death.[20]

Since 1945, there have been 21 executions at the USDB, including 14 German prisoners of war executed in 1945 for murder.[21] The last execution by the U.S. military was the hanging of Army PFC John A. Bennett, on 13 April 1961, for the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl.[22] Bennett's execution took place four years after it was approved by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and then his successor President John F. Kennedy. Bennett applied to Kennedy for a stay of execution after an appeal to him from the Austrian victim and her parents for Bennett. This was promptly denied by the White House.[23]

All executions at the USDB thus far have been by hanging, but lethal injection has been specified as the military's current mode of execution., there are four inmates on death row at the USDB, the most recent addition being Nidal Hasan.

The execution of Army private Ronald A. Gray, who has been on military death row since 1988, was approved by President George W. Bush on 28 July 2008. Gray was convicted of the rape, two murders and an attempted murder of three persons, two of them Army soldiers and the third a civilian taxi driver whose body was found on the post at Fort Cavazos (then Fort Hood).[24] On 26 November 2008, a federal judge granted Gray a stay of execution to allow time for further appeals.[25]

All 21 executions in the history of the USDB took place at the old facility. When the new facility was constructed, though the federal death penalty moratorium had been in effect since 1972 meaning the sentence had not been carried out, there were still individuals sentenced and convictions being handed out that carried a possibility for the punishment. The new facility was constructed with a death chamber; however, pursuant to the reinstatement of capital punishment at the federal level, all federal executions take place at Federal Correctional Institution, Terre Haute.

Within the prison, death row is located in an isolated corridor away from other inmates.[26] There are currently four men assigned to this area of the prison and four others formerly assigned, who were granted clemency by the President of the United States residing in general population.

Notable inmates

Current

Death row

Non-death row

Former

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: U.S.D.B Home - 15 December 2013 . 15 December 2013 . 27 August 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150827121256/http://usdb.leavenworth.army.mil/main.htm . dead .
  2. Web site: Powers . Rod . Inside a Military Prison . . 27 January 2014 . Additionally, all female prisoners within DOD serve their time at NAVCONBRIG Miramar to better facilitate the rehabilitative process. . 23 April 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160423093415/http://usmilitary.about.com/od/justicelawlegislation/a/navprison.htm . dead .
  3. Named for Henry Leavenworth
  4. https://archive.org/details/usfederalprisons0000bosw/page/32 The U.S. Federal Prison System
  5. Saga of Fort Leavenworth Castle, Donald Jay Olsen, page 10.
  6. Web site: Hewes . Carolyn . Theodore C. Link, FAIA (1850–1923). Landmarks Association of St. Louis Inc. . 2020-02-24.
  7. Book: Hostetler, John Andrew. The Hutterites in North America. Brooks/Cole. 2002.
  8. "Ft. Leavenworth's Military Inmates Get Grim Home Where Discipline Is Order of Day." Los Angeles Times. 4 December 1988. Retrieved on 10 July 2016.
  9. Web site: The Vanguard: A Publication of the Army Corrections Command. 17 June 2009. 4.
  10. Dillon, Gail (2002–10). "Crime and punishment: inside Fort Leavenworth's historic U.S. Disciplinary Barracks." Airman, November 2002. 1. Retrieved on 2010-03-06 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IBP/is_11_46/ai_94206954/.
  11. http://www.ftleavenworthlamp.com/articles/2009/07/10/features/features2.txt ACT_moves to new digs in old USDB – Fort Leavenworth Lamp – 9 July 2009
  12. http://www.tpub.com/content/armymilitarypolice/MP1025/MP10250048.htm Title: Part C – The United States Disciplinary Barracks
  13. Web site: CJONLINE.com Article on the USDB . 3 February 2010 . 6 June 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110606091221/http://cjonline.com/stories/111702/kan_prison.shtml . dead .
  14. Dillon, Gail. "Crime and punishment: inside Fort Leavenwoth's historic U.S. Disciplinary Barracks." Airman. November 2002. 2. Retrieved on 6 March 2010.
  15. http://www.kansascity.com/618/story/1371978.html Gitmo detainees should not come to Leavenworth – Pat Roberts – Kansas City Star – 8 August 2009
  16. Fort Leavenworth Lamp newspaper article "JCRF, USDB attain 100 percent scores for accreditations" 15 March 2012 http://www.army.mil/article/75838/JRCF__USDB_attain_100_percent_scores_for_accreditations/
  17. Web site: Archived copy . www.aca.org . 17 January 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20131017084302/http://www.aca.org/fileupload/177/ahaidar/Miller.pdf . 17 October 2013 . dead.
  18. Web site: Military Daily News. www.military.com . https://web.archive.org/web/20110715230100/http://www.military.com/news/article/mutinied-leavenworth-inmates-face-more-time.html . 15 July 2011.
  19. http://www.interment.net/data/us/ks/leavenworth/ftleav_prison/ Fort Leavenworth Military Prison Cemetery
  20. Web site: Military Death Row . Death Penalty Information Center . 15 December 2021 . The military also has jurisdiction over military commissions, which are tribunals convened to try people accused of unlawful conduct associated with war, such as those established in Guantánamo Bay after the September 11, 2001 attacks. No one has been sentenced to death under these commissions. .
  21. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=32&did=988 List of U.S. Military Executions
  22. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19610414&id=Xz8yAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pOUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6770,906311 Soldier dies on the gallows for attack on small child
  23. Web site: Archives. Los Angeles Times. 12 July 1994 .
  24. News: Execution by Military Is Approved by President (Published 2008) . The New York Times . 29 July 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230607132901/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/us/29execute.html . 2023-06-07 . live . Myers . Steven Lee .
  25. http://www.salem-news.com/articles/december022008/gray_lives_longer_12-2-08.php First Military Execution in 50 Years Delayed
  26. Goldman, Russell. "Fort Hood Shooter Could Join 5 Others on Death Row." ABC News. 13 November 2009. 1. Retrieved on 21 October 2010.
  27. News: Washington Post . Army Soldier Is Convicted in Attack on Fellow Troops. 9 July 2017 . 22 April 2005 .
  28. News: Hasan arrives at U.S. Disciplinary Barracks . November 19, 2020 . . August 30, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190507050025/https://www.wtvm.com/story/23302455/hasan-arrives-at-us-disciplinary-barracks/ . May 7, 2019. live.
  29. Schmidle . Nicholas . Three Trials for Murder . November 15, 2020 . . November 7, 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201108125520/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/11/14/three-trials-for-murder . November 8, 2020. live.
  30. News: UPI . Soldier sentenced to death for killing two cab drivers. 9 July 2017 . 4 April 1989.
  31. News: 9 July 2017 . 17 January 2017 . Obama Commutes Chelsea Manning's Prison Sentence for Leak . Bloomberg Politics . Justin . Sink . Shannon . Pettypiece.
  32. http://www.leavenworthtimes.com/article/20130828/NEWS/130829302 "Bales arrives at USDB"
  33. Web site: Former US soldier guilty of rape found hanged . 2022-03-13 . www.aljazeera.com . en.
  34. Web site: Soldier sentenced to life without parole for killing 5 at combat stress clinic in Iraq . 2022-03-13 . NBC News . 17 May 2013 . en.
  35. News: Yardley . William . 2011-11-10 . Soldier Is Convicted of Killing Afghan Civilians for Sport . en-US . The New York Times . 2023-09-30 . 0362-4331.
  36. News: 2011-03-24 . Murder in Afghanistan: Court Sentences 'Kill Team' Soldier to 24 Years in Prison . en . Der Spiegel . 2023-09-30 . 2195-1349.
  37. News: 2011-11-19 . Army sergeant gets five years in Afghan misconduct probe . en . Reuters . 2023-09-30.
  38. News: 2011-09-24 . U.S. soldier gets 7 years in prison for Afghan murder . en . Reuters . 2023-09-30.
  39. Web site: 'Kill Team' Soldier Gets Three Years in Prison . 2023-09-30 . ABC News . en.
  40. Web site: Trump pardons ex-Army lieutenant convicted of killing suspected Al Qaeda terrorist in 2009. 6 May 2019. Foxnews.com.
  41. Web site: The Long Tan Myth . Strategypage.com . 2020-02-24.
  42. Book: The Army Lawyer. 13. Judge Advocate General's School.
  43. CNN Wire Staff. "Notorious Abu Ghraib guard released from prison." CNN. 6 August 2011. Retrieved on 6 August 2011.
  44. News: Army first lieutenant found guilty of murder, other charges for actions in Afghanistan. writer. John Ramsey Staff. The Fayetteville Observer. 2018-02-09. en. 4 July 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200704161513/https://www.fayobserver.com/5348ca10-d022-59c5-91a5-3259b6dedddb.html. dead.
  45. Web site: Conviction stands for LT convicted in Afghan slayings. 5 January 2015.
  46. Web site: Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance released from Leavenworth prison after Trump grants clemency. 16 November 2019. Foxnews.com.
  47. News: Londoño. Ernesto. Convicted leaker Bradley Manning changes legal name to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning. The Washington Post. 2014-04-27.
  48. News: Savage, Charlie. Chelsea Manning Describes Bleak Life in a Men's Prison. The New York Times. 2017-01-13. 2018-04-28.
  49. News: Savage. Charlie. Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning's Sentence. The New York Times. 17 January 2017 . 17 January 2017.
  50. Web site: Chelsea Manning: Wikileaks source celebrates 'first steps of freedom'. 17 May 2017. bbc.com. BBC. 28 April 2018 .
  51. Web site: US Army Nat'l Guardsman gets parole after being sentenced to life for murder. 12 April 2019. Hinneburg, Cheryl. American Military News.
  52. Book: Wells, Jonathan . The Disrespectful Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design . August 2006 . . 978-1-59698-013-6 .