The History of the United States Disciplinary Barracks: Part Two

The USMP was only in the Department of Justice for eleven years. Almost from the day that it took control of the facility the Department of Justice complained that the buildings and grounds were inadequate. Just one year after being run as a penitentiary the president signed a bill setting aside seven hundred acres of land on the south side of Ft Leavenworth for the building of a new penitentiary. As was the case with the existing prison the labor force was made up of the population. Additionally the rock quarries of Ft Leavenworth were once again used as a source of construction material.

On February 1 1906 the USMP was once again under the control of the military. The reactivation of the prison made it possible to relieve the overcrowded guardhouses and stockades and once again return to the system which was abandoned at the time the prison was transferred from the War Department. One more change that had to be made as a result of the transfer back into the hands of the military was that the USMP became overcrowded itself. In an attempt to solve this problem the first branch to the military prison was activated on March 21 1907. The location, Alcatraz Island. It was officially designated "The Pacific Branch of The United States Military Prison." This expansion, however, did not help much. Due to the limited size of the island only commanders in the Departments of California and Columbia were authorized to send general prisoners to there. The Adjutant General ordered that all the buildings belonging to the USMP on Ft Leavenworth be inspected and plans be drawn up for a new prison. In 1908 Congress approved the contraction of a new prison.