The government has no intention whatever of going into the open market in competition with outside labor. It will manufacture nothing at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, which is not used in the conduct of the prison itself. In pursuance of this policy in the past, it has built with prison labor six miles of terminal railroad at the fort, and has constructed and is maintaining many miles of rock road.
There are only two other military prisons in the United States. One is a provisional prison on Governor’s Island, and the other a small prison at Alcatraz, Cal., about one-fourth the size of the present Fort Leavenworth prison. The government has not announced whether it will abandon these.
When the new prison is finished about $50,000 will be spent in remodeling the old buildings, some of which are very ancient. One was built in 1877 and another in 1830, but they are still in a fair state of preservation. They were originally built for a quartermaster’s depot.
_New York’s New Prison._--Great Meadow Prison is now in operation, the latest and only modern structure among New York’s state prisons. The Brooklyn Citizen describes it thus, in part:
A couple of hours’ ride from Albany northward on the Delaware and Hudson Railroad brings the visitor to the station Comstock--a flag stop for a few trains each way per day. The dozen or so dwelling houses scattered about the beautiful landscape with their outlying barns and stables proclaim a farming community. Eastward, about a quarter of a mile from the railroad depot, one sees a big yellow brick building rising like a Gulliver above a squadron of Lilliputian contractor shanties.
The big building is the Great Meadow Prison cell house, about 600 feet long, 80 feet high and 70 feet wide. Unfinished end walls indicate that the cell house is only half completed and that another wing of equal length, height and width is to be added. The completed part of the building contains 624 cells on four floors. Each cell is about the size of a New York hall room; is equipped with a white enameled closet and a white enameled stationary washstand and running water, while the furnishings consist of a white enameled iron hospital bedstead with felt mattress, felt pillow, white bed linen and cotton blankets. A small lock cabinet and cloth rack complete the equipment. The cells are finished in natural cement; the doors have upright bars from floor to ceiling, the bars being painted with aluminum color--and the color effect of cement gray and the silvery aluminum is rather pleasing. A touch of quiet elegance is even added by the bright nickel plated water spigot and water control push buttons above the toilet stand and wash basin. The cell house walls are 75 per cent. windows and each cell is flooded with light. At night in each cell an electric light, with a shade throwing the light downward, provides splendid illumination for reading, writing, drawing, etc. The cell house has a comprehensive ventilating system, with ventilating ducts connecting each cell.