Washington City Paper: Contents for Mar. 9

Ten Things to Do Before Closing a Prison
Lorton inmates milked cows. They forged sewer caps. They slaughtered chickens--and occasionally each other. There was never a place quite like it. And there won't be again.

Cover Story

For generations, District residents, young and old, could sum up the consequences of seriously violating the city's laws in one word: "Lorton." And "Lorton," everyone knew, didn't mean the once-sleepy Virginia farming community 20 miles south of Washington, but Lorton Correctional Complex, the District's prison for the past 90 years.

At its peak, Lorton's seven facilities were home to more than 10,000 men and women convicted of crimes ranging from simple drug possession to multiple murders. But now only 1,700 men remain at Lorton's Central Facility, and the last of them will be gone, dispersed to other prisons across the country, by the end of September. Following Congress' mandate in the 1997 National Capital Revitalization and Self-Government Improvement Act, the District will hand off its sentenced felons to the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and pass legal responsibility for Lorton to the General Services Administration (GSA), the federal government's property-management and disposal arm, by the end of the year. The GSA will, in turn, hand the property over to Fairfax County.

Lorton has never been a typical prison. For one thing, it never quite looked like one. Opened in 1910 by the federal government as a Progressive Era experiment in rehabilitation for District convicts, Lorton originally had no fences or bars. Its classical-revival architecture, arch-lined walkways, and open dormitories instead of cells made it look more like a college campus than a place of penitence. ... Continued

Issue of Mar. 9 - 15, 2001

News and Features

Ten Things to Do Before Closing a Prison
Lorton inmates milked cows. They forged sewer caps. They slaughtered chickens--and occasionally each other. There was never a place quite like it. And there won't be again.
Cover Story By Annys Shin
Greasin' the Skids
Mount Pleasant rent wars squeeze the Little Giant Restaurant out of the neighborhood.
The City By Laura Peterson
All That You Can Leave Behind
Fabulist Stephen Glass gets a new day job: Superior Court law clerk.
The City By Jason Cherkis
Looking Out for No. 1
The Mail By Jim Trainum
Leftovers à la Carte
The Mail By Chris Homes
Given Half a Chance
The Mail By Alan J. Roth
The Whole Story
The Mail By Gerald H. O'Connell
Curiosity Shop
The Mail By Tania B. Jackson
The Line of Fire/EMS
The Mail By Carol Schwartz
Bleeding Green
The Mail By Victor Freeman and M.D.