United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth

United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth is identified as the largest federal prison in Leavenworth County, Kansas. Its place in the book’s account is chiefly geographical and institutional: it belongs to a dense regional prison landscape, while the execution scenes involving the condemned men take place at a different institution, the Kansas State Penitentiary.

Place in the Regional Prison System

The prison is one of several major penal institutions situated in Leavenworth County. The account lists it alongside two state penitentiaries, one for men and one for women, and the principal military prison at Fort Leavenworth. It describes the federal institution as the largest federal prison in the country, making Leavenworth County a concentration of state, federal, and military confinement rather than the setting of a single isolated facility.

Institutional Distinctions

The book distinguishes United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth from the Kansas State Penitentiary for Men in Lansing. The latter is described as an older institution, built during the Civil War and receiving its first resident in 1864; the two prisons are separate establishments within the same county. This distinction matters in the narrative’s account of punishment: the condemned men’s Death Row confinement and execution belong to the state penitentiary, not to the federal prison.

Narrative Significance

The brief description places the federal prison within a wider social geography shaped by incarceration. The surrounding institutions are presented as substantial enough that, if their inmates were released together, they could populate a small city. United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth thus helps establish the scale of the county’s prison presence, while the narrative’s specific execution account remains tied to the separate state facility.