727 Comments for Lorton Reformatory

Definitely medium security. Windows are barred but you've got more breathing room than a cell. I remember seeing a building with what appeared to be smaller, 4-man rooms with windowed doors that didn't have bars on the windows, so I'd guess those were for minimum security/good behavior inmates.

These were the solitary confinement cells in their own little building, aka "the hole", separate from the dorms. I think there were only a handful of them if I remember correctly. Since this was a minimum security/juvie facility I imagine you'd only get tossed in one of these cells if you were violent or smuggled contraband in or something.

While stationed in DC in the Army in '06, my unit did a terrorist response exercise at the former Lorton complex. Some people played casualties, DC police provided security, medical triage was done, etc.

As I remember, most of the buildings were multi-wing single story dormitories with 4-man rooms (this was a minimum security joint for the city of DC and I think it might have been a juvie lockup), but there was also a single prison-style building with maybe 10 single-occupant barred cells, presumably for the "hard cases" who wanted to make trouble.

The walls of these cells were covered in graffiti, often from floor to ceiling, with the usual combination of gang tags, naked women and people's street names (I remember seeing the "Hubcab" one Mott got a picture of), but there were a few really funny messages that gave us in-jokes we used for years.

"Them niggas from WL ain't no niggas them niggas is bitches." was the crowd favorite. I was told later WL stands for the Woodland slum in southeast DC. So for the next year on base, any time anybody wanted to talk smack about some other unit, the line was "Those guys from so-and-so ain't no guys, them guys is bitches."

I grew up 6 houses from this main gate on Silverbrook and used to walk my Grandmother to work. She was a telephone operator for over 35 yrs and most ofmy uncles were guards there and they all retired from there. It was a main source of income for some Lorton residents and if there was a break, they didnt stay around town, they headed straight up the railroad tracks to DC. I remember when it was a working prison with apple orchards, dairy farm and even a brickyard. Our family property was sold to builders to build all those houses that surround the prison now. I miss the old days, but dont and wont miss the prison when they do get around to tearing it down, it's progress.

It does seem like he was touched by "institutionalization" - getting so used to living at a static, unchanging place for such a long time, it's difficult to return to a changing society.

Thank you for sharing.

My uncle went into Lorton's facility in 1982 for first-degree murder. He was a baby, 19 years old, sent away to the playground of grown men living inside of the lion's den.

He got into a fist-fight with a group of guys. I don't know what happened during the fight but apparently he didn't like the result of it. He went home looking for grandpa's gun and found it. He returned later that night,, saw the guy, shot and killed him on the spot.

He got 30 years.

I went to visit him once when I was a kid here, I would guess maybe 1988 or 1989 when we went down to see him. I hadn't met him before. He used to call the house every now and then and ask for things; toiletry items, socks, shoes... sometime he just wanted to talk. He sent letters and he had the most exquisite handwriting for a guy, really neat. He stayed in Lorton until they transferred him to another prison once this facility closed.

He was eventually released in 2009 after serving 27 years of a 30 year sentence. He was much bigger than what I remembered of him from the visit and pictures he sent. We went to see him at a halfway house over in the district. I gave him a pair of tennis shoes and maybe a few shirts or so. He told me the district had changed so much since he went in that he felt like he no longer recognized the area. We haven't heard from him in a while but as far as I know, he's doing alright I guess.

Wonder if "gone for good" meant release or transfer. Man I REALLY wish I knew who wrote this and what happened to him.

Make that one phone call to your secret laboratory, where a very humanlike computer-generated voice answers the phone, and use the innocent-sounding codewords to send a helicopter to the rec yard at such-and so coordinates.

Or alternately, launch a missile and just blow the place to kingdom come because you've despaired of escaping.

The comments on this site just crack. me. up.

"Jail's not so bad. You get to make sangria in the terlit. 'Course it's shank or be shanked."
-Scruffy the Janitor

It's not the Hilton, it's a prison... it's not made for comfort. I used to Live in Western Fairfax County, Virginia, and I feel for the people who lived near this prison. It was poorly ran, and held the worst of the worst of DC's residents.

"The brick buildings were built by the prisoners themselves, using brick manufactured at the on-site kiln complex located on the banks of the Occoquan." See http://www.fairfaxcoun...l/history/prison.pdf for more pictures.

I GREW UP HERE

The more I look at these old buildings, the more I mourn the loss of the architectural artisans of old. Just look at the detail of the brickwork - that brick layer clearly took real pride in producing beautiful designs. It makes me really sad that modern buildings almost always lack any kind of true traditional beauty. I know it's more expensive, labour intensive and time consuming, but goodness me, the results speak for themselves.

I knew something was up. I went by there on the way to the Fairfax County Dump and the parking lot in front had a slew of cars in front. I'm glad that it was not razed.