727 Comments for Lorton Reformatory

Id rather go on my days looking like chubaka crossed with a mountain man than shower with people in prison...especially this one. But hey at least their separate right?! j/k

Haha ... i love wishful thinking... ;)

i feel like being in a place like this its like a complete void....every minute of your life elongated like time is never going to pass by, its really freaky to think that some people lived everyday of their lives in there :(

simply wicked....words cant explain how much i love this photo

There were actually 7 cells in the hole. The windows shown were behind cells 1 - 6. There was no window behind cell 7. When the light that was controlled by the officer was turned off, it was pitch black in cell 7 - even at high noon.

the gated area was called a "sally port. The guard in the towere could let a vehicke into the max facility by isolating it between the gates, where it was searched coming and going. The little building in front was "the hole", a small group of just 4 cells where inmates were sent for isolation for fighting ect. They were usually in "the hole for 7 days or less. Total isolation. Only contact was froma officer who brought a food tray to them 3x per day via a small pickup truck from the chow hall. I served a few times, I recall driving the little navy surplus pickup and going inside to feed the guys.

this was the stairs up to the top of a towere. When you reported for work in the towere, you arrived at a door outside the wall. The guard on duty would lower a key on a string, and you'd open the door and go up. The other guy would leave and you'd reverse the procedure.
(high tech stuff in 1975)

these were cellblocks 2, 4, and 6. inmates entered from side doors on each side near the front. The actual front door only led to the officers area. 3 officers to a cell house in 1975. Inmates lived on eith the top or bottom side of the left or right portion of the building. The right side people had no contact with the left side people.
This was maximum security, not a college dorm, or even a medium security dorm.

this door led to the officers area.

Inmates who lived in the 5 cell blocks "behind the wall" got an hour of recreation in the small yard beside their cell house daily. No mixing with inmates from other cell blocks allowed. CB3 inmates had to recreate indooors in a room. The word recreation was a stretch. Fresh air outside was about all there was. A couple of old basketball hoops and some shadowboxing was about it. However there was a softball field and there were games on summer nights. I remember sitting in tower #5 which was right beside home plate, and looking down on the games some nights.

officers were secured behind bars at the head of these catwalks. There was a control box where we could open one or all cell doors remotely with switches in the box. In one cell house, (cell block #3) behind the wall, we held super security inmates. They never left the cell without first being cuffed before we opened their cell door. These were dangerous guys who had earned their way to "CB 3" . To read some of their histories in their files, could be an interesting read. Very bad deeds on the street, and some in other prisons, as well as in Lorton.

This was the stairs at the rear of each cell block. Inmates who were housed on the second (upper tier) had to file up these stairs upon returning from the chow hall or the recreation yard which was just outside the cell house. At the top of those stairs was a small room with a TV. I watched a Sugar ray Leonard fight on tv with inmates there one saturday afternoon in 1975. Thay were all cheering for their hometown hero. That room was a bit unnerving, as you were there alone, and nobody from the front of the cell block could see you back there with the inmates. We didn't have cameras. At least one officer stayed secured up front in the cell house, whenever the other two were inside with inmates doing a count or just patroling the cell block.

I worked "behind the wall" for 12 months in 1975. It was an intersting place, full of many different personalities. It was an experience not to be forgotten.

Imagine accidentally getting locked in a cell!

but there's no radiator to make grilled cheese lol