United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth

The United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth is a medium-security United States federal prison for male inmates in northeast Kansas. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. It also includes a satellite federal prison camp for minimum-security male offenders.USP Leavenworth is located 25 miles northwest of Kansas City, Kansas.BackgroundUSP Leavenworth, a civilian facility, is the oldest of three major prisons built on federal land in Leavenworth County, Kansas. It is separate from, but often confused with, the United States Disciplinary Barracks (USDB), a military facility located on the adjacent Fort Leavenworth army base. Located 4mi north of the USP, the USDB is the sole maximum-security penal facility for the entire United States Military. Prisoners from the original USDB were used to build the civilian penitentiary. In addition, the military's medium-security Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility (JRCF), located southwest of the new USDB, opened in 2010. The USDB and JRCF operate independently from USP Leavenworth.The prison was described by Pete Earley, the only writer at that time who had ever been granted unlimited access to the prison, in his book, The Hot House. The prison's history has also been covered in a pictorial history titled U.S. Penitentiary Leavenworth by Kenneth M. LaMaster, the retired Institution Historian.