Notes from Leavenworth

by Fr. Frank Cordaro #13093-047
Correctional Corporation of America, Inc.
100 Highway Terrace
Leavenworth, Kansas 66048

My tenure at Pottawattamie County jail was short lived. After only a week, the United States Marshalls collected me and four others, along with inmates from Sarpy County, Douglas County, and Lincoln, Nebraska (15 in all in one van, handcuffed and shackled) and drove us to Leavenworth, Kansas. They brought us to the Leavenworth Correctional Corporation of American, Inc. (CCA) facility. This is a non-profit holding facility that has a contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). It holds about 550 inmates.

This is a new experience for me. I've never been in a for-profit jail. Designed to be a short term holding facility, most of the inmates are in transit, either heading for court, returning to a federal prison, or being transferred to a new federal prison. From what I can gather, the average stay is between a month to six weeks. One guy in our mode has been here over a year.

In the world of prisons and jails, this place ranks somewhere between a large county jail and a medium federal prison. Orange is still the dominant color for inmate attire. I'm in a two-tier mode with twenty two-man cells. Everything is bolted down and made of steel. The common area is much bigger than the mode I was in at Pottawattamie County. This food is a bit better. The store has more selection. There is outdoor recreation. The prison population is generally older and more sophisticated than your typical, county jail populations. It is more ethnically diverse than in Council Bluffs and is evenly divided between African Americans, Hispanics, and Whites.

Drugs are clearly the dominant and consistent factors in most people's reasons for being here, either directly because of some drug charges or indirectly because of criminal activity related to drug use. One other universal factor for each inmate is a web of broken relationships, beginning with families, friends, and loved ones, extending throughout the whole of society. Each inmate has his own unique, personal story. I spend a lot of time listening to these stories, offering prayers, and comfort one person at a time.