American Notes Prisons

Prophecy became calamitous reality last week at the District of Columbia's Lorton Reformatory. Less than 48 hours after a report by Prison Consultant Kathryn Monaco predicted that "a major disturbance" could occur in the "near future" at the overcrowded prison in northern Virginia, Lorton inmates set fires that damaged at least 15 buildings. In rioting that followed, 27 inmates and six guards were injured.

Washington Mayor Marion Barry Jr., who has been criticized for failing to build new jail cells, found a way to deflect further censure: the city administration charged that Monaco's report helped trigger the riot. Inmates who saw accounts of the report, city officials claimed, concluded that they would be set free if they destroyed the prison. Some convicts actually packed their belongings in plastic garbage bags before the buildings were set afire. A number of prisoners did escape Lorton afterward, but not to freedom. Nearly 500 of the 1,300 inmates involved were shipped to other area jails.