Prison farm plans seemed to go smoothly at first. In February and March of 1932, the Federal Prison Board looked at architectural plans for the new prison and selected an architect to complete the design process. The prison farm four and their colleagues ran into a slight glitch in acquiring the titles and deeds to some parcels of land on the prison farm site. The companies that owned the land had gone out of business years before. A title acquisition hearing was held on June 27, 1932, and since no one showed up to voice any objections, the last of the titles were secured without further ado. (12)
Sandstone's residents proved ready to do their part to bring a federal prison farm to their town. The village council met July 1 to consider a petition signed by sixty-one Sandstone citizens that called for a special election to vote on the following question: “Shall the village of Sandstone issue its warrants in amount of $2,500, payable $500 per year interest at five per cent, to defray expenses incurred in locating a federal prison farm at Sandstone?” (13) The council approved the election, and the bond question passed with a resounding “yes” on July 15. Excitement mounted as federal surveyors and later Assistant Director of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons J.V. Bennett showed up in Sandstone to look over the prison site. In October, the Minneapolis Tribune announced:
"America's first federal detention house for suspects and short term prisoners to be built next year at a cost of $300,000 at Sandstone, Minn., 85 miles north of Minneapolis, will stand as a monument to the progress of science in prison construction and to the community spirit of the Sandstone people who secured the great institution for their town....
"This institution is unique in the United States....The building will house 328 prisoners and suspects. In reality, it will consist of merely the first wing of a greater institution. Other additions are to be built in future years.
"[The] site is described as both healthful and picturesque. In addition, it consists entirely of fine farming land....Every prisoner, if he is physically able, will be required to do his share of the farm work...[which] will permit the detention home to produce a big share of food [for] its inmates." (14)
Sandstone residents were thrilled by this favorable publicity and hoped that their dream would soon become a reality.
Time passed, a full year, with no word on when construction would begin. Mr. Barstow and Mr. Hawley decided to go directly to Washington to see what was holding things up. They left on July 22, 1933, but returned with no definite answers. That fall they met with U.S. Representative Einar Hoidale, who promised his support for the prison project. The rest of Minnesota's Representatives also offered their help. (15) Hopes were raised once again. Then something happened that changed in the whole landscape of the prison system. The Eighteenth Amendment was repealed.
The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on January 16, 1919. Its first section declared, “After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.” (16) In other words, the making, selling, transporting, and drinking of alcohol was, for all practical purposes, illegal. Prohibition had begun. The supporters of prohibition were, as one author remarked, “naive in the extreme....They ignored the fact that one cannot make a crime overnight out of something that millions of people have never regarded as a crime. Lawmakers could not legislate away a thirst.” (17) Many people simply did not abide by the law. They concocted their own “moonshine” or “hooch” in homemade stills and sold it to their neighbors and friends. Others decided Prohibition was a good business opportunity and began trafficking alcohol on a larger scale. Organized crime flourished as “bootleggers” ran liquor across state and international lines. Sometimes these Prohibition-related criminals were not careful enough and were apprehended by authorities, increasing the prison population dramatically and leading to the overcrowding mentioned in the 1929 congressional report. By 1933, it was clear to most people that Prohibition had achieved the exact opposite of what it intended. Alcohol consumption had, if anything, risen over the past decade, and crime rates had soared along with it. Congress proposed the Twenty-First Amendment repealing Prohibition on February 20, 1933, and it was ratified on December 5. (18)
Alcohol was legal once again, and many “criminals” were no longer classified as such. Federal prison officials, anticipating a decline in the prison population, halted all federal prison construction projects, including the one in Sandstone. (19) The hard work of the prison farm four and their colleagues appeared to have been in vain, and the financial contribution of Sandstone's residents seemed wasted.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Langseth, 149.
15. Hubin.
16. Baily and Kennedy, A18.
17. Ibid., 750.
18. “Twenty-First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-first_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution (accessed June 16, 2011).
19. Hubin.
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