The Federal Correctional Institution at Sandstone: A History - Part 3

          By early 1936, however, government officials realized that the repeal of Prohibition had not decreased the prison population as much as they had hoped. In fact, prisons were becoming more and more overcrowded. (20) In the spring, Congress appropriated $1.5 million to build three federal prisons, and the prison farm four received word that Sandstone had once again been chosen as the site of one of the new institutions. Current plans called for a larger prison than the one designed in 1932; instead of three hundred inmates, the new prison would hold six hundred prisoners. Surveyors arrived in Sandstone in August of 1936 to once again look over the prison site, but construction was delayed due to a shortage of funds and a good deal of political wrangling. Finally, late in 1937, construction began on Sandstone's Federal Correctional Institution. (21)
          By April of 1939, the institution, the twenty-second in the federal prison system, was nearly completed. (22) An enthusiastic newspaper article announced a three-day open house during which visitors could inspect the new institution. “This is one of a series of Federal regional institutions constructed at strategic points throughout the United States for the purpose of relieving congestion in local institutions...” the author explained. The prison, he continued, is built in the form of a quadrangle and

"...is simply but soundly constructed of reinforced concrete...There is no wall about the institution as the buildings are of a self-enclosing type. It consists of two cell blocks of the intermediate security type. In addition there are eight dormitories holding fifty men each. Adequate exercise yards have been provided as well as a receiving building, a small hospital, a congregate dining room, assembly hall, class rooms, shop space, and warehouse facilities." (23)

As another writer declared, “...it would be impossible for any of the inmates to scale the inside walls” of the 600 by 400 foot structure secured by “steel vault doors”. (24) Construction was supervised by the N.P. Severin Company of Chicago and the Maurice Schumacher Constructor Co., of Minneapolis, but many of the workers were recruited from Pine and Carlton counties. (25) Construction costs had already topped $800,000, and the prison was not yet completed. After nearly 9,000 curious spectators had passed through the prison gates to take a close look at this new “modern” structure, the institution was ready for business, and the warden, George W. Humphrey; a staff of trained federal prison personnel; and a group of fifty prisoners from the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, arrived at their new home. (26)

20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. “'Open House' at Federal Institution for Three Days” (newspaper article, April 9, 1939).
23. Ibid.
24. “Federal Correctional Institution Officially Opened” (newspaper article, April 1939); “New Prison Rises At Sandstone,” Duluth News-Tribune, Nov. 28, 1937.
25. “'Open House'”; “New Prison”
26. “'Open House'”; “Officially Opened.”