Why I visited Lorton the first time in 1972

Late in the year of 1972, Larry Cannon, a young black man of 20 or 21 years, was doing 8-15 years in Lorton Reformatory for an armed robbery that happened before he turned 18.  Larry was convicted in 1969 in District Court.   He managed to bring his case on appeal from Lorton Reformatory to the United States Supreme Court based on the theory that the judge who sentenced him was obligated to consider sentencing him under the Youth Corrections Act and failed to do so.

Larry Cannon was in need of legal support to get his brief even considered by the Supreme Court, so he wrote the brand new clinical Antioch Law School for help.  I was a first year law student in the law school's first year and I was assigned to help him write his brief.  This required that I go to Lorton to meet my client.  

In 1972 Lorton Reformatory was a DC institution experienced by many DC residents.  There was a lot happening inside the fences of this medium security prison for convicted felons from the District of Columbia.  

The proximity of Lorton to the District of Columbia allowed the prisoners to maintain ties to the community and nurture ongoing relationships with family and friends.  Here Larry Cannon in the orange shirt visits with a girlfriend and her children on the left and with his sister Eunice to the right.  The man on the right of Eunice is a prisoner at Lorton.