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.

Invitation to Premiere Showing of Lorton Prison Stories Project, Saturday December 14th 1-4pm

In conjunction with the Reentry Network for Returning Citizens Arts and Information Fair on Saturday December 14th 1-4pm

LOCATION:  All Souls Church Unitarian 

1500 Harvard Street NW

Washington DC 20009

Invitation to the Premiere Showing of the Lorton Prison Stories Project.  

First Four Postcards of the Project

The dormitories of Lorton

This was the Lorton Reformatory.  The four buildings on the right are the dormitories.

Looking Back At Lorton

I used to visit Lorton on my motorcycle.

The photographs herein were taken in Lorton Prison in the mid-1970s. Neither correctional officer nor inmate are identified by name.  However, wherever possible, administrators are identified as the public servants they were at the time.  

Most of the pictures were taken in the Lorton Reformatory, the prison that housed medium and maximum security prisoners from the District of Columbia.  The Lorton Complex also included the Youth Facility and Minimum Security, known as Occoquan.  Most of the pictures were taken by Nancy Shia, a freelance photographer and law student who had access to photograph in the prison.  She was assisted by an inmate photographer, who took the pictures where she could not go.

There was a certain camaraderie that grew up around the community of DC people who visited Lorton Prison.  It was a 30-45 minute ride up I-95 from the District of Columbia to Lorton Prison.  When you got there, you had to go through a thorough security check.  There was support from the people in the visiting lines to help ease the visitors' angst.  Lorton Prison often hosted many events that included outside visitors.  There were Family Days and Family Nights, and events held in the chapel and on the prison fields.  It was a time when the prison administration was granting furloughs  to certain inmates to allow them to go out of the prison for a time that occasionally would include overnight stays.  The historic Lorton photographs all come from the 1970s, but the stories will be from all who choose to share their Lorton Stories.

Lorton Prison finally closed in 2001.  It has since become known as the Workhouse Museum and Workhouse Arts Center.  

The images posted are meant to jar your memories of Lorton Prison.  If you would like to share your memories of Lorton, and get your story included, please contact Nancy Shia, Director of the Lorton Prison Stories Project, at nancyshia@yahoo.com, or 202-234-0383.

This project is supported by a grant from the DC Humanities Council.