Album page headed United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth, Kansas, with a photograph of two men in light uniforms standing behind a barred cell door, backlit, with the door open outward, above the caption Prisoners being punished for fighting each other.
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United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth, Kansas: Prisoners Being Punished for Fighting Each Other (Department of Justice album)

Plate 31 of the Department of Justice album of the Atlanta and Leavenworth penitentiaries, ca. 1900 to ca. 1925, captioned "Prisoners being punished for fighting each other." The photograph shows two men in light uniforms standing behind a barred cell door, backlit, with the door open outward.

Date
1900/1925
Kind
photograph
Retrieved
2026-10-12
NAID
99956057
Rights
A federal record created by the Department of Justice (Record Group 60), series "Album of Views of United States Penitentiaries at Atlanta, Georgia and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas" (NAID 518093). A United States government work, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The item and the series read "Use Restriction: Unrestricted." The copy stored here is an 1,800-pixel downsample of the catalog's digital object of about 36 MB.

The catalog title is “United States Penitentiary - Leavenworth, Kansas: Prisoners Being Punished for Fighting Each Other,” local identifier 60-AL-31. It is plate 31 of the Department of Justice album of views of the penitentiaries at Atlanta and Leavenworth, two of the first three United States penitentiaries. The page is headed “UNITED STATES PENITENTIARY–LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS.” and the caption reads, in English and Spanish, “Prisoners being punished for fighting each other.” / “Prisioneros castigados por causa de combate entre ellos mismos.”

The photograph shows two men in light uniforms standing behind a barred cell door, backlit, with the door open outward. Their faces cannot be made out. The punishment itself is described only by the caption.

The catalog dates the series “ca. 1900 - ca. 1925,” and the item carries no date of its own, so no year is claimed. The series description says the album documents phases of construction and includes “a few photos of the prisoners.” No prisoner or officer is named.