Perhaps this is some strange new method of gentrification or perhaps it is just a ridiculously distasteful idea, but a former prison in Northern Virginia (NOVA) has been redeveloped and turned into luxury apartments to accommodate the ever-expanding sprawl that is NOVA. According to a listing that was updated on March 6 in Our Community Now, the developers, The Alexander Company, Inc. and Elm Street Development boast, “Move-in-ready prison apartments: You can live in this 100-year-old Virginia Prison!” The developers’ claim that the apartments feature a unique floor plan with restored “historical elements” – or put another way – things that were used to incarcerate human beings, as a means of keeping with an aesthetic that is “Well-curated, authentic, and respectful to the historical character of the property…”
The “redevelopment” of Lorton Prison into what is now known as Liberty Crest, which once incarcerated prisoners like the Silent Sentinel Suffragettes who were force-fed, beaten, abused, and tortured in 1917 – will now consist of a tot lot, pool, and a community room that exists inside the former dining hall of the prison.
Our Community Now has even reported that they have a marketing slogan that says, “You could be a prisoner in your own home at Liberty Crest prison apartments — go check them out today!” Awesome.
Suffragist Lucy Burns in Prison at Lorton Prison Workhouse, 1917
Lorton prison shut down in 2001 but was commissioned by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1910 as a way to alleviate the conditions in Washington DC’s district jail. Over the course of its lifespan, the prison experimented with various rehabilitation methods, such as teaching prisoners certain trades and reinforcing those skills with on the job training such as building a workhouse with kiln-fired bricks that they manufactured on the property. Like all institutions that represent the modern prison-industrial complex though, the facility soon fell victim to disrepair due to budget shortfalls which led to an increase in assaults and riots – including a riot that saw 14 buildings set ablaze in 1986.
Nonetheless, instead of making bricks, the new residents of Liberty Crest can work out in the fitness room overlooking the “courtyard”, while swimming in the pool next to the mushroom fountain that has streaming Wi-Fi in “social spaces”. But let’s not forget that Lorton Prison also had a youth incarceration program, starting in 1960 that specifically housed 18-22-year-olds. A program that was eventually sued due to the prison, “repeatedly displayed and continue to display a deliberate indifference to the serious medical needs of the plaintiffs. Specifically, defendants provide grossly inadequate medical care and often fail to provide any medical care at all.”
The abuses did not stop there: In 1997 the Washington City Paper’s Eddie Dean when writing about the prison observed,”The former Lorton Reformatory has become a massive holding pen ready to explode: What began in 1910 as a rehabilitation retreat for D.C. convicts in rural Northern Virginia has degenerated into a penal colony, a Devil’s Island that time—and neglect—has left dangerously behind.”
Regardless, the prison’s new residents will be able to hang out in the 3 plus acres of grassy areas while texting on their phones and walking their dogs next to an electric car charging station. The common room also appears to be an upgrade, with a pool table and a plethora of leather furniture beneath a vaulted ceiling – a far cry from Only In Your State claiming, “But once, this prison [Lorton] was the site of overcrowding, horrible conditions and at least one haunting story of cruelty and abuse.”
The price to live in this particular former prison ranges anywhere from $900 to $2,100 a month, while the website for the new apartments brags about the luxurious and condo-grade finishes. All of which is fine, except this used to be a place where communities of color were and low-income people were incarcerated at a disproportionately higher rate than their white counterparts, making the conversion into luxury condos ironic at best and outright distasteful at worst.
Adding to the sheer dissonance of this condo development, the official website of Liberty Crest makes it seem like the prison was a happy place where cohabitation between guards and inmates was a pleasant experience.
This revolutionary concept, combined with the positive relationships between guards and inmates, placed the Reformatory among the most progressive penal systems in the United States.
False. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, prisons in the US historically are known for “Overcrowding, violence, sexual abuse, and other conditions pose grave risks to prisoner health and safety. Mistreatment of prisoners based on race, sex, gender identity, or disability remains far too common.”
Not for nothing, Dean also noted in 1997 that, “Lorton has assumed almost mythic status as the prison from hell, the grim image of its brick towers a staple of local news broadcasts every time there’s an escape or incident. It doesn’t seem to matter what corrections officials try to do.” He concluded by saying, “More fences have gone up, more walls, more razor wire—ever more barriers draping the countryside. There’s never enough money, and there are always too many inmates. Perhaps the citizens around the place sense that there will come a time when no wall—no matter how high—will be able to contain Lorton.”
And just to add to the trappings of this development masterpiece are the 67,000 people currently incarcerated in the state of Virginia, while overcrowding and inadequate staffing remain a constant problem, no different than the days of Lorton Prison. One could be left to wonder if their incarceration will soon be part of the wider development portfolio of all derelict Virginia properties? Obviously, a developer can develop any piece of property they so choose, yet the wider questions remain: What responsibility does a city have in giving tax credits to a developer who purposely misrepresented the dark history of a facility that was highly characteristic of the failings of the Virginia prison complex? And finally, who the fuck would want to live in a former prison?
Regardless, there is nothing more #murican than turning a former prison into a luxury condo development under the guise of “…Lorton Prison receives new life as Liberty at Laurel Hill.”
Landon Shroder and Brandon Jarvis collaborated on this report. Photos By Liberty Crest
