Chief Askew's Diary: May 14, 1930

Newnan is 'refreshed'; Federal Bureau of Prisons established by Congress

With nothing much going on crime-wise, Chief Askew was happy to report on the rainfall of recent days, writing that “everything looks refreshed to-day, the ground is real wet now, and will do us for several days.”

While things were quiet on the crime front in Newnan, in Washington Congress responded to a huge wave of violent crime by establishing the Federal Bureau of Prisons, created to “provide more progressive and humane care for federal inmates, to professionalize the prison service, and to ensure consistent and centralized administration of federal prisons.”

Paid subscribers can read on about this agency, which oversaw the opening of the infamous Alcatraz prison as well as the modernization of a system that had been operated like feudal fiefdoms under individual wardens.

The photo of federal prison corrections officers is from the Bureau of Prisons website. Though the man in the overcoat is not identified, I believe he is the bureau’s first director, Sanford Bates.