It’s safe to say most people do not go to Leavenworth, Kansas, of their own volition. Most newcomers to this town are here as prisoners in the federal penitentiary or as soldiers at Fort Leavenworth. Leavenworth looms large in the cultural imagination. Machine Gun Kelly, Whitey Bulger, and James Earl Ray all did time here.

I assumed that some part of Leavenworth would have a visitors’ center or a museum. But no. This was very much a working federal prison. No visitors allowed. You can’t even pull over to take a photo. I pulled into a cracked parking lot, and snapped a couple of photos anyway. Notice the triple layers of concertina wire on the ground.