CRIME: Pennsylvania’s Mt. Gretna

Gloomiest U. S. repository for incurable criminals and generally considered the hardest to escape from is currently the Federal Government’s Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. Last week, Pennsylvania announced plans for an unique State prison which, even gloomier than Alcatraz, should be at least as inescapable.

The place selected for Pennsylvania’s new penitentiary for “hardened criminals,” is a 3,000-acre-military reservation near Harrisburg which was abandoned last year by the National Guard. Its site is Mt. Gretna, a rocky knoll in a remote corner of the reservation which authorities plan to make into a desert without a bush or tree to hide escaping inmates. Most spectacular feature of the prison will be circular walls which will make it look like a fortress, be cheaper to build, more efficient and stronger than straight walls.

On Mt. Gretna will rise three round units connected by an underground passage, each bounded by a 33 to 39 ft. reinforced concrete wall. One will house prison work shops, and probably a factory where inmates will make soap for 54 other State institutions. Another will contain recreation facilities and latrines. Centre circle—672 ft. across—will contain a hospital, an auditorium and six separate cell blocks, with accommodations for 592 prisoners, each in a private cell. The cells will be so arranged that any inmate who chisels his way out will find himself in either the next cell or a corridor. Between each prisoner and freedom will be a dozen locks, electrically controlled from a tower on the wall of the main circle. Gates of each unit will be so adjusted that no two can be open simultaneously. The whole structure will be enclosed by a circular tool resistant 12-ft. wire mesh fence. Cost of Pennsylvania’s Mt. Gretna will be $2.020,000. If PWA approves, construction will start by next December, last 14 to 16 months.