Not too long ago, I did something kind of different– I broke INTO prison. OK…that may be overstating the point just a little. Actually, it’s abandoned and I just kind of wandered in. Those “No Trespassing” signs are really just more of a suggestion, right? (More on why they aren’t in a bit).
In the early 1920s, the land that would later become the Atlanta Prison Farm was a working farm owned and operated by the U.S. Prison System. As an early experiment in minimum security incarceration, moonshiners and other “minor criminals” were put to work in livestock, canning, and dairy operations to feed and supply the nearby federal penitentiary. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, non-violent offenders were sentenced to time on the farm, which– in addition to the farming operations– also provided vocational training.
