OLD PRISON SITE SLATED FOR PARKS AND SCHOOLS
>
> By Clarissa Spasyk
> Journal staff writer
>
> Usually, officials wield scissors to cut the ribbon of a new building,
> but for a site that once housed prisoners, a community in Lorton is
> celebrating the land's transfer to Fairfax County with wire cutters.
>
> On Saturday, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will host a razor-
> cutting ceremony to commemorate the county's ownership of the former
> Lorton Correctional Complex.
>
> The 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. event at the central facility of the former prison
> off Lorton Road will feature music and exhibits from county agencies and
> bus tours of the former prison complex.
>
> The county plans to transform most of the 2,440-acre prison complex and
> surrounding land into parks and open space, using another 115.9 acres
> for a high school and middle school and 180 acres for redevelopment.
>
> The county's Resource Recovery Facility also is located at the site,
> where developer Pulte Homes plans to build about 750 homes on land north
> of Silverbrook Road.
>
> This fall, the Board of Supervisors will work with consultants and
> appoint a group of residents to help decide how to reuse the property,
> said Merni Fitzgerald, county spokeswoman.
>
> The property, costing about $4.2 million, will be called Laurel Hill,
> after Revolutionary War patriot William Lindsey's home.
>
> The 18th century structure is located on the site.
>
> Congress ordered the Lorton Correctional Complex closed in 1997 as part
> of the D.C. Revitalization Act.
>
> The decision followed years of complaints by nearby residents weary of
> repeated escapes, riots, violence and sewage spills from the site's
> waste-treatment facility.
>
> The U.S. General Services Administration took over the site in December
> 1998 and was charged with preparing the land for transfer.
>
> In July, the GSA completed a $13 million environmental cleanup at
> Lorton, removing about 200,000 tons of soil contaminated by drums of
> lead-based paint, several old tear gas canisters and thousands of
> bullets from three firing ranges.
>
> Housing up to 12,000 inmates, Lorton had been operated by the
> Washington, D.C., Department of Corrections since 1911 as a medium-
> security prison for nonviolent prisoners.
>
> Part of the complex became a maximum-security prison in the 1960s. The
> county acquired the property from the GSA in July.