A judge once called Leavenworth’s federal prison a ‘hell hole.’ CoreCivic will get $4.2 million per month to reopen the long-shuttered facility to hold thousands of migrants arrested by ICE

Leavenworth, Kansas, occupies a mythic space in American crime, its name alone evoking a short hand for serving hard time. The federal penitentiary housed gangsters Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly — in a building so storied that it inspired the term “the big house.” Now Kansas’ oldest city could…