By Dan Verbeck and Associated Press
Fort Leavenworth, KAN – The Army private suspected of illegally passing U.S. government secrets to the WikiLeaks website was transferred Wednesday to the Army prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas from the Marine brig in Virginia where he has spent the past nine months.
Pfc. Bradley Manning, suspected of having obtained the classified documents while serving as an Army intelligence analyst in Iraq, is awaiting a determination by the Army on whether he is mentally competent to stand trial.
An Army spokesman at the Pentagon, Col. Tom Collins, said Manning arrived safely at the Joint Regional Correctional Facility at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., on Wednesday afternoon.
Over the coming five to seven days he will undergo an in-depth physical and behavioral assessment by Leavenworth staff, Collins said.
According to JRCF commandant Lt. Col. Dawn Hilton, all prisoners including Manning "receive support from an experienced, trained professional staff that have been doing this for well over 20 years, and he'll receive the mental health, physical health and emotional health [support] that he needs to go through this judicial process."
According to a statement from staff at Fort Leavenworth, the mission of the JRCF is to provide pre-trial confinement and post-trial confinement for U.S. military prisoners with sentences up to five years. The facility "conducts correctional and treatment programs in order to maintain good order and discipline and reduce recidivism upon release."
Those held in pre-trial confinement live in individual cells within a housing unit together with their own common area, and are always separate from the post-trial prison population.
The facility has several areas which include food service, education, chapel, inmate services, legal, treatment, medical clinic, dental clinic, visitation, vocational training, library, gymnasium, laundry, administrative offices and housing units.
The JRCF currently houses approximately 150 pre- and post-trial prisoners.