Built with the finest materials, all the buildings at Carville were designed for the comfort of the patients. Through the years hundreds of patients walked with canes, rode in wheelchairs or bicycles through the 2 1/2 miles of covered walkways.
The plaster walls were damaged when the Federal Bureau of Prisons used the facility in the 1990's as a prison to house inmates with medical problems. The prisoners used one part of the building and the Hansen Disease patients used another. Inmates were put to work in the cafeteria and the grounds. Many feared contracting the disease. Patients feared the prisoners, many who were in prison for very violent crimes.
The smart women of the town of Carville had the Leprosarium put on the National Registry of Historic Places and forced the Bureau of Prisons out, a very smart move.