Prison

Friday, July 6, 2018

Today we did the Jacktown Double.  One hundred eighty years of prison history.  Two Huge Prisons- One Great Tour.  This tour was a little pricey, $40 each but we did it anyway.  It turned out to be well worth the price.   The tour lasted over three hours.

Competing with Detroit and Ann Arbor, Jackson won the battle to build the first state prison.  Ann Arbor won the college.  There is not a lot to see of the original prison because the building is being or has been turned into condos and art studios.  The main wing where some of the original cellblocks were is now a community hall.  There are displays of artifacts, pictures and they have set up facsimiles of a cell and many of the means of punishment and of course the ever-present gift shop.  They do offer a nice collection of books for sale about Michigan Prisons and many prisoners.  In fact, I bought a copy of The Nightkeeper's Reports, myself, and read it almost immediately. This was the nightly reports John H. Purves gave the Warden from June-December, 1882.  We did get to go down to the solitary confinement area, but that was a facsimile too.  What made this part of the tour memorable was our guide.  He was a professional storyteller and boy could he tell a story.

A prisoner carved this bike and donated it to the museum.

The second part of the tour was Cell Block 7.  This is a cell block that has been left intact.  Although a large part of this prison is no longer used, there are still some areas that are a working prison and the newer correctional facilities are all around the old prison. Because of this, we were not allowed to take our cell phones in or take any pictures of the property.

This is a picture from the internet.

After our tour guide took us through the entering process that all new male inmates had to go through and some very personal stories of some inmates we entered the massive cellblock.  We experience the opening and closing of the cell doors.  He again shared some very poignant stories with us about the riots and certain inmates.  There is a certain section were three movies were filmed.  Then we were free to roam.  We went to the top (5th) level of cells.  Another gentleman on the tour works in a penitentiary and he had a few interesting things to contribute to the knowledge of prison life.  Opinion and emotions went to each side of the spectrum.  All in all, it was a very interesting tour.